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NYC Officials Launch Task Force To Combat Tenant Harassment

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- State and city officials have launched a joint task force to crack down on New York City landlords who harass tenants into vacating rent-regulated apartments.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Mayor Bill de Blasio joined others Thursday in announcing the creation of the Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force. They said the joint effort was a response to a rise in tenant complaints, perhaps triggered by the city's soaring real estate market.

"This is the landlord-tenant equivalent of climate change,'' Schneiderman said in a Brooklyn news conference. "If you treat your tenants like criminals, we will not hesitate to make you one.''

NYC Officials Launch Task Force To Combat Tenant Harassment

As 1010 WINS' Al Jones reported, Schneiderman said landlords even hire armed thugs to harass and intimidate tenants.

But one Crown Heights resident said the never-ending remodeling is just as bad.

"Collapsed ceilings in every room, cracks along the walls and ceilings, no running water from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on a daily basis," she said.

On Hart Street In Bushwick, demolition forced out Mario Bello and his family, who had been there 34 years, paying $302 a month.

"The old landlord tell us, 'you know you've gotta move because the neighborhood's changing. You can't live here. The neighborhood is changing.' I said, but I have 34 years living here," Bello told CBS2's Sonia Rincon.

Tenant harassment complaints in Housing Court have nearly doubled since 2011, officials said. The task force will target landlords and management companies suspected of using disruptive and dangerous renovation and construction projects to force out tenants.

Once vacated, an owner can automatically increase rents by 20 percent or eventually convert rent-regulated buildings into luxury condominiums.

Traditionally, city departments have used their enforcement powers to ensure compliance with building codes if owners neglect their buildings, while the state handles harassment and rent regulation. The new task force will coordinate those prosecutions, some of which could lead to criminal charges, officials said.

NYC Officials Launch Task Force To Combat Tenant Harassment

De Blasio, who has made the creation and preservation of affordable housing the centerpiece of his year's agenda, said the new task force will add muscle to the fight against tenant harassment and the city's efforts to protect rent-stabilized apartments.

The landlords "believe 'if we made life unacceptable they would leave,''' de Blasio said. "Our message today is you will get caught. All of these agencies are going to work together, you will get caught. There will be severe penalties. You're going to wish you had not violated law," de Blasio said.

The mayor called the initiative a game changer that will make the city take a look at the positives and negatives of gentrification, which is happening so fast.

"If we don't address the downside of gentrification, it will not be the same city any longer," de Blasio said.

The task force will build off the efforts of the state's Tenant Protection Unit, which has recaptured 37,000 unlawfully deregulated apartments, returning them to rent regulation status.

Tenants facing problems are asked to call 311.

(TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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