| Releases
& Statements
For Immediate Release:
March 6, 2007
Contact: Frank Sobrino
O: (212) 669-4193; C: (646) 250-4322
Gotbaum Calls for Additional HPD Lawyers
Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum today
urged the City Council to make funding available to the Department
of Housing Preservation and Development to hire additional housing
litigation lawyers. As of June 2006, HPD had fewer than 40 attorneys
in its Housing Litigation Division to deal with the nearly 13,000
cases it initiated in Fiscal Year 2005.
"With so few lawyers on staff,
HPD can’t adequately enforce housing maintenance code violations
and protect tenants from irresponsible landlords," Gotbaum
said. "Bolstering the agency’s litigation division
will help the thousands of tenants who rely on the city to take
their landlords to court."
The Citywide Task Force on Housing
Court’s 1993 report found that while fewer than 12 percent
of tenants were able to afford private attorneys, nearly 98 percent
of landlords had representation. The report also found that 60
percent of tenants were financially eligible for free legal representation
and that providing this representation could save the city approximately
$67 million spent on services for the homeless.
A 2003 report issued by Gotbaum’s
office in conjunction with the Association for Neighborhood and
Housing Development argued that, "the attorneys in [the Housing
Litigation Division] are crucial in providing teeth to a weak
enforcement process. Without the threat of penalties, landlords
will have very little reason to comply with the housing maintenance
code…To ensure that landlords are dealt with effectively,
more resources need to be placed within HLD to allow attorneys
to pursue more aggressively more housing code cases."
"We have the ability to protect
the rights of New York City tenants," Gotbaum said. "We
must give HPD the necessary funds to hire much-needed lawyers
in next year’s budget."
* * *
Click
here to read the Public Advocate's testimony.
|
