Mayor Mamdani announced Tuesday that New York City’s housing courts will fast-track the most severe emergency cases, requiring landlords and tenants back before a judge within five days of being served.
Speaking at housing court Tuesday morning, the mayor said the state Office of Court Administration has directed all city housing court judges to expedite a defined set of emergency cases, and that the court system’s chief administrative judge, identified at the event as Judge Ali, issued a memorandum to housing court judges across the city putting the change into effect immediately.
“I am proud to announce that the unified court system will now fast track emergency housing court cases where the health, safety, and well-being of New Yorkers is at risk,” Mamdani said. “In these cases, judges will now require parties to return to court within five days after service is completed.”
Four categories of cases qualify, according to the mayor. Cases where at least a third of the units in a building are subject to an open vacate order. Cases where at least a third of the units have an open, immediately hazardous violation for essential services such as heat, hot water, electricity or gas. Cases where a building’s elevators are out of service and documented by an open Department of Buildings class one violation issued within the past year. And so-called 7A cases, in which the city or tenants ask the court to appoint new management for a building because of persistent landlord negligence.
The mayor described the change as the fulfillment of a commitment in the administration’s recently released rental ripoff report and a core part of its “fix the city” campaign. He said City Hall is “fighting for the nearly 70% of New Yorkers who do not own their homes,” and pointed to a $22 billion investment in public and affordable housing and the relaunch of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.
The mayor was joined by HPD Commissioner Dia Levy, Department of Buildings Commissioner Ahmed Taghani, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning Layla Bozarg, the director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants identified as Weaver, housing court supervising Judge Jack Stoler, Legal Aid Society chief attorney Adrian Holder, State Senator Julia Salazar, State Senator Kavanaugh and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal.
Levy, the HPD commissioner, said delays in the worst buildings had been the central obstacle to holding negligent landlords accountable. “In the most neglected buildings, those with vacate orders, where tenants are forced to double up with family members or move into shelter, or 20 story buildings that don’t have working elevators where tenants literally become hostages in their own home, months can turn into years,” she said. “And too often, residents give up on realizing the housing justice that they are entitled to.”
Holder, the Legal Aid Society attorney, said the group had raised concerns for years about delays in cases involving vacate orders. “A vacate order is supposed to be a temporary measure to protect people from harm,” he said. “But for too many tenants, temporary displacement can stretch into months or even years.” He added: “No temporary vacate order or relocation should mean permanent displacement.”
Salazar, who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens, said the issue was personal. “It’s a story that I lived myself several years ago when I lived uptown in a building with atrocious conditions,” she said, describing conditions bad enough that she and her neighbors pursued a case in housing court. She said her district is more than 83 percent renters.
Asked how many cases would be eligible for the faster track, the mayor said he could not give a precise figure. “It is hard to give an exact sense of how many New Yorkers will be impacted,” he said, adding that the qualifying cases tend to be the most complicated to resolve and contribute to the broader court backlog.
On the 7A program, Levy said HPD is not limited to its current roster of administrators and pre-qualifies responsible management companies and receivers on a rolling basis so it can meet demand as more cases move. Bozarg, the deputy mayor, said the pathway would also apply to some public housing cases, saying NYCHA would be included among the types of HP actions covered.
Pressed on how to distinguish a negligent landlord from one who says repairs are unaffordable, the mayor said the fast track targets only the most severe cases. “If a landlord is not able to follow the law, then they should not be a landlord of that property,” he said.
The mayor also addressed several off-topic subjects during the news conference.
Asked for a tally of Temporary Protected Status recipients the city has had to part ways with, and which agencies were most affected, the mayor said he could not yet provide an exact number but confirmed the departures. “These were city workers across a number of different agencies, workers who performed vital service to the city,” he said. He said he has spoken with the president directly about extending TPS for Haitian and Syrian Americans, and called the prospect of returning Haitians under current conditions “a betrayal of what TPS actually stands for.”
Asked about a planned weekend rally at Madison Square Garden by the RSS, an Indian right-wing organization, and about calls to cancel it from elected officials including Shahana Hanif, Brad Lander and Lincoln Restler, the mayor said he opposes the event but does not believe the city can stop it. Noting that he is the city’s first Indian American mayor and that his mother’s family is in India, he said he was raised on a vision of India as “a pluralistic society, of a secular republic.” He added: “It is one that I find myself in deep opposition to.” Asked directly whether the rally should be canceled, he said, “I don’t support the rally, but I don’t know if the city has any jurisdiction on canceling a private event.”
The mayor also announced that the city has secured 1,000 discounted US Open tickets for New Yorkers at $100 each. He said the tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Wednesday, that buyers need only provide a ZIP code, and that each person can buy one ticket for themselves and one for a guest, on a first-come, first-served basis. He compared the program to a similar discounted-ticket effort the administration ran for the World Cup.
Featured image: NYC Mayor's Office
