MIGRATION OFFICE SETS SIGHTS

ON HOUSING CODE VIOLATIONS

            Tenants of buildings with serious housing code violations in predominantly immigrant neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Queens will have an ally to turn to for help through a program launched by the Catholic Migration Office of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

            The initial efforts of the tenant advocacy service for immigrants will focus on western Queens, including Corona, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Woodside and Sunnyside. Directing the program is Robert McCreanor, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Harvard Law School graduate, who joined the Catholic Migration Office staff in September.

            Mr. McCreanor will organize tenants in selected buildings where repairs are needed and represent them in housing court. He said word-of-mouth complaints by neighborhood residents, corroborated by official records of the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development on housing code violation, have identified the first buildings under study.

            The complaints could range from lack of hot water and heat to lead paint and no janitorial services, he said. Noting that the City has a backlog of some three million housing maintenance code violations, he said a number of the most concentrated areas of violations are located within the Brooklyn Diocese.

            “This figure does not reflect the number of violations that are not reported due to language barriers, lack of awareness regarding tenants rights, and fear of retaliation, which is especially common among immigrant communities,” he said.

            Mr. McCreanor pointed to other factors that contribute to the backlog:

            ---Today there are 240 City housing code inspectors; in the early l980s there were more than 700.

            ---The Litigation Bureau of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development has 17 attorneys to handle 8,000 cases annually. Three years ago, the number of lawyers was about double.

            Explaining why the Catholic Migration Office is now entering into this form of service, Mr. McCreanor said:  “When the City’s code enforcement resources are spread so thin, little help is available to those tenants who cannot afford private attorneys and who otherwise lack the ability to grapple with the arduous challenges of housing court.”

            The tenant advocacy program “will work to put pressure on landlords to correct violations,” he said.

            Before joining the staff of the Catholic Migration Office, Mr. McCreanor as volunteer was successful in remedying serious code violations in two buildings in western Queens.

            The tenant advocacy office is located at 51-27 Queens Blvd., Woodside, N.Y. 11377; phone: (718) 236-3000.

            The Catholic Migration Office director, Msgr. Ronald T. Marino, said: “We are pleased to enter this area of addressing the lives of our immigrant brothers and sisters. The basic dignity of persons certainly includes decent and legal housing for parents and children, no matter what country they come from.”

            Saying that “it is most appropriate” to expand the Catholic Migration Office’s service “to this area of immigrant life,” he said: “Our hope is that the Church can really help people to change their lives for the better.”

            The new program is partially funded by a grant from the Alive in Hope Foundation of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

                                                            # # # # #

9/27/05