BLIND EYE TO DEATHTRAPS
Hizzoner’s storm plan: Just evacuate illegal basement apartments
Mayor de Blasio announced on Friday that going forward, the city will evacuate illegal basement apartments in flood emergencies — rather than crack down on them ahead of time.
And even in the event of emergency evacuations, he said, city officials will not evict tenants from those illegal dwellings.
The plan, unveiled at a press briefing, effectively turns a blind eye to the hazardous housing and comes after at least 13 people — including 11 in basement apartments — were killed in flash flooding across the city brought on by the remnants of Hurricane Ida Wednesday night.
The city has confirmed that five of the six basement apartments where people died were illegal.
At the briefing, de Blasio acknowledged that having an “absolute accounting” of the city’s estimated 50,000-plus illegal basement apartments — many of which potentially lack proper emergency exits — was “not something we thought of previously.”
The mayor — under fire for failing to prepare for the storm — estimated that “at least 100,000 people — and there’s a strong possibility there’s a lot more — are living in those apartments.”
Noting that such dwellings are often used by illegal immigrants, de Blasio expressed more concern for their fear of coming forward to authorities than for their safety in the often-hazardous spaces.
“So many people who end up in the illegal basements are fearful to communicate, for fear they might be evicted or, worse in their mind, deported,” he said. “If we communicate, we can really convince people
that they will not be evicted, that they will not be put in any harm because of their documentation status, at least we have the opportunity then to get people to safety when a situation like this occurs.”
“We need places for people to live,” he added. “Obviously, we need them to be safe.”
De Blasio admitted that a pilot program by his administration to bring illegal basement apartments up to code largely failed because it was “very difficult, physically” and “very costly” to the property owners.
“So we have to figure out a way forward,” he said. “I don’t think it’s realistic to say, ‘Let’s just have no one live in them,’ because I don’t know where all those folks are going to end up who need a place to live.”
De Blasio said city officials could issue “travel bans” as much as a day before expected flooding, ordering people to “leave the streets, get out of subways, etc., immediately.”
Hizzoner said he was also creating an Extreme Weather Response Task Force to come up with other recommendations in 30 days.
NYPD sources ridiculed de Blasio’s plan to have cops and other emergency workers go door-to-door to evacuate basement apartments.
“There are not enough first responders to handle 50,000 illegal apartments and do their regular duties, plus the extra duties the storm will bring,” a Manhattan cop said. Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens) blasted de Blasio for “condoning illegal apartments,” saying his plan “set a dangerous precedent.”
Meanwhile, GOP mayoral nominee Curtis Sliwa pledged to crack
down on the owners of the unlawful dwellings, vowing to issue citations to landlords who profit off the units.
Sliwa also said he’d give more resources to the Department of Environmental Protection to clean out storm drains, as he reached his arm deep into one to scoop out waste.
Democratic mayoral candidate Eric Adams toured clogged catch basins Thursday but did not dip down into the gunk to clean them out.