“Worst Landlords” List Smears People Actually Fixing Buildings

It’s not the worst landlords list. It’s the worst landlords list.

What makes this annual hit piece by Public Advocate Jumaane Williams so bad? To begin with, not everyone on the list is a landlord.

Some of them are receivers — people appointed by a judge to rescue violation-ridden buildings. People like Joe Cafiero.

This is supposed to be a list of villains, but Cafiero is anything but. He arrives at a property with a pile of money from the lender, which is trying to protect its collateral, gets to know the residents and spends what it takes to fix what’s broken.

“I walk every building,” he said. “Tenants know my name. They have my cell number. They love me. We’re doing what the owner didn’t do. We’re making it habitable again.”

When Cafiero is handed control of a building, it might have six or eight violations per unit. Violations are the basis of the public advocate’s notorious list. But instead of shaming the owner who did not fix the problems, Williams’ list blames people trying to do exactly that.

The list deemed Cafiero the landlord of 19 distressed buildings. A random check of one, 1202 Spofford Avenue in the Bronx, showed it actually belonged to Isaac Kassirer, who famously assembled a huge rent-stabilized portfolio only to see the 2019 rent reform destroy his business plan.

The building’s $14.7 million mortgage included two other buildings, both assigned to Cafiero by a judge. The three Kassirer properties total 106 units and 961 HPD violations, which Williams’ list laid at the feet of Cafiero. Rather than using ACRIS, the city’s property records database, the public advocate linked to JustFix.org, which partners with tenant organizing groups.

Distress rising

As various factors pushed apartment buildings into financial straits, business skyrocketed for Cafiero, who has been at his firm, Cremac, since 1994.

“We take over two to four buildings a week,” he said. “Last year it was one every month, or every other month.”

As a result, his ranking on the worst list of landlords shot up. No good deed goes unpunished.

“I was [No.] 24 last year; I’m up to 4,” he said. “It’s only because the volume of foreclosures has increased.”

That, and the fact that the public advocate does not bother to differentiate between landlords and receivers.

Sometimes, as in the case of distinguished former judge Ariel Belen, No. 34 on the list, clicking through to the associated properties shows he is a receiver, not the owner. Williams apparently did not even do that rudimentary check.

The public advocate’s staff goes through the motions of informing people in advance that they will make the list, but does not appear to listen to feedback.

“They sent us a letter about two months ago,” Cafiero said. “I replied, told them we don’t own [the buildings], that we’re under receiver orders, but I guess it went ignored.”

Protests ignored

Cafiero said he even called the public advocate several times before the “worst landlords” list was released. But it generates more publicity than anything else the powerless office does, so each public advocate picks it up from the previous one. Before Jumaane Williams, there was Letitia James and the list’s creator, Bill de Blasio.

“I’m a New Yorker, I get it,” Cafiero, a St. John’s graduate, said of Williams. “He’s grandstanding.”

When the list was released, media outlets started calling Cafiero, but no real estate publications did. They know better. The Real Deal stopped covering the list years ago because it unfairly included owners who had just purchased troubled buildings and were in the process of fixing them up.

Now it is increasingly roping in receivers because rent-stabilized buildings have been hit by a perfect storm:

the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which virtually banned deregulation and severely limited rent increases for improvements;
operating expenses outpacing rent increases by the Rent Guidelines Board;
rising interest rates starting in March 2022; and
a decline in rent collection triggered by the pandemic.

The “worst landlords” list is supposed to shame owners who squeeze profits from their buildings by not spending enough on maintenance. But it does not differentiate between them and owners who try hard to maintain properties, even if they lose money in the process.

Because of the rent laws, regulations and the dysfunction of housing court, the ownership costs of fully rent-stabilized buildings often exceed their revenue. Even mission-driven nonprofits that don’t have to pay property tax are struggling at some properties.

“I’ve literally lost $1.5 million for the honor of being a ‘worst landlord,’” one member of the list said. “If I had to have the indignity of being on the list, I’d at least want to make a buck.”