'Let this be a warning': Plainfield announces measures cracking down on bad landlords

PLAINFIELD – As the city copes with the fallout from the condemnation of a West 7th Street apartment which displaced about 300 residents, it has announced plans to prevent that situation from repeating.

Mayor Adrian Mapp announced an initiative during Monday's City Council meeting to implement immediately a yearly evaluation of all rental units in Plainfield.

Mapp also said new affordable housing should be a priority in the city which has seen an apartment boom in recent years.

Those initiatives were announced after the city issued a stop work order on repairs being made to the condemned West 7th Street apartment building because the proper construction permits were not obtained.

City officials said the landlord has been provided with a list of the many violations and was notified about the permits required to repair the building. The city, however, has not seen the issuance of the proper permits.

As a result, the city has not received a timetable for when the repairs will be completed. The landlord, Charles Aryeh of Cyclone Investment Group, has not responded to a request for comment.

City Corporation Counsel David Minchello said at Mapp's direction he filed a lawsuit in Superior Court to establish a rent receiver so any rents collected will be held by a third party to make repairs.

A preliminary conference with a judge was held last week and another conference is scheduled for Thursday, and after the judge will decide whether to establish a rent receiver, Minchello said.

The stop work order and lawsuit were among several actions the city is taking after about 300 residents, many from the Spanish-speaking community, have been displaced after the city condemned apartments on West 7th Street, as well as Kensington and Arlington avenues due to unsafe and unhealthy conditions.

Accountability and affordability in Plainfield

Mapp said every landlord, including landlords of single-family homes, multi-family houses, apartment buildings and the Plainfield Housing Authority, will be required to register as a rental property owner.

Annually all rental units will be inspected for code compliance and fire and safety requirements under an ordinance introduced at Monday's meeting. The ordinance includes an inspection fee per unit.

"We will not sit idly by while unscrupulous rental property owners abuse their tenants and create unsafe living conditions for their tenants. Let this be a warning to all owners of multi-family dwellings that their property will be inspected annually and you will be held accountable for the living conditions in all of your buildings," said Mapp, who urged landlords to get busy fixing and maintaining their properties, and not just collecting rent.

Mapp also set an ambitious goal for more affordable housing.

"Within the next five years we will prioritize the rehabilitation of existing buildings and the creation of an additional 1,000 units of affordable housing," the mayor said. "These rehabilitated or new housing units will be accomplished through public-private partnerships and will include the rehabilitation of units owned by the Plainfield Housing Authority."

More: Plainfield sacks city official who publicly demeaned displaced tenants

Mapp said the initiative also will include units the city acquires from delinquent property owners.

Mapp said his administration also will emphasize the development of newly constructed home ownership units.

"Our goal is to get every person who has a lease back into their homes safely. Our goal is to restore these dwelling units to habitable conditions so the residents can live safely, and their standard of living is what everyone would want for themselves," said Mapp, who acknowledged it may take longer than expected.

Potential class action lawsuit in federal court

Diane Smith, managing attorney for the Housing Justice Project at Seton Hall Law School's Center for Social Justice, told the City Council she has met with some of the displaced tenants and is working to provide some assistance.

"The owners and management companies must be held accountable for the negligence, mismanagement and what seems to be deliberate acts and omissions that resulted in hundreds of Plainfield families becoming disabled and homeless," Smith said. "While we hope we might to able to assist the tenants in reaching a fair resolution through good faith discussions and negotiations, we're prepared to do whatever needs to be done, including perhaps a class action filed in federal court which will hold the owners and management company and other involved accountable."

Plainfield Business Administrator Abby Levenson said city officials met privately last week with some tenants and a developer who has available housing units in the city, in an effort to match some displaced tenants with vacancies.

"Many people want to stay in Plainfield," she said, adding the mayor has had several meetings with developers to match displaced tenants with available units, close any gaps in rents and to see if developers are willing to overlook any issues with citizenship.

More redevelopment in Plainfield

The City Council authorized the Planning Board to undertake a study whether some apartment buildings qualify for condemnation areas of redevelopment. Among those properties are the apartment buildings at 501 West 7th St., 701 Kensington Ave. and 715 Arlington Ave. where tenants have already been displaced, as well as other properties along Plainfield and Park avenues.

Some other properties on Plainfield Avenue and West 7th Street also will be evaluated for redevelopment, but not condemned.

Councilman Sean McKenna opposed the redevelopment study."You have residents, some of whom lived in this building for 30 years. It's home, it's their community and they have a hope of going back in there, and we all know with lumping all these properties in together this is going to have a redevelopment plan and you're going to have properties that get condemned," McKenna said.

With redevelopment, Levenson said, the city has leverage in future development, sales and rentals.

Anyone who enters into a redevelopment agreement with the city will be asked to pay $2,500 to $5,000 into a fund so relocation expenses are supplemented by developers, not just the city, she said.

"We need funding for landlords who don't hold up to their end of the bargain," Levenson said at Monday's meeting.

The Council authorized more than $50,000, including about $30,000 in payroll, for relocation expenses for the West 7th Street, Kensington and Arlington avenues residents.

McKenna expressed a worry the annual relocation assessment would be passed on to renters.

Councilman Steve Hockaday said the city needs to be aggressive with negligent landlords and make sure they make repairs as soon as possible.

He said condemnation may not be the best strategy, but the city has limited options in dealing with a landlord that is so deficient.

"The city needs to be able to have teeth, something that forces compliance," he said, adding that while some may view eminent domain and condemnation as a harsh thing, he sees it as a way to force a landlord's hand.

Email: srussell@gannettnj.com

Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today

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