New York City lawmakers are trying to crack down on squatter abuses in the city by creating a multi-agency task force that could evict squatters more quickly.
City Council Member Camilla Hanks (Democrat, Staten Island) The bill was submitted Last week, the city passed a bill that creates a task force made up of officials from the NYPD, Department of Buildings and Sanitation, and other agencies to quickly respond to complaints of squatters and evict them.
“Gangs and drug cartels are moving into their neighborhoods and homeowners are living in fear,” Hanks, a moderate Democrat, told The Washington Post. “Squatters are a growing concern in many neighborhoods, damaging property and disrupting the peace.”
New Yorkers have sounded the alarm in recent months over the horrific home squatters, prompting lawmakers to include language in the $237 billion state budget that would bar squatters from claiming tenant rights protections.
In Hanks’ district, which covers Staten Island’s North Shore, defaulters turned a vacant house on Livermore Street into a drug den, and in another district a resident was owed $17,000 in water bills because freeloaders were living in his late mother’s house.
According to the bill, the proposed task force would also work to ward off potential squatters by warning owners of abandoned buildings about their vulnerability to squatters and reminding owners of their obligation to maintain abandoned buildings.
Hanks said task force members will also help subtenants who are unknowingly renting from squatters find legal housing.
Anne Korczak, president of the New York Small Property Owners Association, gave some credit to the recent bill but said it needed to be more rigorous.
“Like the bills that came out of Albany, none of them go far enough,” she said, “but there’s definitely recognition that there’s a problem here, and that gives me some hope.”
Korczak called on the state Legislature to pass a bill introduced in March by state Sen. Mario Matera that would allow police to evict squatters based on homeowners’ sworn testimony, avoiding lengthy court battles.
The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
