Nyc Starts Crack-down On Landlords With A Mountain Of Violations

New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is pairing a tougher stance on bad landlords with a broader push to make housing safer and more affordable across the five boroughs.

On Sunday, the city put 250 apartment buildings that NYC officials characterize as “most distressed” under tougher scrutiny, with the promise to crack down on landlords who fail to make basic repairs.

Mamdani and Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Dina Levy released an updated list of buildings in the Alternative Enforcement Program, which targets properties with the worst housing code violations.

The buildings, which together include 7,038 homes, account for nearly 55,000 open violations. They owe the city nearly $4.5 million for emergency repair work already performed, according to City Hall. Cea Weaver, who leads the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, framed the enforcement push as part of the administration’s pledge to pair affordability with a baseline of decent, livable conditions.

“Every New Yorker deserves a safe and well-maintained place to rest, raise their family, and sleep at night,” she said in a statement.

Move to fulfill campaign housing affordability promises

Mamdani jump-started his tenure by steering housing policy sharply toward deeply affordable, supportive units. On his first day in office, he signed executive actions to more directly link the city’s sprawling emergency shelter system to permanent housing placements. He also ordered an assessment of migrant shelters that do not meet standard requirements, with a mandate to either upgrade or close them within weeks.

He campaigned on, and is now organizing his administration around, vows to dramatically scale up publicly financed, union-built, rent-stabilized housing on public land. His stated priority is affordable homes for low-income residents and people exiting homelessness, ahead of market-rate construction.

However, his administration suffered its first loss when it tried to stall the bankruptcy sale of 5,100 units owned by Summit Properties. A federal bankruptcy judge approved the sale in mid-January to Pinnacle Group, which owes the city for violations and unpaid taxes.

Summit pledged tens of millions of dollars for repairs and vowed to quickly address a large share of the violations. The judge’s ruling found that the firm had the financial capacity to honor the pledge.

Mamdani has moved quickly to restart stalled projects, reviving the Just Home supportive housing development at Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx to create 83 apartments for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers with complex medical needs. His administration is backing plans for roughly 190 additional supportive units for similar populations.

Applying pressure to landlords

“In our first month in office, we’ve been clear: New York will no longer look the other way while bad landlords put tenants at risk,” Mamdani said in a statement, vowing to “use every tool we have” to keep housing safe.

Now in its 19th year, the Alternative Enforcement Program enables HPD to increase inspections and issue Orders to Correct. When owners refuse to act, the department sends city crews to fix heat outages, leaks and other hazardous conditions. Landlords bear the cost.

Officials said the latest round builds on a $2.1 million settlement HPD reached last month with A&E Real Estate Holdings, covering 14 buildings — the largest such settlement won by the agency’s anti-harassment unit — that require extensive repairs and court-enforced protections for tenants.

Among the city’s five boroughs, the worst offender on this year’s list is in Queens, logging more than 1,000 “B” and “C” violations over the past five years, the city said. HPD’s housing litigation unit is involved in court actions against the owners of 138 buildings on the list to force compliance.

“This administration will not back away from protecting tenants or enforcing the Housing Maintenance Code,” Levy said, warning that landlords who repeatedly fail their tenants will be held accountable.

Owners can exit the program within months if they resolve violations and outstanding repair bills, or enter into payment agreements with the city, officials said. HPD said it monitors discharged buildings for at least a year to ensure conditions do not deteriorate, and that landlords who backslide face faster enforcement if they return to the list.