Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Deregulation causes hell for tenants


From the NY Times:

Because the building was so unsafe, the city moved the tenants to a Days Inn in Queens, filled mainly with other refugees from damaged apartments, their rent now paid by taxpayers. Ms. Wilkie, her daughter and granddaughter shared a cramped room with two queen-size beds. The hotel’s single, shared microwave became their kitchen.

With help from the Legal Aid Society, Ms. Wilkie and Mr. Brathwaite sued to fix the building on Sterling Place.

That case will take years. Mr. Brathwaite eventually settled, accepting another apartment from Mr. Sussman. Ms. Wilkie decided to fight.

Her family stayed at the Days Inn for more than a year, until the city tried to move her to a homeless shelter in November. To avoid that, she temporarily rented an apartment in Brownsville, a Brooklyn neighborhood still ungentrified, with a bathroom too small for Wendy’s wheelchair. The monthly rent is $2,110, almost triple what she paid before.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazing. They wonder why the middle working class is moving out. Its because we get crushed with taxes just to pay for shit that takes the city years to fix.

Anonymous said...

Brownsville will never be gentrified

Anonymous said...

> And if building inspectors fail twice to get inside to investigate complaints of illegal construction, they don’t return a third time; the complaint is tossed out.

Wow. Could you imagine if the cops acted that way? How did anyone ever think that was acceptable?

>the system relies on trust: trust that landlords do the right thing, trust that architects and engineers submit accurate permit applications, trust that landlords report rental histories correctly, trust that eviction suits are legitimate.
>Violation hearings are usually cozy affairs, with a city hearing officer, a buildings department lawyer and a representative of the building or construction firm. Tenants are not invited. Landlords routinely get the benefit of the doubt.

Amazing that they automatically trust one side and not the other. Neither side is trustworthy - both have people trying to cheat the system.

>Most permit applications for apartment renovations get only a cursory review. That is because architects and engineers are allowed to “self-certify” that they follow the rules, letting them quickly obtain permits for what they say is minor work. A self-certified permit is often approved within days. Applications that are actually reviewed — those for more extensive work — can take months.

This basically encourages them to lie.