Q&A
Enforcement strategies for illegal basement apartments
1:04:50
·
3 min
Council Member Pierina Sanchez inquires about current enforcement strategies for illegal basement apartments. Officials from HPD and DOB provide information on violations and enforcement procedures.
- Exact numbers of illegal units are difficult to determine, with estimates ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands
- HPD issues between 56-100 vacate orders annually for illegal occupancy
- DOB's enforcement is typically complaint-based or based on referrals from FDNY
- Not all violations result in vacate orders; decisions depend on factors like egress conditions and illegal gas work
- Officials will provide more specific enforcement statistics in a follow-up
Pierina Sanchez
1:04:50
Thank you.
1:04:52
That makes sense.
1:05:01
Can you share, just for context well, an observation and a question.
1:05:06
You you've mentioned, in response to one of my previous questions that somewhere in the order of tens of thousands of units could be legalized, but we've been talking about 100 of thousands of units, where individuals are or families are already residing, in basements and cellars in particular.
1:05:26
How how will the city be approaching or how will will the city be approaching enforcement moving forward?
1:05:34
But looking backwards, can you tell us about the number of violations issued for, basement apartments in recent years?
Kim Darga
1:05:43
I have some information here.
1:05:46
I also don't know if, Gus has a different additional information.
1:05:51
We could probably follow-up with numbers.
1:05:54
So the problem right now for for basements is they are we're generally talking about illegal units.
1:06:02
And so the numbers getting a good handle on the number of illegal units in the city is very difficult.
1:06:11
We do have some information from the housing vacancy survey, and we've certainly heard estimates from some of our partners over the years.
1:06:22
But again, it's very hard to tell.
1:06:25
I do have some preliminary some basic information on enforcement at the at HPD.
1:06:37
HPD and DOB have slightly different roles when it comes to enforcement.
1:06:43
But, it looks like the number of vacates vacates, issued by DO, HBD specifically with regard to illegal occupancy, has been somewhere between 56 100 units a year for the last few years.
1:07:06
But again, DOB has a more significant role with regard to, enforcement today.
1:07:13
So I would defer to Gus to speak more about their role.
Constadino (Gus) Sirakis
1:07:17
Sure.
1:07:18
We can get back to you with, specific enforcement stats on this, for what we have, but typically our, you know, enforcement would be complaint based.
1:07:27
We receive also referrals from FDNY when they run across a scenario that they don't feel is safe.
1:07:33
And then we we send folks to, inspect and where where appropriate issue violations and if necessary, vacate.
1:07:40
Not necessarily every scenario, involves a vacate.
1:07:45
Violation could be issued, but a vacate may not necessarily be an order, for instance, if egress is, in order.
1:07:53
Other scenarios, though, would trigger maybe an automatic vacate for things such as illegal gas work.
1:07:59
And that that might be in connection with the additional dwelling unit.
