Council Member Lee asks about bad landlords proposing projects

Okay, sorry, Chair, I just have one last question, if that's okay.

And do you guys factor in, when you're looking at the proposals that you get, if there's history of bad landlords that are proposing these projects?

Because I actually have examples of that in my district, where there are proposals being made, but the folks that are proposing it,

haven't been good landlords with what they have now, right?

And so I don't necessarily want to be in a position to say, yes, we need housing, but I don't want to reward bad behavior as well.

And so what are some of the stopgap measures that are there in terms of how we can, you know, prevent that?

Thank you for your question.

So typically at the City Planning Commission, when we're reviewing an application, we are primarily making sure that the underlying zoning is appropriate for the community.

Should the owner, landlord, anybody change over time, for instance, right?

We need to make sure that it's a solid rationale for the community.

That being said, we certainly have testimony from the public and are able to ensure that we're asking questions when it comes to who the potential operators are.

But we also recognize that sometimes operators change over time.

And so what's most important is making sure that the underlying.

zoning makes sense for that neighborhood.

That being said, there are certainly other tools in the city to ensure that landlords are good actors, as well as taking action against those landlords who are not.

And so I'll certainly turn it to my colleagues at HPD to speak to that.

Yeah, I think that we take enforcement of tenants'rights and tenant conditions really seriously, and I think we're rolling out a lot of new programs in this administration.

I think my commissioner, Commissioner Levy, talks about putting bad landlords out of business, and I think she's serious when she says that.

And we're recently launching the Fix the City initiative, which is really supposed to tackle these longstanding bad landlords,

recognizing there are good landlords out there, that not all landlords are bad actors, but for those that are bad actors, we do want to enforce against them.

And if there are folks in your community that we should know about, we should connect.

Actually, Commissioner Levy was very helpful, and she knew exactly who I was talking about when I brought her up.

She knows all of them.

Yes.

Yeah.

Thank you, Councilmember.