From left: David Satnick, the Continental, Mount Royal and the Pennington

(Updated 2:42 p.m., July 27) Politicians cheered Governor David Paterson for signing into law an illegal … [more]

While many tenant advocates and local officials have supported a recent bill aimed at shutting down illegal hotels,
hostel and single-room-occupancy hotel owners say it could unfairly
harm their businesses, according to the New York Times. Yesterday
afternoon approximately 150 demonstrators gathered in City Hall Park to
protest the legislation, which was passed by the State Assembly roughly
three weeks ago. Among its aims, the bill would bar residential units
from being rented for fewer than 30 days and clear up allegedly
ambiguous multiple dwelling laws that some say create loopholes for landlords.
The bill, which was also passed by the State Senate in late June, faces
approval from Governor David Paterson, although reports indicate the
governor is likely to veto. [NYT]

… [more]

From left: vrbo.com has a nightly rental on the market at M127; units are rented on a nightly basis at Dexter House; a NYC hostel listed on tripadvisor.com

Illegal hotel operators are about to get a rude awakening with four state bills that, if enacted, would make it clearly illegal to rent residential apartments on a nightly basis, and would beef up city enforcement of the issue. Internet travel sites have enabled an explosion of illegal hotels in the city, which activists say diminishes the city’s supply of affordable housing and erodes the quality of life for neighboring residents. The Westside Neighborhood Alliance has a database of 297 hotels it suspects are illegal — mainly rent-stabilized or single room occupancy apartments in Manhattan that the group claims are poorly maintained, crammed with hostel-style bunk beds and rented to hard-partying tourists. The Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement has cracked down on some of these hostels recently, primarily because of safety and over-crowding concerns since they present a fire hazard. Assemblyman Richard Gottfried introduced one of the four bills yesterday that would authorize the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development to shut down these hotels from an affordable housing standpoint, rather than the agency currently charged with enforcing these violations, the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal. “HPD just has a much larger enforcement budget and more man power,” said Michael Kaplan, Gottfried’s deputy chief of staff. “The city, as far as I can tell, has not been very supportive of the idea,” he added, so HPD would have to voluntarily take on this role. “The better solution would be to improve DHCR, not to try to shift work to HPD without providing any funding for new responsibilities,” said a city source, who requested anonymity. … [more]