By:Jason Scheer
The public forum, held on Thursday, Aug. 26, in the Echo Park community room, was hosted by Hempstead Town Councilman Edward A. Ambrosino (R-No. Valley Stream). The council addressed the problem of illegal housing, which has been at the forefront of public consciousness and legislative agendas lately.
Ambrosino announced that the fines for violating the town building code had been increased, meaning that landlords who rent illegally will be subject to stiff financial penalties. "Judgment for violating the code will no longer be a slap on the wrist, the cost of doing business," Ambrosino said.
Fellow Town Councilman James Darcy (R-Valley Stream) joined in explicating the town's position on illegal housing. He said that building inspectors can now issue summonses to landlords by mail as well as in person. Darcy explained that in the past, in order to officially issue a summons, the town had to track down a landlord. With many landlords living out of state and doing their best to evade the summonses, serving them proved extremely difficult. Also, when out-of-state landlords were finally located, town officials were unable to serve them summonses, because they were beyond Hempstead's jurisdiction.
Now, a building inspector will be able to post a summons on the door of an illegally rented house, and a copy will be sent by certified mail, requiring the landlord to appear in court by a certain date. This "nail and mail" technique will go a long way toward bringing those accountable before the courts.
"Once we have them served, now we have the landlord within the court's jurisdiction," Darcy said.
The problems don't end, however, once the landlord is in court. Darcy charges that many Nassau County judges have been far too lenient when dealing with illegal housing. He detailed a hypothetical case in which a landlord served with an illegal housing summons failed to show up for his court date.
"The defendant doesn't show up, and many of the judges in District Court say to themselves, This isn't too serious. I'm not going to issue a warrant for this guy's arrest just because he didn't show up for an illegal apartment ticket. I'll just send him a postcard," Darcy said.
Thus begins the game of catch-up, with landlords one step ahead of the town and, at least up to now, never setting foot in a courtroom. Furthermore, Darcy said, the illegal housing summonses are grouped with traffic tickets and other common infractions that are often viewed by judges as more important than illegal apartments. "Our summonses are like the bastard children of District Court," Darcy said. "They don't want to be bothered."
Ambrosino said that he has been working closely with Nassau County District Administrative Judge Anthony F. Marano to have a court designated for housing-code violations. However, the "nail and mail" legislation was needed before the county could establish such a court. "Without that bill, we wouldn't be bringing enough people into that court," Ambrosino said. "We couldn't justify dedicating judges. But you are going to see 10 times the amount of cases in that court now."
