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 deal with 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 Growth violations, was revealed at a digital press convention Wednesday afternoon.
This 12 months’s prime 5 offenders have 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, usually beneath onerous to trace LLC’s that make it fairly troublesome to see who the buildings’ homeowners are. In addition they all had at the very least one thousand open HPD violations.
Williams stated the listing was a manner of offering transparency for tenants when it comes to who owns the LLC’s that oversee the buildings they dwell in. He stated Governor Kathy Hochul was a part of the issue as a result of she weakened a invoice that might’ve given tenants the power to do exactly that.
“She prevented access from the public to certain LLC information that would tell folks who owns companies and in this case buildings,” Williams stated. “These landlords do their best to try to hide who they are.”
That was the case for Olga Camille’s residence constructing on West one hundred and seventieth Road 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 stated 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, stated 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 flats she stated she and her daughter have needed to dwell subsequent to—in some instances for practically 20 years.
“We feel insecure,” Camille stated. “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 have been unsuccessful.
“Because the Public Advocate stated, 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, stated she’s been working with Camille and different tenants to attempt to maintain Ohebshalow accountable for what she stated have been years of neglect.
“Imagine living under these conditions. You would eventually be affected—your ceiling, your water, your pipes,” she stated. “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 stated 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.”
