MANHATTAN DA CANDIDATE LUCY LANG RELEASES HOUSING PLAN TO PROTECT TENANTS

MANHATTAN DA CANDIDATE LUCY LANG RELEASES HOUSING PLAN TO PROTECT TENANTS & HOLD LANDLORDS ACCOUNTABLE

Lang Pledges To Fight To Make Public Housing Available To Justice-involved Individuals

December 21, 2020

Today, Manhattan District Attorney Candidate Lucy Lang released a comprehensive housing plan to protect tenants and hold unscrupulous landlords accountable. As New Yorkers continue to struggle, businesses shutter their doors, and unemployment worsens, District Attorneys have an important role to play to ensure that tenants are protected.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left many New Yorkers struggling to keep their homes -- depriving people of economic stability and impacting physical, mental, and emotional health. This destabilizing situation has been compounded by unethical and unlawful behavior from some landlords, including tenant harassment and other illegal practices to remove tenants or hide hazardous conditions.

Lucy understands that the next Manhattan District Attorney has an obligation to hold landlords who break the law accountable for attempting to take advantage of the borough’s most vulnerable residents. As part of her housing plan, Lucy will establish a unit in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office dedicated to investigating and prosecuting landlords who engage in illegal practices, and will build on community input to create an inter-agency task force to track fraudulent landlord behavior. Lucy will also fight to make public housing – including the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) – available to New Yorkers with previous justice involvement.

“In a city where the vast majority of people are renters, Manhattan residents deserve a District Attorney who will fight to protect their housing rights,” said Manhattan District Attorney Candidate Lucy Lang. “Having access to safe, affordable, and stable housing is a right, not a privilege. As the pandemic worsens and with temporary eviction protections set to expire, it’s never been more important for District Attorneys to do their part to protect vulnerable New Yorkers. As the next Manhattan District Attorney, I’m committed to holding landlords who break the law accountable and ensuring that they treat all New Yorkers with the dignity and equity they deserve.”

As Manhattan District Attorney, Lucy will:

Establish a unit in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office dedicated to investigating and prosecuting landlords who engage in illegal practices. Too often in our city, powerful landlords take advantage of tenants through myriad unscrupulous practices. Their conduct is often criminal and Lucy will treat it as criminal. We know from prior experience that this type of conduct increases following an economic downturn. There is no reason to believe that the pandemic-related downturn will be different. By establishing a dedicated unit to handle all issues related to housing and tenancy, the District Attorney ‘s office will have greater capacity to track patterns of abuse and quickly detect illegal behavior by landlords. This unit will have a hotline available to the public to increase reporting of criminal activity. Among other things, the Housing Unit will aggressively pursue allegations of:
- Illegal raising of rent or elimination of rent regulated apartments. This includes when landlords lie to the city about apartment improvements when these improvements either never took place, cost far less than the documented amount, or were otherwise illegally inflated in an effort to raise rents and reduce the supply of affordable housing.
- Tenant Harassment, including among other things, overcharging rent, unjustified eviction notices or illegal lockouts, interruption of services, and inadequate maintenance.
- Landlords who neglect to keep their tenants safe by not taking proper care to guard against lead paint, mold, or asbestos.
Fight to make public housing – including NYCHA – available to those with previous justice involvement. Lucy will join social justice organizations working to eliminate outdated rules that prevent people with a criminal record from reuniting with their loved ones in public housing, often leaving them with nowhere to go. Securing housing for justice-involved folks will not only foster their security, it will help combat the epidemic of homelessness being experienced in our city.
Create an inter-agency task force, with community input, to track and investigate landlords who harass tenants and engage in fraudulent behavior. Current information about landlord activity is maintained by a number of different city agencies, including the Department of Investigations, Department of Buildings, the Public Advocate, and the Department of Finance. Lucy will bring these different agencies together to hold accountable landlords who prey on hardworking New Yorkers.

To learn more about Lucy’s priorities, visit her plans page.