Opinion: Here’s how we can better protect New Yorkers from tenant harassment

Manhattan is facing a housing crisis. Rising rents and scarcity not only make it difficult for New Yorkers to find safe affordable homes, but create a breeding ground for fraud, scams and harassment.

In just the past few months, my office has indicted a wide range of bad actors who allegedly preyed on homeowners and tenants: four rental scammers defrauded apartment hunters out of thousands of dollars; landlords harassed rent-regulated tenants in Chelsea; and multiple individuals and companies committed deed fraud in Harlem.

All of this alleged conduct points to a clear through line: People are being unlawfully exploited when they are just trying to get affordable housing.

I created the Manhattan District Attorney’s first Housing and Tenant Protection Unit three years ago to address and root out this type of conduct. While we are stepping in and holding unscrupulous individuals accountable, we need additional legislation that would strengthen criminal penalties, including new tools to prosecute landlords who harass rent-regulated tenants. New Yorkers know that tenant harassment is a persistent issue. We hear about nightmare incidents from friends, neighbors and family members. It has seemingly become a part of life for renters in our city. We cannot accept this status quo, but the current criminal penalties on the books are simply not tough enough for law enforcement to deter these crimes.

Our recent indictment for tenant harassment in Chelsea is a good window into this conduct: We allege the landlords kept the building nearly vacant for over a decade and forced the remaining, elderly tenants to live without heat or a functioning elevator for multiple years.

This alleged neglect caused roof deterioration, persistent leaks, a ceiling collapse and flooding. Tenants even allegedly received notices threatening them with arrest if they refused to abandon their homes.

Last year, we indicted Daniel Ohebshalom for allegedly harassing rent-regulated tenants with horrific living conditions across five properties. We allege his goal was to sell the buildings for profit. We will continue to prosecute alleged conduct like this, but we need additional deterrents to prevent this type of conduct from occurring and continuing.

State Senate Bill S8559 would create a new class D felony for aggravated harassment of a rent-regulated tenant. One challenge prosecuting tenant harassment is that the penalties are the same regardless of how many units or buildings are impacted. It doesn’t matter if you harass two tenants in one building or 10 tenants across multiple properties: We can only charge a class E felony. 

Under our proposal, anyone who engages in a “systematic ongoing course of conduct” across multiple properties could now be charged with a class D felony. This would reflect the reality of tenant harassment, which is that it is often occurring in several buildings owned by the same group or individual. This change would allow more tenants to get justice and act as a meaningful deterrent to landlords.

Additionally, this bill would create more significant penalties for recidivist landlords who repeatedly engage in the same conduct. This legislation would allow us to charge a class D felony if the defendant has previously been convicted of class E felony harassment of a rent-regulated tenant in the first degree and repeats the same behavior. This will act as a deterrent for unscrupulous landlords who have previously harassed their tenants from repeating the same conduct. I was proud to stand with housing advocates and the co-sponsors of this legislation, state Sen. Brian Kavanagh and Assembly Member Micah Lasher, to announce this new effort.

While we believe passing this legislation would be an important step forward, there is more work to do. In the coming months, we will continue to collaborate with our legislative partners to address other criminal activity targeting our affordable housing stock, including illegal conversions of rent-regulated units.

No tenant should have to choose between living in uninhabitable conditions or being forced onto the street. All Manhattanites deserve to live in safely maintained homes. I urge the state Legislature to pass S8559 and help our Housing and Tenant Protection Unit hold law-breaking landlords accountable.