The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) publishes data on building violations, which tenants and prospective tenants can use to find out more information about a building before moving in or use information in housing court.
Despite New York State passing a law in 2022 requiring that HPD make the same information available for public housing buildings, they have yet to comply with the law, leaving NYCHA tenants in the dark. Because HPD has yet to respond to NYLAG’s initial inquiry about publicizing this information and adhering to the law, we filed a lawsuit.
“Stewart Gracia, a resident of the Jacob Riis Houses in Lower Manhattan and one of the lawsuit plaintiffs, said that by failing to report the violations, the city is depriving him and his neighbors of a vital resource that could help them decide whether to move into a new apartment or challenge their landlord in court.
“‘Certain things need to be more transparent and easily accessible,’ said Gracia, a building manager who lives with his three daughters. ‘People [would] like to investigate before they actually move.’
“Gracia, 43, said he has dealt with routine heat and hot water outages, cockroach infestations, and other problems since moving into his top-floor apartment in 2020. He said his waterlogged ceiling burst, flooded his unit and destroyed his electronics a few months after he moved. But he said that he had no way of knowing about the conditions before signing the lease…
“Attorneys from the nonprofit New York Legal Assistance Group are representing the tenants in their lawsuit and submitted a letter demanding HPD begin reporting the violations, as required by law, in August 2023. They say they have yet to receive a response.”
Read the full piece in Gothamist/WNYC from November 5, 2024.
