Met Council Launches Campaign for 300 More Inspectors
By Deborah Schutt

Met Council has launched a lobbying campaign for more housing-code inspectors.

The epidemic of falling bricks and collapsing buildings that continues to plague our city must end as quickly as possible. The only way to prevent more disasters is to hire more city inspectors and increase the enforcement of protective laws.

Therefore, we are asking the state Assembly, the State Senate, and especially the City Council to increase the budget for code inspectors for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. We want the city and state budgets increased to enable HPD to hire 300 more housing inspectors. The number of inspectors has been reduced from over 800 in the late 1980s to only 220, primarily because of budget cuts. The city’s financial reserves are at a high level, so these cuts can be at least partially restored.

The enforcement of the city codes is essential for the maintenance of housing and the preservation of neighborhoods, especially in older, low-income areas. Since the city and state removed their commitments for code inspections, HPD has been unable to meet its mandate to enforce the housing maintenance code.

In the past, code inspections caught health and safety violations through a system of cyclical, preventive inspections. The inspection system is now driven entirely by tenant complaints, and due to large budget cuts there are not enough inspectors for those complaints, let alone preventive inspections. The lack of inspectors and lax code enforcement has lead to conditions that threaten the safety and lives of tenants.

We urge all tenants to write letters to Mayor Giuliani, their City Councilmembers, Assemblymembers, State Senators and Governor Pataki. They should demand that their elected officials ask Mayor Giuliani and Governor Pataki to provide funding for 300 additional code inspectors, in order to protect every New Yorker and preserve our crumbing housing stock. To find out who your elected officials are call the League of Women Voters at (212) 674-8484.

In addition to our letter-writing campaign, we are also planning mini-lobbying trips to elected officials’ offices. Tenants and tenants’ associations who are interested in participating, please call Deborah Schutt at (212) 693-0553.

This year, with huge state and city budget surpluses, tenants will not take any excuses from the Pataki or Giuliani administrations. Funding for 300 new inspectors would amount to approximately $10 million annually. Tenants need to tell George Pataki that they did not forget what he did to them last June and that his re-election in November is in jeopardy if he keeps hurting tenants.