Tenant attorneys, advocates and policymakers say the delays that Nichols has encountered demonstrate the flaws of the city’s code enforcement program, and the limits of a housing court system that can move at a glacial pace when it comes to holding owners accountable for unsafe conditions.
“Coming out of this pandemic, addressing our affordable housing and homeless crisis is something that the mayor should be meeting with some urgency and a major expansion of resources,” said Rachel Fee, executive director of New York Housing Conference.
Some in Sunset Park worry their experience of random violence will invoke a response more focused on carceral measures than addressing structural inequalities that shape public safety. “When I think about safety here, I think of how we need stimulus relief bills, unemployment and healthcare,” one local resident told City Limits. “Not police.”
While the policy is handed down by the mayor, an array of New Yorkers—from everyday residents to top city officials to nonprofit service providers—play a role in recommending locations for sweeps, according to hundreds of internal emails reviewed by City Limits.
Vendors and advocates say increased city enforcement is hampering the industry’s recovery, as workers continue to see fewer sales since the pandemic began.
City Limits examined 311 data related to heat and hot water complaints over the past three years, and found the highest number were in areas populated by communities of color and lower-income individuals. They include Washington Heights, followed by several neighborhoods in The Bronx, including the community district where the deadly Twin Parks fire occurred.
From June to December 2021, the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), which took over street vendor inspection and enforcement duties in 2021, issued 762 fines, and another 171 fines so far this year. The top five zip codes that saw the most enforcement were those with large immigrant populations.
There are some 16,000 scattered-site supportive housing units across the city, rented and overseen by nonprofits contracted to provide services to tenants. But outdated contracts that trail actual market rents mean the organizations—and the state and city agencies that fund them—are propping up some of the city’s worst housing.
New York City’s new housing commissioner is returning to public office after a years-long stint working with a quick-to-evict Bronx developer recently subject to a state investigation, raising concerns among tenants and advocates in the borough.
¿Por qué ha crecido tanto el número de neoyorquinos sin hogar, a pesar de que la ciudad gasta miles de millones en vivienda y servicios para las personas sin hogar? Una parte de la respuesta es que a lo largo de cuatro décadas se ha producido una desconexión fundamental entre las políticas de la ciudad sobre las personas sin hogar y la vivienda.
City Limits uses investigative journalism through the prism of New York City to identify urban problems, examine their causes, explore solutions, and equip communities to take action.
Founded in 1976 in the midst of New York’s fiscal crisis, City Limits exists to inform democracy and equip citizens to create a more just city. The organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by foundation support, ad sponsorship and donations from readers.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
