Rockland County, NY – Carrying through on his promise to combat illegal and unsafe housing in Rockland, County Executive Ed Day unveiled the first phase of a plan that will crack down on violators and levy hefty fines for violations at a press conference held this morning in Spring Valley.
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The Rockland Codes Initiative will create an extra layer of enforcement to local housing by having the Department of Health oversee inspection teams that will review possible sanitary code violations through property inspections, surveys and detailed investigations. Day described his plan as the first step in providing safer housing for county residents.
“Stemming the tide of unsafe and illegal housing and overcrowding is paramount to ensuring the health and safety of our people,” said Day. “Today we fire the first salvo in a well orchestrated battle against exploitive absentee landlords and property owners who put lives at risk.”
During the press conference Day stood in front of a house which he said had racked up 19 violations and whose yard boasted three mailboxes, numerous children’s toys and strollers and a tree-mounted satellite dish. The county executive said that hastily constructed rooms and potentially unsafe electrical wiring have become the norm in many houses which rent rooms to illegal immigrants who pay their landlords in cash.
“Some property owners think that violating health and building codes is not a big deal ,” said Day. “Some think that chopping up apartments and herding humans like cattle is just the cost of doing business. Well, think again. We will use every tool at our disposal, including the Internal Revenue Service. If it’s good enough for Al Capone, it’s good enough for the here and now.
Day’s plan includes both an online tool for submitting confidential reports of any houses that are suspected of being in violation of county codes and a “Worst Landlord Watch List” which will create an online hall of shame, identifying landlords with the largest number of violations. The plan will also hit landlords maximum fines of $2,000 per violation, per day, an effort to make illegal housing an extremely unprofitable business venture.
“We plan to whack the bad guys where it hurts,” said Day. “In their wallets.”
In an interview with VIN News, Day pointed to the house behind him and outlined how his new plan would affect the property’s owner.
“It is not clear how many people are living here but there are 19 violations at this location, which could generate a fine of $38,000 per day,” said Day.
Day noted that anyone who attempts to misuse the online reporting mechanism to unfairly target a property owner who is in compliance with codes will find themselves in trouble.
“There is always an ability to track a complaint down because if it is done by computer, there is always an IP Address,” Day told VIN News. “Communicating in a harassing way with the intent to cause annoyance, fear or alarm is harassment and it is a misdemeanor in this state. If that is happening, it will be addressed by law enforcement.”
Rockland County Fire Coordinator Gordon Wren Jr. praised Day’s new initiative.
“Unfortunately it is needed because there is such an epidemic of illegal conversions,” said Wren. “It is unconscionable that human beings are living in these conditions. It is dangerous to our firefighters and it is dangerous to them.”
Wren noted that illegal conversions can be highly lucrative and described one such property that had been visited recently by the fire department, a former one family house whose first and second floors had been converted entirely into small rooms for rent.
“Each one was paying about $500 a month in cash,” said Wren. “When we got there they were in the process of converting the basement and the attic, which would have more than doubled the space. They would have been taking in between twelve and fourteen thousand a month, in cash, between $140,000 to $160,000 a year, out of a one family house, in cash.”
Until now, fines levied by local municipalities have been relatively small, but the Board of Health’s considerably stiffer financial penalties may force landlords to clean up their acts.
“The deterrent hasn’t been there until now,” said Wren. “We need a real deterrent to stop the violations.”
I hope mr. Day is preparing enough homeless shelters for all those day laborers who will put on the street due to this housing crackdown. Also have enough police officers in town watching those homeless from robbing and looting because now they will have to pay 2000 dollars for decent size legal apartment
They should mount such a crackdown in NYC where illegal dwellings are common, not only among illegal aliens.
Yes. But when Health and Fire Code violations pile up, and a tragedy happens who is going to pay the price…?
Thank you, Ed. Most of these houses don’t have heat or plumbing. The slum lords make millions of dollars a year in cash. When there is a fire, firemen risk their lives and land lords pay a small fine or no fine at all.
The fire codes are written in blood. We should not violate them.
I have seen the situation both ways. I have seen landlord renting apartment to 34 sets guys a 3 bedroom; they then convert the saloon to a 4 bedroom and put in 4 sets bunks beds. The refuse to use the heat more than an hour a day and dry clothes on the radiator and the place is full of moulld because of condensation. Then thye are blaming the landload. Some places seem like they sleep in shifts and use the same beds.especially Colombians. Eastern europian will live like this simularly; 3 bedrooms, 3 couple or 4 couples. I seen landlord also renting to Yidden have windows fallen out, horrible kitchens, really no room to live and charge high rents since they want to live by their families
I hope mr. Day is preparing enough homeless shelters for all those day laborers who will put on the street due to this housing crackdown. Also have enough police officers in town watching those homeless from robbing and looting because now they will have to pay 2000 dollars for decent size legal apartment