NY may pass bill to stamp out illegal hotels

alternate textGottfried and Dexter House, an alleged illegal hotel The Real Deal uncovered

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The state legislature may pass a bill that would sharpen the language for laws relating to transient and permanent housing, cracking down on the so-called illegal hotels that flourish on the Upper West Side,

the West Side Spirit reported. The Democrat-supported bill — which
already passed in the House — would affect the many landlords who own
buildings with single room occupancy units and prefer to rent them out
to tourists rather than low-income New Yorkers. The bill’s sponsor,
Assemblyman Richard Gottfried, believes that “it’s harassment and
dangerous for tenants to share their apartment buildings with
transients trooping in and out at all hours,” he told the West Side Spirit. The Real Deal reported last February that Cardinal Investments, the developer of M127 in Murray Hill, illegally listed its unsold apartments on its website. The
city has unsuccessfully tried to rein in these hotels in the past, sometimes
through building code violations. [West Side Spirit]