SRO Tenants Support Bill Limiting Conversions
by Frank Brodhead

Councilmember Ronnie Eldridge (D-Manhattan) has introduced legislation aimed at preventing landlords from turning single-room-occupancy hotels into tourist housing or luxury apartments. More than 30 SRO tenants, housing experts, and Legal Services lawyers testified in support of the bill, Intro 933, at a hearing held by the City Council's Housing and Buildings Committee in early October.

In the last few years, owners of SRO hotels and rooming houses have seen that they can make more money from tourists and students than they can from long-term residents. Many owners have spent money fixing up their hotels. Some of them have knocked down walls and combined rooms, making efficiency or studio apartments. In some cases landlords have harassed tenants, forcing them to move to other floors or out of the building.

Tenants and their supporters who have tried to fight landlord harassment and illegal conversions have had problems getting the current law enforced. In some cases, the Department of Buildings has improperly issued work permits, with landlords being able to get approval for major alterations without getting a "Certificate of No Harassment" first. Additionally, the department's priorities have prevented them from issuing stop-work orders quickly enough, or enforcing them when work continues.

Intro 933 will help tenants fight landlord harassment and illegal conversions by directing the Buildings Department to make certain SRO issues one of their priorities. It would direct the department to issue a stop-work order when work is being done without the necessary permits, and to take away permits when they have been given in error or when the owner lied about what they were doing. The Buildings Department would be directed to inspect construction work in SROs monthly, and to check landlords' plans and blueprints instead of allowing the owner's architect to "self-certify" plans for SRO projects. It would also direct the Buildings Department to issue a stop-work order at the request of the commissioner of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

Finally, the bill would define illegal work as a form of harassment. Owners of SROs who did construction or conversion work without proper permits, including a Certificate of No Harassment, would be guilty of harassment. Illegal work would be taken into consideration when an owner applies for a Certificate of No Harassment. This would slow down landlords who use major renovation work to drive tenants out, or who rush to convert units before anyone knows what's going on.

Frank Brodhead is a community organizer with the West Side Law Project.