Crackdown on Conversions Confronts Danger and Necessity

Boodnarine Sarju opened the door to his tidy one-bedroom apartment in northern Queens. The three rooms didn't provide much space for his wife and daughters, but he was glad to be home. The living room doubled as a bedroom, with a mattress on the floor and a bureau topped with garlanded portraits of Hindu deities. Wallet-sized photos of his children were tucked into the picture frames along with a prayer card of Jesus.

Sarju had lived in this building since arriving from Guyana eight years ago. He was in a basement unit early this year, when a social worker threatened to report his landlord to the city for exposed electrical wiring and pipes wrapped in asbestos. The landlord quickly moved Sarju's family upstairs, but this new apartment was also illegal. The city permitted three units, but the building had been carved into smaller spaces long ago. Not one of these units had been approved by, or received permits from, the Buildings Department. The two apartments upstairs violated safety and building codes: Each had just one exit and no fire escape.

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.

Yet the mayor also admitted the immense number of illegal units—estimated to be as high as 100,000 citywide—was the result of inadequate housing options. In June, he announced the formation of a task force with three deputy mayors to study where regulations could be updated to allow for three alternative housing types: Legal home conversions, "micro-units," and shared housing. The latest version of the mayor's PlaNYC promised to enable "expanded housing models to serve evolving population needs."

While no details have been released from the task force members—and no responses have been offered to City Limit's inquiries—a glimpse at their conclusions were to be offered on Monday, November 7, when four agency commissioners, plus the director of zoning from City Planning, participate in a discussion led by David Bragdon, head of the mayor's office of long-term planning and sustainability. The panel is part of a daylong event at the Japan Society of New York. The event "Making Room," staged by the Citizens Housing & Planning Council (CHPC) and the Architectural League of New York, will unveil designs by five teams of architects following the three new housing models. Responding to various real-life household scenarios, these designs will serve as the basis for discussions.

The underground market

The new models can't come fast enough for Sarju. After his landlord had been alerted to the illegal units—and possible citations carrying fines of up to $15,000 and one year in jail—he decided to set things right. The landlord planned to convert the building back into larger units and started to evict tenants, who were renting month-to-month with no lease. Sarju would be the next to go.