NYC Public Advocate releases 2023 "Worst Landlord Watchlist"
NEW YORK - New York Public Advocate Jumaane Williams' office has released its annual "Worst Landlord Watchlist."
The Public Advocate said the list shines a spotlight on and "shames the most egregiously negligent property owners in the city."
The criteria for the list is based on "the number of widespread, persistent, dangerous housing violations" in the landlords' buildings, including heat and hot water outages, infestations of rodents, and other issues like "deteriorating infrastructure."
"The impact of unchecked safety and code violations was made clear earlier this week, as a portion of a Bronx residential building collapsed," the public advocate's office wrote.
The building that partially collapsed is owned by a shell company -- 1915 Realty LLC. In a 2020 report, an engineer who warned that the façade was unsafe listed the names of people from the company in his paperwork, listing the owner as a Jay Zanger. That same name was listed as the 81st worst landlord in the city by the public advocate last year.
This year, Jacob Zanger is listed as 50th worst. The public advocate said it's likely the same person and the two lists connected the names to several of the same properties.
The #1 "worst landlord," according to the public advocate, is the same person who topped last year's list: Jonathan Santana. Santana is the the head officer for Daniel Ohebshalom, "an infamous owner with neglected, dilapidated buildings across the city," according to the public advocate.
The public advocate says Santana and Ohebshalom set a record with 3,293 open violations across 306 buildings. But, he said that naming them in last year's report has brought increased legal scrutiny to them, and they have since settled three lawsuits totaling $4.2 million.
"Johnathan Santana and Daniel Ohebshalom may be shameless in their negligence and predatory practices, as is clear in their record violations, but it's clear that spotlighting and shaming them and other worst landlords in the city can have meaningful impact," Williams said. "Through tenant organizing, legal battles, and legislative initiatives, we can hold bad actors to account and deliver relief for New Yorkers facing unlivable conditions and declining unaffordable rents. We need to ensure other landlords on the list that accountability and change go beyond the top spot to landlords throughout the list and the city."