“The owner of the house wants to evict us,” said tenant Miriam Andrade.
For 22 years, Andrade, a 50-year-old Ecuadorian, has lived in a building in Brooklyn and says her landlord wants to evict her, which seems illogical and inhumane as it ensures there are empty units.
“That we are families that have children, that where are we going to live? At least I should go and live under a bridge because I don’t have a place. I don’t have to pay three thousand or four thousand dollars for rent,” said Andrade.
After it was revealed that nearly 90,000 flat-rate apartments are empty in New York, several elected officials, organizations and tenants gathered at City Hall to ask landlords to end their detention in the midst of a housing crisis across the city. .
“They are keeping the empty apartments on purpose, that is, we are in a housing crisis, we have migrants arriving from Latin American countries, we have full shelters, and with everything and that there are building owners who decide to continue the crisis,” said the councilor Pierina Sánchez, chairman of the Housing and Buildings committee.
In this regard, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), says that the housing market needs a certain level of vacancy to balance supply and demand and allow New Yorkers, including those in refugee situations, to find and move to housing.
In April, Councilor Carlina Rivera introduced the Safe Housing, Strong Communities bill, and one of her programs specifically aims to end the maintenance of those vacant apartments by requiring the following:
“All vacant apartments must be registered annually with the city and the city real estate agency must also inspect 15% of all vacant apartments.”
The councilor posted a social media post about Thursday’s event to protest the empty apartments.
“Vacancy rates for apartments under $ 1,500 are essentially zero functional, making it difficult for low-income and working-class New Yorkers to obtain safe, well-maintained housing. Today we speak out against owner negligence and storage. and we will continue fighting, ”Rivera wrote.
Vacancy rates for apartments under $ 1500 are essentially zero-functional, making it difficult for low-income and working-class New Yorkers to secure safe and well-maintained housing. Today we have mobilized against the abandonment and storage of owners and we will continue to fight. #warehouse pic.twitter.com/sLYv8Jb404
– Carlina Rivera 利華 娜 (@CarlinaRivera) November 3, 2022
The practice of stockpiling vacant apartments not only deprives our communities of affordable, but often neglected housing can create dangerous conditions for tenants who remain in buildings, attendees added.
