Bloomberg signs beefed-up housing safety bill

Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed into law today a bill that aims to beef up housing safety oversight by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development by tweaking the requirements for distressed buildings’ inclusion in its Alternative Enforcement Program and identifying specific asthma triggers in dilapidated buildings. While the three-year-old program had originally targeted mostly smaller buildings, HPD will now be encouraged to bring larger properties under the program’s umbrella as well. In addition, owners of buildings that are part of the AEP will now be allowed to exit the program through a payment agreement, rather than have to pay in full before being cleared. In the past, the city had found that buildings were staying in the program long after the repair work was done because their owners had difficulty paying off the full amount immediately. TRD