Bldg Inspectors Shut Down Another NYC Deathtrap, Giving Occupants "Hours" Notice; Illegal Hostels Said To Cram Up To 16 Residents In Each Apartment

In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the New York Post reports:

• Talk about a hostel living environment! City officials raided and cleared a six-story Williamsburg building that contained two allegedly illegal hostels [] after an inspector found that the commercial building was not zoned for residential use.

• Twenty tenants, mostly in their 20s and early 30s, were told to gather their things and leave the building [...]. The Red Cross arrived at the scene shortly after 2 pm to provide emergency services including temporary housing for those with nowhere else to go. “We were told we had a few hours to get out,” said Adriana Lee, an employee at Loftstel, one of the two hostels in the building. “Some people have been living here a couple of years.”

• Two hostels, [...] managed 12 apartments total, which could house up to 16 people each with a capacity of 192 people. Tenants, many of them international students and interns at local hospitals and the United Nations, paid upwards of $1,100 per month to live in the communal setting.

• According to city officials, in addition to not having the proper permits, the building did not have a fire escape, sprinkler system or a secondary exit in case an emergency arises.

For more, see Hostel takeover in Williamsburg! (The city kicks out two allegedly illegal hotels inside a normal residential building).

(1) According to the story, the building is just one of what city officials estimate are dozens of hostels operating out of illegally converted warehouses, commercial buildings, and residential lofts. In some cases, the owner has launched the hostel, and in others, a tenant has sought to earn extra cash by converting his apartment into a mini-dormitory. The proliferation of hostels and illegal hotels has so concerned residents and community leaders in Brooklyn that state legislators are proposing four bills that would make it illegal to rent residential buildings on a nightly basis, the story states.