The Certification of No Harassment pilot is a new tool to shield New Yorkers from tenant harassment
Today, the de Blasio Administration announced the implementation of the Certification of No Harassment (CONH) Pilot Program, a new law that requires buildings that meet certain criteria to certify that no tenant harassment has taken place before being granted construction permits to significantly alter their properties. Today, the City also published the listof more than 1,000 buildings with approximately 26,000 units that will now be subject to the CONH program.
“New York City is stopping tenant harassment in its tracks,” said Mayor de Blasio. “We are taking a proactive approach to enforcement and targeting at-risk buildings for increased scrutiny in order to protect affordability across the city.”
Owners of buildings included on the program list will be required to apply for a Certification of No Harassment before they are approved for construction permits by the Department of Buildings. The Department of Housing Preservation and Development will conduct the investigation to certify that no tenant harassment has taken place. Owners denied a CONH will not be able to significantly alter their buildings for five years, unless they provide permanently affordable housing to be built without City subsidy, tax benefits, or inclusionary housing. The list of flagged CONH properties will be updated by HPD and included on HPD’s and DOB’s websites.
“This administration has been working on multiple fronts to proactively and aggressively combat tenant harassment, while preserving affordable housing at record pace. Now, the City has a new tool to root out harassment that will be applied to more than 1,000 buildings, including 26,000 apartments in neighborhoods identified as most at risk,” said HPD Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer. “I want to thank the City Council, in particular Councilman Brad Lander, for their leadership, and the many advocacy groups who partnered with us to take another strong step to protect tenants and ensure New York remains a city for everyone.”
“We look forward to working with our partners at HPD to prevent bad-actor landlords from getting construction permits. This new effort builds upon our agencies’ work together in the city-state Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force, which has secured unprecedented penalties, including jail time, for landlords who abuse their tenants,” said Buildings Commissioner Rick D. Chandler, PE.
“The Council is proud to have worked with HPD and DOB to make this Certification of No Harassment Pilot a reality,” said New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson. “In the midst of an affordability crisis, tenants in New York have enough to deal with without worrying about harassment from unscrupulous landlords. I will continue to fight for tenants and expansion of tenant protection laws.”
Two versions of the CONH program have been in place in Hell’s Kitchen since 1974 and for Single-Room Occupancy buildings (SROs) citywide, but the program was significantly expanded thanks to the City Council’s 2017 CONH legislation. The broadened 36-month pilot includes buildings that meet the following criteria:
· Buildings which meet a threshold of distress within 11 community board districts throughout the city. The Community Boards have either undergone city-sponsored neighborhood-wide rezonings or have a high concentration of distressed buildings
Any building citywide where a full vacate order has been issued, or where a building is enrolled in HPD’s Alternative Enforcement Program (AEP) and remained active in the program for more than four (4) months.
· In addition, any building citywide where there has been a final determination of harassment in court, or by NYS Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) within the preceding five years will be added to the list and will automatically be denied a CONH upon application.
Once a building owner subject to the program applies for a Certification of No Harassment, HPD will notify tenants, community groups, the community board, and local elected officials. HPD will then conduct an investigation into whether tenant harassment has taken place at the property within the last five years. If HPD determines that there is evidence of harassment, a hearing will be held at the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings and the building owner can be potentially barred from seeking DOB permits. If no evidence of tenant harassment is found, HPD will grant the building a Certification of No Harassment.
The expanded CONH program is the product of a working group led by Council Member Brad Lander and HPD. The group was comprised of a wide range of stakeholders, including government agencies, City Council members and staff, the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, Cypress Hills LDC, Los Sures, United Neighborhood Housing Program, Urban Justice Center, Make the Road, Fifth Avenue Committee, Mobilization for Justice, Housing Conservation Coordinators Inc., The Legal Aid Society, Legal Services NYC, Faith in NY, New York State Association of Affordable Housing, Rent Stabilization Association, Community Housing Improvement Program, Real Estate Board of New York, NYU Furman Center, Northern Manhattan Improvement Corp., and other experts interested in identifying ways to further deter harassment.
Working with members of the group, the City continued to analyze data to find characteristics of buildings where tenant harassment was suspected, reported, or confirmed. The group looked at many factors and learned that buildings that are physically distressed or recently sold may be associated with reports of harassment.
