Tenants suffer when rent regulations are not enforced. Two hundred tenants at 2400 Webb Avenue - a rent-regulated building - were forced to relocate when their landlord had the fire escapes removed to repair brickwork.
Tenant protections must be stronger - both written into the law in Albany and in enforcement by the City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (one of whose inspectors approved removal of the fire escapes - in the absence of any other fire protection); and the State's Housing Community Renewal. One R3 organization, Tenants & Neighbors, is working to get our laws enforced. Print out and sign one of their postcards to Governor Cuomo to beef up the enforcement unit.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
When rent laws are not strong - or not enforced . . .
