Landlords<\/a> will have to give up their buildings to \u201cresponsible preservation purchasers:\u201d long-term owner who is willing to comply, repair, and maintain the buildings. Whether a nonprofit, for-profit, or a group of landlords, the purchasers must be supported by tenants, Levy said.<\/p>\nThe program is an \u201corganizing tool,\u201d she said, a chance to work with organized tenants.\n<\/p>\n
And Fix the City\u2019s first targets? At least 10 of the city\u2019s worst landlords.\n<\/p>\n
These landlords make up a small but stubborn universe. Many have been refusing to comply with city law for years \u2014 or even decades, Levy said. Some have been able to \u201ctorture generations of tenants.\u201d Levy said she\u2019s still running into the same bad actors she was chasing 20 years ago when she first got involved in housing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal behind Fix the City is to really say, \u2018We\u2019re not tolerating it anymore,\u2019\u201d Levy said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
A&E Real Estate, for example, was associated with nearly 9,000 open violations on the 2025 Landlord Watchlist by the public advocate.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
A statement from an A&E spokesperson, however, called accusations of neglect \u201cmisleading and unrealistic\u201d while noting \u201cthere is much more work to be done.\u201d A&E has invested over $800 million across its portfolio, the statement said, resulting in \u201creplaced boilers, modernized elevators, fortified security, and the clearance of 35,000 violations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Every one of A&E\u2019s buildings is in better shape today than it was when they assumed management, the statement said.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been our mission to work with the City to improve every building we manage and address long-standing issues at properties that have been neglected for too long,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThat will not change.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advocates welcome the initiative<\/p>\n
Housing advocates welcome Fix the City.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cFor years, even decades, many of the bad landlords are the same,\u201d Andrea Shapiro, Director of Programs and Advocacy at The Metropolitan Council on Housing, said. \u201cWe hear their names over and over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shapiro said that while there have been lots of different attempts in different ways by the city to solve the issue, they have not been concentrated or organized. Now\u2019s the time for negligent landlords to either fix their buildings, Shapiro said, or get out of the business.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited, definitely,\u201d Shapiro said.\n<\/p>\n
Sumathy Kumar, executive director of Housing Justice for All, said she feels the same.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like a more comprehensive approach,\u201d Kumar said.\n<\/p>\n
Kumar said that predatory landlords\u2019 business model is based, in part, on raising rent. Amid today\u2019s affordability and housing crisis, efforts like Fix the City are beneficial because they support tenants by finally giving them basic living conditions, Kumar said. As a result, she said, tenants will be the judge whether the program is a success.<\/p>\n
\u201cTenants are the eyes and ears, on the ground, living in these apartments,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
The New York City Small Home Owners Association (NYCSHA), which represents small landlords across the city, supports the program \u2014 with a caveat.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe support holding chronic, negligent \u2018bad actor\u2019 landlords accountable, as their mismanagement tarnishes the reputation of the vast majority of responsible property owners,\u201d Richard St. Paul, president of NYCSHA, wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n
Yet he cautioned that Fix the City must stick to targeting the worst, most prolific landlords in NYC. St. Paul noted that many small landlords, like the ones NYCSHA represents, are buckling under their finances.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe urge the administration to guarantee that the mechanisms designed to force out corporate slumlords do not inadvertently catch struggling, community-based landlords in the crossfire,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Back in Washington Heights, Giannicchi said she is approaching six years in her apartment. Giannicchi said the issues throughout the years and the \u201chellacious\u201d management have drawn her closer to her neighbors. Some of them have lived in the building for over two decades, she said. Some even have it worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI endured a raining bathroom for months,\u201d she said. \u201cSome people have endured that for years.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For months, Anna Giannicchi\u2019s bathroom ceiling rained water. A light in her ceiling also stopped working. Her neighbors\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":915544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,42046,318553,7065,5249,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,34565,369945,5301],"class_list":["post-915543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-department-of-housing-preservation-and-development","tag-dina-levy","tag-housing","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-washington-heights","tag-worst-landlords","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116871030993927866","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}