Tenant-protection panoply provided at conference

Chelsea Now photo by Jefferson Siegel

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn speaks to the audience about recently implemented measures to protect tenants from landlord harassment.

By Heather Murray

Close to 400 people packed into Fordham Law School at Lincoln Center to attend the fourth annual West Side Tenants’ Conference on Saturday. They came to learn more about their rights as tenants and how to organize more effectively to make sure those rights are protected and enforced.

John Raskin, director of organizing for event sponsor Housing Conservation Coordinators, called the day “a great success” and said this year’s turnout was the highest yet.

The free conference gave attendees a choice of two workshops out of 13 offered on a variety of housing-related issues, including updates on laws for tenants, Section 8 housing basics, a primer on Housing Court, the Real Rent Reform campaign, stopping illegal hotels and making tenants’ associations more effective. Between sessions, attendees exchanged ideas and noshed on bagels, sandwiches and cookies.

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn both praised the role of community organizers in effecting change in government and encouraged those at the conference to get involved in community issues.

Stringer spoke about his efforts to ensure elevators in New York City Housing Authority complexes are in working order and regularly inspected, after his office recently released a study showing that 75 percent of these elevators failed inspection or received unsatisfactory ratings in the last five years.

Quinn told tenants the City Council will continue to push the tenant anti-harassment bill she introduced that was signed into law by Mayor Bloomberg in March. The Rent Stabilization Association, made up of property managers and owners, filed a lawsuit in August claiming the City Council has no authority to alter the city’s housing code.

The law made harassment a housing code violation, imposing $1,000 to $5,000 fines on landlords attempting to force tenants out of their homes.

Department of Housing Preservation and Development commissioner Shaun Donovan announced during his keynote speech that his department has reached the midway point in its $7.5 billion new housing marketplace plan by building and preserving 82,500 affordable housing units in the last five years.

Although the rest of the country is facing a crisis of home foreclosures, Donovan acknowledged, “We’re not [facing one] in New York City.” Out of over 17,000 units of home ownership HPD completed thus far in its plan, just five have faced foreclosure.

Donovan also updated tenants on HPD’s new housing safety program launched in November. The Alternative Enforcement Program puts landlords on notice that they must make repairs; if not, HPD can make the repairs and bill the landlord for the work. Donovan said HPD has leveled fines on buildings currently monitored in the program and will do necessary repair work soon.

Local Assemblymember Richard Gottfried and State Sen. Thomas Duane also spoke at the event, joining West Side pols Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, State. Sen. Liz Krueger and City Councilmember Gale Brewer.