Testimony: NYS Senate Hearing on Housing and Building Codes
Oksana Mironova
NYS Senate Hearing on Housing and Building Codes
Testimony by Oksana Mironova, Housing Policy Analyst
January 23, 2020
Thank you for this opportunity to comment on the issue of housing and building code enforcement in New York State. My name is Oksana Mironova and I am a Housing Policy Analyst at The Community Service Society (CSS), an independent nonprofit organization that addresses some of the most urgent problems facing low-income New Yorkers and their communities, including the effects of the state’s housing affordability crisis.
Code enforcement is a central issue for tenants across the state, with low-income tenants in particular subject to living conditions that endanger their health and safety. It is currently too easy for bad landlords to subject their tenants to unsafe living conditions, while continuing to both collect rent and to leverage their properties for private financing or, more egregiously, for public subsidies.
As the joint investigation by the Committees on Investigations and Government Operations and Housing, Construction & Community Development found, many municipalities across the state either lack the capacity or desire for adequate code enforcement, which results in a “culture of poor compliance.” Without strong deterrents, bad landlords are allowed to profit from their properties, while tenants are continually exposed to hazardous conditions.
Enforcement begins with the availability of adequate data. We strongly support Senator Kavanagh’s bill S7288, which would require the Secretary of State to administer a statewide residential rental registry and to develop a public online database, with registration code enforcement information. Property registration ordinances are increasingly common nationwide. Making the data publicly available makes it possible not only for municipalities to conduct code enforcement, but also for community organizations to track and organize around conditions issues in their neighborhoods. The bill’s enforcement mechanism–civil penalties and the prevention of recovery of the unit in court for unpaid rent–is especially important for compliance. As part of either S7288 or separate legislation, we also support the Committees’ recommendation to remove “the veil of anonymity that shields limited liability companies (LLCs) from accountability for their violations.”
We commend the Senate bills that seek to deter violations, impose penalties on landlords that subject tenants to hazardous conditions, and clarify timelines for compliance. To that end, we support Senator Jackson’s bill S3320, which would close loopholes that allow negligent landlords to retain control over rental properties in consistent disrepair and Senator Carlucci’s bill S4938, which would increase the penalties for building code violations that immediately threaten tenant safety.
Landlords actively endangering the lives of their tenants should not be allowed to access public land or subsidies. We support Senator May’s bill S7292, which would require the secretary of state to create regulations requiring individuals seeking building permits, public subsidies, or to buy land bank properties to disclose outstanding serious code violations and orders of remedy in their portfolios. Localities would be allowed to prohibit landlords with outstanding serious code violations and orders of remedy from accessing subsidies, public land, and building permits.
It is important to note that strengthened code enforcement depends on empowered tenants, who are able to report hazardous building conditions and work with representatives of their municipalities to address health and safety issues in their homes. Tenants who do not have a right to a lease renewal and protections from unconscionable rent hikes will not be able to assert their rights to a safe and healthy home, even with stronger code enforcement laws statewide. Complaining about conditions will make them vulnerable to landlord retribution and ultimately to losing their home. For meaningful impact, stronger code enforcement should be paired with Senator Salazar’s bill S2892A, which would prohibit the non-renewal of residential leases without good cause and create an unconscionable rent increase threshold.
Good cause eviction protection would provide more than 1.6 million households statewide with the protections necessary to assert their rights to a safe and healthy home. The tenants who would benefit are most concentrated in high renter cities that are not currently subject to rent stabilization, including Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Albany. But, good cause eviction protection would also help almost 600,000 households in New York City who live either in deregulated apartments or in small buildings, as well as almost 180,000 households in Westchester, Rockland, and Nassau counties.
Thank you again for the opportunity to offer our comments. For more information or if you have any questions, please contact Oksana Mironova, CSS Housing Policy Analyst at 212-614-5412 or omironova@cssny.org.