Q&A
Discussion on HPD's proactive enforcement and litigation efforts
0:34:29
·
3 min
Council Member Sanchez inquires about HPD's proactive enforcement work, particularly regarding litigation. Deputy Commissioner Santiago and Assistant Commissioner Weithman provide details on the department's efforts.
- HPD initiated litigation against 95 buildings between fiscal years 2022 and 2024
- Litigation is based on maintenance conditions and tenant reports
- HPD uses a data model to target bad actors and takes referrals from various sources
- The department follows up on cases with additional inspections and court actions if necessary
Pierina Sanchez
0:34:29
Can you can you tell us about, the numbers behind HPD's proactive enforcement, work specifically with respect to litigation?
0:34:38
How many cases were brought in, 2023, and and how many have been brought to date in fiscal 2024?
AnnMarie Santiago
0:34:50
Thank you, council member.
0:34:52
I don't have the years broken out, but I can tell you between 20, 22 and 2024 fiscal years, we initiated litigation against 95 buildings, and that includes initial litigation and supplemental cases.
Pierina Sanchez
0:35:09
Thank you.
0:35:09
And what, what have been the majority of topics or or complaints that have driven these 95 buildings, to be identified by HPD?
AnnMarie Santiago
0:35:21
Again, thank you, council members.
0:35:22
So generally, we initiate litigation based on, maintenance conditions and speaking with tenants at these buildings regarding, how they are, faring with the landlord in terms of obtaining repairs.
Pierina Sanchez
0:35:40
Do you wanna follow-up?
0:35:41
Anything?
0:35:42
No.
0:35:42
I
Marti Weithman
0:35:44
would just add that we do have a data model, which we are constantly updating and, looking to for the bad actors who we target through the anti harassment unit.
0:35:55
We also take referrals from, advocates, elected officials, legal services providers, and through that we conduct our proactive, inspections.
0:36:07
And then based on the data that we have, we initiate the litigation on usually portfolio wide.
0:36:09
Thank you.
0:36:10
How many have been involved in other HPD enforcement programs?
0:36:12
Thank you, council member.
AnnMarie Santiago
0:36:13
So we
Pierina Sanchez
0:36:13
can look into breaking that down for you.
AnnMarie Santiago
0:36:26
Generally, the buildings are obviously high consumers of our activities, so they get a lot of inspections.
0:36:35
They have a lot of emergency repair in general.
0:36:38
So we can break that down by program if that's of interest.
Pierina Sanchez
0:36:41
Okay.
0:36:41
Thank you.
0:36:42
And and what have been the outcomes of the cases?
0:36:44
How many are still pending?
0:36:46
How many have had outcomes determined?
AnnMarie Santiago
0:36:56
Thank you, council member.
0:36:58
We've gotten quite a a a number of settlements in our cases.
0:37:05
As you know, we have one landlord who continues to not comply with the court's orders, and go to jail, and we, follow-up all of our cases, with additional inspections, and we take the owners back to court if we find that they are not complying with the orders from the court.
0:37:26
Again, we can break down the 95 buildings exactly, in terms of outcomes, if that's the information that you would like.
