New York Metropolis Public Advocate Jumaane Williams referred to as out dozens of landlords throughout the town who made his annual ‘worst landlords watchlist’ for failing to handle points with the buildings they lease and function.
The listing, which ranks the landlords by the variety of buildings they personal and the variety of open Housing Preservation and Improvement violations, was revealed at a digital press convention Wednesday afternoon.
This 12 months’s high 5 offenders had been Barry Singer, Alfred Thompson, Karen Greer, Melanie Martin and Claudette Henry. Based on the listing, all of them operated a number of residential buildings within the metropolis, typically beneath exhausting to trace LLC’s that make it fairly troublesome to see who the buildings’ homeowners are. Additionally they all had at the very least one thousand open HPD violations.
Williams mentioned the listing was a manner of offering transparency for tenants by way of who owns the LLC’s that oversee the buildings they stay in. He mentioned Governor Kathy Hochul was a part of the issue as a result of she weakened a invoice that may’ve given tenants the power to just do that.
“She prevented access from the public to certain LLC information that would tell folks who owns companies and in this case buildings,” Williams mentioned. “These landlords do their best to try to hide who they are.”
That was the case for Olga Camille’s condo constructing on West one hundred and seventieth Avenue in Washington Heights. Publicly, Melanie Martin is listed as the owner, however each Camille and Williams made it clear that Martin is only a consultant for Daniel Ohebshalow—the owner who not solely topped final 12 months’s listing however was additionally jailed twice for mismanagement of his buildings.
“He changed the name,” Camille mentioned when requested about Ohebshalow. “Now he has another name to try to cover himself.”
Camille, who struggled to maintain her composure as she spoke to members of the media, mentioned she and different tenants within the constructing had been coping with points starting from lack of warmth to infestations of rats and rodents for at the very least 5 years. These points are along with the open vacant and dilapidated residences she mentioned she and her daughter have needed to stay subsequent to—in some circumstances for practically 20 years.
“We feel insecure,” Camille mentioned. “My daughter has put a camera on the door because it’s just us living here.”
Makes an attempt to succeed in out for remark from a number of landlords who made the listing had been unsuccessful.
“Because the Public Advocate mentioned, NYCHA is the worst landlord in New York Metropolis. They proceed to fail renters, whereas the overwhelming majority of personal constructing homeowners present higher high quality housing with much less cash. The small variety of unhealthy actors who fail to keep up their buildings are being held accountable, as they need to be.
“This list is a distraction from larger housing policy problems. If we had policies that allowed for abundant housing, bad actors would be out of business and the quality of housing would improve for all renters. A better use of the public advocate’s time would be advocating for pro-housing policies that would make the city more affordable.”
Eva Santos Veloz, a tenant organizer with Met Council on Housing, mentioned she’s been working with Camille and different tenants to attempt to maintain Ohebshalow accountable for what she mentioned had been years of neglect.
“Imagine living under these conditions. You would eventually be affected—your ceiling, your water, your pipes,” she mentioned. “That also includes the infestations that are happening in each apartment from the rats, the mice, the birds that are coming in through the windows.”
Veloz mentioned her hope was that the town would step in and take the buildings Ohebshalow owns away from him.
“One of the things we want is for HPB to take away the buildings from this landlord and finally give the tenants the peace of mind they deserve because as you can see giving him chance after chance to fix the apartment and clear his violations—it’s just not going to happen.”
Author : newyork-news
Publish date : 2025-01-23 02:49:02
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