City program to spur building repairs falls flat

A program aimed at spurring improvements at some of the city’s most run-down buildings has failed to meet expectations, according to a report released today by the New York City Independent Budget Office. The initiative, known as the Alternative Enforcement Program, gives landlords a four-month grace period to correct violations at particularly deteriorated buildings, after which point the city is slated to reinspect and repair the property, later billing the landlord. But this program, which the budget office said “has been accounting for an increasingly large share of the city’s spending on housing code enforcement,” has affected less than half a percent of the city’s rental housing units, the report says. And while there has been a “gradual decrease in housing code violations in buildings targeted by the program,” the report found that just $4 million of the $23 million worth of repairs charged to building owners has been repaid. TRD