WPCNR MR. AND MRS. AND MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. December 15, 2007: Well it has been two weeks since the 208 West Post Road Fire that has sent over 50 persons into the street, and that city agencies and the Red Cross have had to house. The city has confirmed to WPCNR that 1.) The 208 West Post Road building was over occupied. 2.) the owners were cited in the past, the last time in April, 2007. 3.) There were not any active violations on the property at the time of the fire but there has been in the past. 4.) The building did not have a sprinkler system, but the owner, if they rebuild will have to install a sprinkler system. 5.) The city, as a result of the fire is conducting an ongoing series of meetings to "prevent this from happening again."

Last Tuesday, the Building, the Law and Public Safety Departments met to discuss the issue of overcrowded, among other things, illegal housing. Further meetings will occur before anything is decided.

WPCNR, in light of the new "freedom of information obtainment" granted by the Patriot Act for security reasons, has come up with some ideas in the survey at the right, which could possibly rein in the slumlords who allow properties to exceed code occupation limits set by the state, among other things.

What does Mr. and Mrs. and Ms. White Plains think? And feel free to drop us a line with your own suggestions. Click some of the enforcement ideas that appeal to you.

The next overcrowded house that goes up -- well, they may not be fortunate to escape with their lives. 

Here's an explanation of each one.

1. Fire Survey Multi-Family Homes Quarterly: Exactly what it says. Currently fire department does conduct safety inspections...but perhaps not often enough. Stepping up the inspections on a floating basis at least once or twice each quarter would prevent many violations from being entrenched. And pile up the court dockets which would pile up the ante for future measures against the slumlords. Fire Bureau personpower would be taxed BUT this is one way of dealing with the problem without setting up or legislating new policies. (The city told me that "The fire Department does a yearly inspection. We wouldn't arbitrarily try to gain access again unless we had suspicion of illegal occupancy." I say, why not?  What do YOU say?

2.Audit Survey Water and Electric Bills of All Multi-Family Home Owners for Irregularity. This could pinpoint overcrowding based on spiking electric or water usages. It could highlight the big gulpers and frequent flushers, and electric heater users. Match up the high spikes with the addresses that happen to be multi-families and you may have a good handle on where to concentrate investigations.

3. Require All-Resident Names in Buldings owned by Multi-Family Owners on a monthly basis to be filed with the Building Department. This is so obvious. This will pile up the paper work on the Slumlords, and give the Building Department another reason to verify the list. Remember this is not targeting residents it is designed to isolate persons who have been conducting slum operations for years.

4. Begin a Tenant Complaint Anonymous Hotline.  This is also obvious. If the tenants hate their conditions, they should call it. If they are afraid to be discovered in the conditions, then they won't call. Nonetheless if they have nothing to hide, it should go a long way towards cleaning up the slumhouses.

5. In Winter, Summer make Heat and Overheating Inspections for Health Reasons. (Self-explanatory.)

6. Compare School Bus Dropoffs and children's addresses to Identify Crowded Homes. This has been suggested for years. The only reason I can think why it has been utilized as a tool by the city and school district is that they do not want to. The pickup rosters exist.

7. Require new residents when they go to live in Multi-Family Buildings to register with the Building Department/City. This way the city can monitor Multi Family activity.

 8. Audit cable and sattellite television, radio hookups billings by multi-family address. These should be easily obtainable from the cable licensees.

9. Audit Telephone/Cellphone bills issued to multi-family addresses. Police, building department can run  multi-family addresses against the bill addresses. (This could also apply to car registrations, too.)

10. Require Multi-Family Homes to Be Licensed annually under the provision that they guarantee to uphold the codes and if they do not they are fined automatically $250,000.  If they do not want to license they can sell the property. This takes the courts out of it. (Just holding a hearing on a law like this would easily identify all slum lords in the city, because they would fight it to the death. Meanwhile, police, fire departments could take notes and inspect their homes the next day.

11. Audit Housing Agencies who Aid in placing persons in housing as to where the housing-aided are placed, and keep tallies per house they are placed. (If you know what the occupancy levels are, you can tell when a house goes out of compliance. it's all about keeping numbers.)

12. Eminent Domain Multi-Family Owners on Third Offense. Depriving the Slumlord of his golden goose is something the city has for decades been very reluctant to do. Why?