LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — Ceilings only 4-1/2 feet off the ground discovered in Lower East Side apartment buildings have spurred a new city campaign to warn Lower East Siders of such illegal conversions this week, according to the Department of Buildings.
Buildings Commissioner Melanie E. La Rocca and Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro launched a campaign to hand out thousands of flyers in Lower East Side subway stations, warning residents of the tiny units after 4-1/2-foot ceilings were discovered at Henry and Rutgers streets, the department announced Monday.
“The Lower East Side has long been a historic hub for new immigrant communities coming to our City, and the tenants living there deserve safe and legal housing for themselves and their families,” La Rocca said in a statement.
She said the department is “committed to rooting out dangerous firetraps” and slapping landlords with enforcement actions.
In August, city inspectors discovered the mini-apartments, where condo owners had built half-floors to split the condos into multiple units.
The tiny units did not have proper exits, windows, ventilation and fire safety systems, though landlords did add one safety feature: bubble wrap taped to ceilings for when tenants hit their heads on them. The apartments were moved out of the units and the condo owners fined hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Illegal conversions pose life-threatening risks to both residents and our members who respond to fires in these buildings,” Fire Commissioner Nigro said. “Through this critical outreach, FDNY and the Department of Buildings are educating New Yorkers about the grave dangers these conversions create and how critical a working smoke alarm and safe, legal egress are to surviving a fire.”
Council members Margaret Chin and Carlina Rivera, who represent parts of the Lower East Side, applauded the new informational campaign.
Officials from the FDNY and DOB will be handing out flyers at the East Broadway and Delancey Street/Essex Street stations, New York Public Library’s Seward Park branch and Captain Jacob Joseph Playground.
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