New York City has tremendous pressure on it’s housing inventory. The high end has been increasing in value significantly and the low end is becoming more and more expensive for the city’s poor and middle class. When it is difficult to find housing, tenants have to be very subservient to their landlords and the unscrupulous landlords will take advantage of this.

Reported violations of housing defects are up in the face of possible retribution and New York is looking at new legislation called the Safe Housing Act. While I do not like governmental initiatives, I can see the need for strict regulation of the housing inventory in a tight market like New York. The city can not turn into a sole enclave of the rich, it needs workers to do the necessary jobs.

In a soft market or with excess inventory, a bad landlord would get what he or she deserves, an empty building. But with apartments from The Bronx to Coney Island in short supply, these bad landlords can get away with creating an hazardous housing situation that tenants bound to a lease can not escape.

This legislation was recently introduced into the City Council by Council Speaker Christine Quinn and City Council Member Letitia James of Brooklyn. The bill was praised by both the Bloomberg Administration and the landlord lobby. Nonetheless, the Safe Housing Act is still far from law. There will be multiple public hearings on the legislation, and a vote by the full City Council. Until the legislation is passed by the Council and signed by Mayor Bloomberg, there is danger that the strong coalition of supporters will fall apart, or others will try to damage the bill’s chances of passing.
In recent years, housing conditions in New York City have been getting worse. According to the Furman Center, the number of serious code violations per 1,000 rental units in New York City increased by over fifty percent in just four years. In 2002, there were thirty-eight serious violations per 1000 rental units. In 2006, that figure skyrocketed by over 50%, to fifty-eight serious violations per 1000 rental units.
Bushwick, Brooklyn, where I have worked at Make the Road by Walking, a membership organization that organizes around housing issues and provides free legal services to tenants, has had the highest number of serious violations for the past ten years. There are an astounding 297 violations per 1,000 rental units. The number of dangerous apartments has close to doubled since 2002. via the  DMI Blog.

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