Article By Vivan Riffelmacher A Founding Member of the West Side Neighborhood Alliance



Imagine that every weekend your home is invaded by strangers. The room next to yours is occupied by crowds of backpackers; kids in their late teens and 20's on their own in New York city, partying loudly all night. Imagine they have no keys so when they (or their friends) need entrance at midnight, two, three in the morning, they hammer on the door until you wake up and crawl out of bed to let them. Imagine your landlord shrugs when you complain, "You don't like it? Leave!" The police can do nothing; your landlord's actions are a civil issue, not a crime. Complaints made to the Mayor's office elicit no response.



"How can this happen?" you ask. Yet for years in residential buildings all over the city, Illegal Hotels and Youth Hostels have been a way for landlords to make quick cash while they drive out their rent-stabilized tenants. Tenants are cut adrift, often winding up homeless, and hundreds of affordable housing units are lost at a time when the need for such housing is at a crisis.



In June 2005 the New York City Law Department filed a lawsuit against the owners and managers of Dexter House, a residential SRO on West 86th street, for running the building commercially as a youth hostel advertised on the Internet. It was the first time the City of New York had brought such a case, and a vital chance to set legal precedent on the issue.


Two years later with our case still pending in court, it is clear Illegal Hotels have spread beyond SRO's to apartment buildings and an entire industry of "short term housing" now threatens the future of residential neighborhoods in Manhattan. A task force of elected officials has received complaints from over 100 residential buildings where Illegal Hotels are taking residential space away from real tenants.

Where are tourist rentals legal? Check the Certificate of Occupancy on file for your building at NYC Department of Buildings. Look it up on the Dept of Buildings website or visit their offices at 280 Broadway. Tourists rentals are illegal in Type "A" Residential buildings. Buildings such as The Chelsea Hotel are "A/B" or "mixed use" and both commercial and residential rentals are allowed. Many buildings listed as "Hotels" under the City Finance Codes are still residential buildings. An "H-6" Hotel, for example is strictly residential. Zoning is also an important factor. On side streets not zoned for commercial or mixed use, the hotel is a zoning violation.

Keeping the issue in the public eye, West Side Neighborhood Alliance, working with Housing Conservation Coordinators and West Side SRO Law Project, has organized town hall meetings and protest rallies. A letter writing campaign is now underway to support Intro 534 a bill introduced by Council Member Gale Brewer.

Whether or not Illegal Hotels are a problem in your building we'll need everyone's help to protect the integrity of residential neighborhoods in New York. Tourist dollars and corporate housing may be a good source of revenue for the City But is fatal to affordable housing.

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