NYC NOW - February 2, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: February 2, 2024

Two years after Felix DeJesus, from Haledon, New Jersey, went missing following his release from police custody, his family continues to seek answers. Meanwhile, accordion style, “open gangway” trains have started operating on New York City subway tracks. Finally, thousands of New York City residents live in illegal and dangerous basement apartments. Governor Hochul is pushing a plan to allow New York City to create an amnesty program for landlords who bring their basement dwellings up to code. However, it’s being delayed by a stalemate in Albany. WNYC’s Michael Hill sits with Albany reporter Jon Campbell and housing reporter David Brand who have followed the story.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Friday, February 2nd. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. It's been two years since 41-year-old Felix DeHeses went missing after being taken into police custody outside of Patterson, New Jersey, Bodega. On February 2nd of 2022, police responded to a call that DeHesus was harassing a woman, Officers put DeHesus in a squad car but did not arrest him. Instead, police say they dropped him at a park several blocks away.

His brother Giovanni DeHesu says they're still calling hospitals and talking to people in the neighborhood to try to find Felix. We keep going around the spots, you know, asking people questions, but nothing had came up yet. Giovanni DeHasu says he's frustrated by the lack of updates in the case. The police in Hallad in New Jersey nearby where Felix lived are leading the missing person. case. There's a new type of subway car on the tracks in New York City. They're known as open gangway trains. Instead of doors between the cars, they have accordion-style links like the MTA's longer buses. They're running on the seed line, and riders got a chance to see them yesterday, as did Governor Hokel and MTA brass. Lana Deering lives in Upper Manhattan, and she

notes it solves a problem many riders have faced. Don't mean to be rude, but sometimes it can smell, and so you have to hop off and go to the next one, and you're worried that you won't get over there in time. So it's nice that you can just cruise on through. The new trains are limited to local tracks. Last week, WNYC obtained a memo showing that the MTA cannot safely run them on the express lines. 42 with light rain. Expect more rain later today, maybe some sunshine late afternoon, a high of 44,

then tomorrow and Sunday sunny and temperatures, high temperatures, low to mid-40s. Stay close. There's more after the break. On WNYCA, Michael Hill, thousands of New York City residents live in illegal basement apartments that are not up to safety standards. The consequences can be lethal. Just look back to Hurricane Ida in 2021 when at least 11 people drowned in basements. Now Governor Kathy Hochle is pushing a plan to allow New York City to create an amnesty program for landlords who bring their basement dwellings up to code. but it's already getting caught up in a long-running Albany's stalemate on housing policy. Joining us to discuss are WNYC's David Bradd, who covers housing, and John Campbell, who covers Albany.

David, let's start with you. Just how many New Yorkers are living in these illegal basement apartments? Well, no one really knows, and that's part of the problem here. But we do know that there are a lot of people who call these basement apartments home. A few years ago, the organization Pratt Center for Community Development, identified 380,000 small properties in New York City. That's one in three family homes that have basements. Pratt's part of a coalition of advocacy group called the base campaign.

And they say there could be up to a half million people living in these basement and cellar units. I recently visited Hollis. It's a neighborhood in Eastern Queens. And I met with Rima Begham. She's an organizer with the base campaign. And she's also a homeowner over there. and she and her family have a house in Hollis. They rent out the basement to tenants.

I asked her how common that is in the area. So when you look around like this block, how many do you think have basement tenants? I think all of them. Yeah. Maybe if you have family, you know, like actual bloodline family, but many are renting out to people that they don't know, community members, maybe that got connected to them.

She says her family found the tenants by posting flyers in local Bangladeshi businesses. they charge pretty affordable rent. And she says that's common. Basement rents are usually a lot cheaper than most other apartments. That makes it a crucial source of affordable housing in New York City.

Right now, that source of housing is in the shadows. It's also an important source of income for homeowners. So, David, what kind of safety measures do basement apartments need to bring them up to code? Well, you know, one note here with this state proposal from Governor Hokel,

it's backed by a lot of state lawmakers who have introduced legislation in the past few years, what they're doing wouldn't immediately legalize basement and cellar apartments in New York City. What it will do is give New York City the power to create its own legalization program and set safety standards. And that's really important after Hurricane Ida two years ago

where 11 people drowned in their basement apartments of September 2021. So safety standards would be things like two, quote, means of egress, basically multiple ways to get out of an apartment safely and quickly, windows to be a certain size, determining whether a basement is located in a floodplain, and if it's possible to floodproof that somehow, to separate the mechanical equipment like boilers and hot water heaters from the rest of the living area. Right now, a lot of basements are safe and comply with those types of rules, but they're still

illegal under the current system. And that can also make it extremely expensive to convert them to meet existing rules. And it could be almost impossible to make a legal basement in a two-family home based on state law. And it's never legal to turn a seller into apartments in a two-family home. And we use those terms interchangeably, basement and seller. But for the purest out there, a basement's a room that's 50% above curb level and a seller is the opposite, 50% below. John, this is not the first time Governor Hokel has pushed a plan for basement apartments. What happened last year? And is this year going to be any different? Michael, you're right. The governor included a vision on this proposal as part of her broader housing plan last year.

But that larger housing plan didn't go anywhere at all. The legislature didn't like that it imposed these growth mandates on local governments. And the governor didn't like that lawmakers were pushing for these greater eviction protections for 10. It's a measure that we call good cause eviction. So it all ended in this big stalemate, and that stalemate continues on to this day. And as to what's different this year, there's really only one key thing. It's an election year for state lawmakers. And they want to be able to say they did something on housing this year. And the governor has scaled back her broader housing plan, too, whether her basement apartment

proposal gets through the legislature. That'll depend on whether they can reach some sort of comprehensive. on all of the other housing policy. And John, what the lawmakers saying about the government's proposal? I was in the Capitol this week, and I asked a bunch of them about the governor's basement plan, and there were definitely some concerns. For one, Andre Stewart Cousin, she's the Senate Majority Leader. She says it's got to be negotiated as part of a larger housing package, and she doesn't

want to do the basement plan piecemeal without tenant protections. And Joe Adabo, he's a senator for Queens. He brought up the ripple effects, if you convert, say hundreds or even thousands of basements, then you need inspectors to inspect those in basements, then you need money to hire inspectors and on and on and on. I asked Governor Hockel about the plan too, and she says she kept her proposal simple because she just wants to get the ball rolling on basement apartments. It's not complicated, but what happens is for too many reasons, people just throw in all these

obstacles and then nothing happens. So I want to work with the legislature to identify the barriers. Are they absolutely essential for the protection of life and safety? And short of that, let's just open this up. So now the negotiations begin. They have until the end of March to pass a final budget. David, is this going to help with the city's housing crunch? Well, it's probably not going to add much new housing to New York City because people are already living in these basement apartments.

Like we said, there could be hundreds of thousands of people already inhabiting these units. So, you know, it will be important. It could add some, like if people are, you know, not currently renting out basements because they don't know about the rules or they don't want to get in trouble or they don't know if their units are safe. So there's potential for that. But I think more importantly, it's going to create these safety standards and it would bring a lot of these existing apartments out of the shadows. And in Hockel's proposal and some of the proposals we've seen from other state lawmakers, it would also provide tenants with some of the same protections that renters and legal apartments have. right now, they don't have those protections. And, you know, they could be evicted immediately if a city agency comes and issues a vacate order, saying this is not a safe unit. And then basically become homeless. It would also give homeowners, like we said, another source of legal income.

WNYC's John Campbell and David Brand. Thank you both for joining us. Thank you. Thanks, Michael. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to be sure to. catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.