Three-Quarter Housing: Council Seeks to Address Blight [UPDATE: City Council Approves Legislation]

UPDATE: On February 1, 2017, the City Council voted 47-0 to approve four bills that would help protect tenants of three-quarter houses in New York City. During the vote, Council Member Donovan Richards called three-quarter houses a wide spread problem that would not be cured by the bills and that the City would need to track progress on the issue to determine future responses. Council Member Ritchie Torres called predatory operators of three-quarter houses the … <Read More>


Court finds City discriminated in housing project

Judge enjoined City’s redevelopment proposal for area straddling Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant. In December 2009, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s redevelopment proposal for the Broadway Triangle Urban Renewal Area in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The seventeen-block urban renewal area was created in 1989 and is primarily located within Community District 1, with a six-block portion within Community District 3. CD 1 is predominately white with a large Hasidic community, and CD … <Read More>


[UPDATE]: Council Approves Modified Plans for East New York Mixed Use Development

The development will bring 503 permanent housing units, both affordable and supportive, to East New York. On December 10, 2019, the City Council approved a land use application for the development of four mixed-use buildings to replace a three-story homeless shelter at 515 Blake Avenue in East New York, Brooklyn. The buildings will be a combination of residential use, commercial use, and community facilities. The land use application, submitted by the Department of Housing Preservation … <Read More>


HPD’s Lien for Shelter Upheld

HPD provided temporary housing for tenants and then filed liens against the tenants’ former landlords for expenses in providing the temporary housing. The Court of Appeals issued one opinion involving two separate cases concerning expenses incurred by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development for temporary shelter. In 1995 the Fire Department issued a vacate order affecting two tenants of a building in Brooklyn owned by David Rivera. HPD provided the tenants with temporary … <Read More>