From the NY Post:The city's underground network of illegal hostels has exploded -- even cropping up in church-owned buildings and a battered women's shelter, according to the West Side Neighborhood Alliance, which has compiled a database of 284 mostly hostel-style hotels they claim are illegal.
Also, say activists, the hostels are so crowded they're unsafe.
"The overcrowding is horrific," said Tom Cayler, an Alliance leader. "If there is a fire, it would be Happy Land all over again" -- a reference to the 1990 Bronx social-club fire that killed 87 people.
Near the top of the Alliance's list of dangerous hostels is Jazz on the Villa, which operates out of a picturesque, three-story house owned by Christ Temple of Apostolic Faith on West 129th Street in Harlem.
The house, built in the 1920s as a convent, is the headquarters of Jazz Hostels, a company accused of running several illegal hostels. Jazz on the Villa rents beds, starting at $15 per night, in Spartan rooms stacked with up to seven bunks.
The city vacated Jazz on the Villa last week because it was overcrowded, with only one exit for more than 100 people. And it was busted last month by the city Department of Finance for claiming tax-exempt status while banking up to $6,510 a month per room.
The Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement evacuated two more of Jazz Hostels' locations last month for overcrowding, including one in a building leased from the battered women's group Women in Need. The shutdowns covered three of the company's six hostels.
13 comments:
Call it what you want it's illegal and a ticking time bomb of potential for death. The majority of them cater to folks who are hiding from the government or need to be under the rader. It is the only reason that one lives this way. Crack down on those who operate these hovels - seize their unlawful property.
The City - DOB/HPD & the State DHCR- should start looking into what's called 3/4 houses, a derivation of half way house. these are 2 & 3 bedroom apartments that are stuffed with bunk beds so the landlord/primary tenant can overcharge the residents. The going rate with a well stocked 3/4 house is somewhere between $2500 and $3500 per month. Welfare pays the $215 monthly shelter allowance directly to the landlord for each person. That adds up. But not for the addict who just got out of a rehab or prison.
The conditions are deplorable and there is no privacy. Tenants in the 3/4 houses are lucky if they get to use the bathroom and sleep through the night.
That's housing during the Bloomberg Reich , folks!
Wait til next year when the Census Bureau has to find and count all people living in the city. What a joke! Remember that TV show Mission: Impossible?
I still cant figure out how they can build OBVIOUS multi-unit buildings in 2-family zoned areas.
The 3-unit building on 68th place and Otto Road in a 2-family zoned area is just disgusting.
Everyone needs to turn in any illegal apt. that they know of. You may be saving your own life, as well as the people living in these apts and if everyone makes a call or writes a letter, perhaps some action will be taken.
Everyone needs to turn in any illegal apt. that they know of. You may be saving your own life, as well as the people living in these apts and if everyone makes a call or writes a letter, perhaps some action will be taken.
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sounds like commie "good citizen" spy stuff if you ask me
totally agree with the spy stuff sentiment
Spy stuff? Ig multiple groups of Families or folks walk in and out a 1 family 24 x 7 - no spy stuff is needed to determine it is an illegal conversion.
In fact if you don't notice this, you probably live in an illegal conversion yourself - thinking this is normal. Or your a total moron and don't know what's going around your own home. Beware of illegal conversions as they are vulnerable to cathing fire and spreading to your place, wake up and smell the danger to you and your fanily already!
Yeah exactly.
No, let's pretend we don't see anything and when the fire wipes out our family we'll take comfort in the fact that we didn't snitch on the neighbors. Don't want people to think we're commie spies or anything.
Morons.
Don't forget, we're in a crowded city and those fires can spread. And kill you and your family. So I say let's report them. The DOB won't do anything anyway.
No need to spy, walk down the street and photograph from the street or sidewalk, the multiple Con Ed meters on the front of 1 family houses. If it's a 1 family house, why 5 Con Ed meters and so many garbage pails? multiple mail boxes and iron bars on the basement windows are another indicator. Non FD approved bars by the way. In this case the NYFD had to cut the bars off the windows.
Take a five block radius walk where this fire was, and see how many illegal apartments/ boarding houses you can count from the sidewalk. No need to enter the premises.
I bet most of them don't have smoke and/or carbon monoxide detectors inside. And have lots and lots of extension cords, multiple plug lines, electric heaters, irons, hot plates, toaster ovens and microwaves.
regarding my "Commie Spy" statement, right or wrong, I'm mearly stating how your proposed method of stopping this sounds like something out of cold war era communist propaganda.
I guess someone has to be "that guy" but just tread carefully
Everyone needs to turn in any illegal apt. that they know of. You may be saving your own life, as well as the people living in these apts and if everyone makes a call or writes a letter, perhaps some action will be taken.
I guess someone has to be "that guy" but just tread carefully
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