"So far, no mayor has been willing, let alone able, to reform the bureaucracy that causes apartments to fail inspection for the most infuriating reasons. As one landlord tweeted this week, I've had a unit fail because of a single screw missing in a 4 screw window guard. The super was right there, proper tools, corrected the issue in 5 minutes. Nope, failed. Next available appointment for inspection was a month later."
"The Department of Homeless Services claims that most reinspections occur within 72 hours. If that's true, it must be because landlords who are asked to wait longer say no thanks and rent to someone without a voucher. Regardless, an inspector should never reject an apartment because of a missing screw that the superintendent replaced on the spot. In another case, a unit failed inspection because a 79-cent outlet cover was cracked. Can you imagine? Back to the homeless shelter, people, this apartment is unsafe!"
"They are not unsafe dwellings, of course. They are perfectly legal for tenants without vouchers to rent, but not for tenants with vouchers. Think about that. The city discriminates against voucher holders which is illegal for landlords. This results in situations where a homeless mother with a 4-year-old kid finds a place she wants, and the landlord is willing to rent it to her, but cannot because the second bedroom is one floor plank short of 80 square feet."
"Why not let the tenant sign a waiver allowing her to move into the apartment despite the 79-square-foot bedroom or the cracked, 79-cent outlet cover? These are not hazardous conditions. I'm sure Mamdani would agree. But that doesn't mean, if elected, that he will hire a DHS commissioner capable of fixing it and that he will hold the commissioner's feet to the fire. The other problem with being mayor is that a thousand other fires"
Zohran Mamdani supports more rental vouchers, but mayoral success requires administrative skill, attention to detail, and persistence to reform inspection bureaucracy. Inspections routinely fail units for trivial issues like a missing screw or a cracked 79-cent outlet cover, triggering long delays for reinspection. The Department of Homeless Services claims quick reinspections, yet landlords often decline to wait and rent without vouchers. These rules make apartments legal for non-voucher tenants but effectively inaccessible to voucher holders, producing discriminatory outcomes and forcing some people to return to shelters despite otherwise acceptable units. Strong management and accountability at DHS would be required to fix this.
Read at therealdeal.com
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