The dangers of illegal conversions attracted renewed attention this year after two fires, one in the Bronx and another in Brooklyn, killed five people. The Bronx blaze was described as an accident waiting to happen: The city had received repeated complaints about the three-story building, which was illegally subdivided into tiny apartments with only one escape route, but inspectors were always denied access.
The city responded by stepping up enforcement. The Bloomberg administration and the City Council drew up an initiative to pinpoint illegal conversions at the highest risk of fire, vowing to send inspectors to targeted locations within 48 hours. It was the latest step in a larger crackdown on illegal units. More than 150,000 flyers in multiple languages had already been distributed to warn people about the dangers of illegally converted apartments, and the previous year the Buildings Department began an undercover sting by responding to apartment ads on Craigslist.
…
Enforcement will never eliminate the underground housing market, said Sarah Watson, a senior policy analyst at CHPC, who noted that increased fines have not lessened the illegal housing stock. “It’s too widespread,” she explained. “There’s no doubt the path forward is difficult politically, but we need to recognize that there’s a mismatch between the types of housing we have and the ways we’re really living today. The housing stock has not kept up with how people have changed.”
Read full commentary from Sarah Watson in the article in City Limits.