New York City squatters would be tracked and the properties they take over would be listed in an online database under a new City Council bill that would also criminalize freeloading in the Big Apple.
City Councilwoman Susan Zhuang introduced the bill Thursday, calling for a quarterly report on squatter properties by the NYPD and other city agencies.
“We cannot allow squatters to be above the law,” Zhuang said as she called for squatting to be classified as an illegal act.
The quarterly report would be posted online with information including the addresses of known squatter houses and the number of days the property has been under squatter control. It would also include when the NYPD or city officials became aware of the squatters and any response to those complaints.
Zhuang said during a City Council meeting she’s pushing the bill because the squatting crisis has been a problem in her southern Brooklyn district.
“In my district, a union worker was forced to continue paying thousands of dollars for a mortgage for a home he and his hospitalized wife cannot live in,” Zhuang said. “The house had been burnt down four times by a squatter who also caused a lot of other issues in the neighborhood.”
“People are afraid to even take a vacation, and when they come back their home will be occupied by someone else,” Zhuang went on.
“When the squatting gets reported its classified as a landlord and tenant issue, which gets directly passed to housing court. There is insufficient data about squatting.”
