Data Over Rhetoric: A Closer Look at Housing Violations, Evictions and Complaints

In October 2018, the Regional Plan Association (RPA) published The High Cost of Bad Landlords, finding that eviction activity and housing code violations were not evenly distributed across the city. The report also made an important point: most property owners who own and maintain residential buildings are responsible owners, and most follow the law and provide quality housing in return for rent.

In recent months, the city’s politics have again elevated the idea of “bad landlords,” including through public hearings and renewed attention to tenant complaints and enforcement. But this framing raises a basic question that must be answered before any serious policy response can follow: what does it mean, empirically, to call a property owner—or, more precisely, a building— “bad,” and how common is that harm?

With those questions in mind, REBNY has updated the RPA’s 2018 report through the current day to provide New Yorkers with data to inform important policy discussions.

What the data shows:

We analyze 761,352 residential buildings at the tax-lot level (BBL) and measure (i) executed evictions, (ii) HPD housing code violations, and (iii) housing-related 311 complaints using recent NYC public data.

The 2018 RPA report relied on eviction filings, while this refresh uses executed evictions. Also, because buildings differ substantially in size and context, we added an analysis lens on evaluating each building relative to comparable buildings in the same borough and size category, allowing the analysis to further highlight where the highest concentrations of evictions, violations, and housing complaints occur.

The results are clear:

• 1% of the 761,352 buildings account for 58% of executed evictions over the past 24 months.

• 5% account for 92% of executed evictions.

• ~10% account for 97% of executed evictions.

• The same ~10% account for 88% of HPD violations and 94% of HPD Class C (most severe) violations in the same 24-month window.

• 89% of the 761,352 buildings have no Class C violations over the past 24 months.

• In the multifamily universe of 91,918 buildings only, 10% of buildings account for 80% of evictions and 50% of violations over the past 24 months

Why it matters:

Understanding where evictions, violations, and complaints are concentrated can be used to make government operations and public policy more efficient and effective. Rather than paint property owners with a broad brush, policymakers can use data to target inspections and enforcement activities at buildings and neighborhoods where there are high concentrations of evictions, code violations, and complaints. Similarly, programs to provide support for property owners or to facilitate change in ownership of buildings with challenges can be more carefully tailored to address buildings most in need of support.