February 17, 2010
Public Supports LLC Sunshine Bill
By
ANHD Inc. Staff
/ ANHD Inc.
City Hall - Yesterday, The
Association for Neighborhood Housing and Development (ANHD), Make The Road New York, and other housing advocates, rallied
on the steps of City Hall to show their public support of a proposed City
Council introduction that, if passed, would require corporate landlords to disclose
names and business addresses of its officers.
The bill would also affect corporate investors who own 25 percent or
more shares of ownership.
“The proposal recognizes that dwellings are increasingly owned by
partnerships rather than individual owners,” according to a statement from NYC
Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito, the intro’s prime sponsor.
Should this introduction make it out of committee and onto the chamber
floor through Speaker Quinn, it promises to beam sunlight on owners who anonymously
benefit from reckless litigation and tactics used to harass tenants, particularly
those from low-income communities.
The lack of transparency makes it dificult to track and hold
accountable problematic corporate landlords. Mark-Viverito introduced this
bill last year. However, it never made it onto the chamber floor for a vote.
This year, the effort to secure its passage into law is being led by
ANHD, a coalition of 99 NYC-based affordable housing groups and Make the Road New York, one of the
city’s largest immigrant organizations, with over 7,000 active members.
Currently, NYC has
an existing law that accomplishes the precise aims of this introduction.
However, it is narrow in scope as it regulates only Single Room
Occupant (SRO) dwellings. This bill widens its scope of influence to multiple
dwellings, which would have a much broader impact.
While the proposal’s language isn’t text heavy on enforcement, the
teeth in it lies in its power to block corporate landlords who don’t disclosure
officer and owner date from filing nonpayment claims against the tenants, until
they disclose.
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