Tenant Harassment against Immigrants and the Certification of No Harassment Program
Committee on Immigration | Committee on Housing and Buildings · April 20, 2026 · 1hr 7m
Source: https://hearinghearings.nyc/hearings/committee-on-immigration-tenant-harassment-against-immigrants-and-the-certification-of-no-harassment-program/
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDCrAAA-1WY

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(00:59:00) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDCrAAA-1WY&t=3540s

building, they just moved. They are scared to live there anymore. Like every single one does not have documents in that area. Everyone moved because they are afraid. Thank you. Thank you, CM Joseph, followed by CM Maloney, then Avilés.

Thank you. Good morning. A couple of questions. Said a couple of great things, right? So, the... to file the harassment complaint, the Certification of No Harassment, how long does it take? And what are the criteria for the buildings to get on? And if they do want to apply, language access and language barriers are usually one of the main things that our communities of immigrants face. Can you walk us through the process?

Certainly. Thank you. So, the Certification of No Harassment Program, as we are explaining, is a program of deterrence. The idea is that identifying buildings that have certain characteristics, and just in general, those characteristics include violations, emergency repair charges, the building is in an alternative enforcement program, or the Article 7-A program. There has been a vacate order, although not a fire vacate. I may have missed one. And a harassment finding. So, if there has been a finding of harassment against the property already in a court, those buildings are included. I am not the data person, so if you really want to drill down, I can bring the assistant commissioner back up. But the idea is that those characteristics are weighed against other similar buildings at the time that the list is run.

The buildings get on the list, the owners are notified that they are on the list, and that if they wish to do certain work, which is referred to as covered categories of work, when they put those applications in and apply for those permits from the Department of Buildings, they must get the sign-off from HPD that after an investigation, we found no evidence of harassment in the five years prior to their application.

So, I have a building in my district, 75 Lennox Road, which has been in the news. The management made sure that folks were walking around with security hats to intimidate the tenants, knocking on their doors. Then, within two days, ICE showed up at the building. So, this was a form of harassment, but I am sure the tenants in those buildings do not know about this program that you talk about, because that building has several violations, many violations. We did a walk-through, we met with the tenant association, and then we met with another building that said, "The minute they call 311, management is already at their door saying, 'Why are you calling 311?'"

I do not know if this building is on the list or not, Council Member, but we would be happy to talk with you further about this. If the building is on the list, talk to you about what next steps we can... Yeah, would love to do that along with their tenant association.

When HPD goes on site and they find, let's say, an ICE agent, what is the protocol? Again, as I mentioned to the chair, we have not yet had that happen, to my knowledge. But in any case where an inspector goes on site, or a field staff person really, because we do have other field staff that go to buildings as well, the protocol is to escalate that within the agency. So, certainly I would know if that has happened. We would take appropriate steps depending on the facts of what is actually happening in the building at that time. I think our inspectors are fairly good at identifying unusual situations, such as I would imagine that would be.

At 75 Lennox Road? I am talking about if they were to encounter ICE. And MOIA, what is in place for you to work with HPD and DOB if these situations occur? What resources are out there or community engagement for communities to know that these programs exist? Sometimes we do great work, but no one knows it exists.

Yeah, thank you for that. We have developed several pieces of guidance that we put out that include our MOIA one-pager, and that includes also information for New Yorkers. It is available in over 50 languages on tenant rights. We have collaborated with CCHR to put together "Immigrants in New York City: Human Rights at Work and at Housing." HPD also mentioned this other flyer that we put together with immigrants knowing your rights in housing. We also supported them in putting together a know-your-rights resource that they have available at their portal of information and rights that they have regardless of status, as well as the tenant bill of rights.

Is this information also located inside a housing court? I do not have the answer. I think that would be a great place to start as well. I would also say, and hearing that listing of all those documents reminded me, when our inspectors do any inspection, we give out a pamphlet about a host of housing issues. One of them is harassment. It is not currently specific to immigration harassment, but it gives them a referral to CCHR and provides some information on contacts on who they can go to if they feel they are being harassed, and the definition of what harassment is. That pamphlet is available in 10 languages. We have a QR code on the back for people to scan, and it says in the 10 languages, "If you want a copy of this in Spanish, scan the QR code," and it takes them to our website where they can... in a very coordinated way, working towards making this information...