 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
[T] People v. Ventura5/6/2004
hile three more gave addresses just outside of it in the unincorporated area of the Town of North Hempstead known as New Cassel, a minority community adjacent to our Village and just southeast of it. These purveyors of slums are entrepreneurs in an underground economy that destroys people, families and neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the industry of providing illegal housing to the poor portends to be a charitable, philanthropic, public service, but in all reality, it is riddled with the opportunity for and actual corruption among those who would turn their backs on the poor or otherwise exploit them. Formerly the corruption was rampant and led, in many cases to the demise of entire neighborhoods in Nassau County and elsewhere. This corruption occurred throughout the system, albeit to this Court's knowledge, never perpetrated by Westbury Village officials or its Building Department. Nonetheless, it occurred in the Secretary of State's Office for its failure to enforce State laws against real estate brokers engaging in such unscrupulous conduct as racial steering, block busting or working with or actually being slumlords themselves. See Real Property Law § 441-c. which states as follows:
1. Powers of Department. (a) The Department of State may revoke the license of a real estate broker or salesman or suspend the same, for such period as the department may deem proper, or in lieu thereof may impose a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars payable to the Department of State, or a reprimand upon conviction of the licensee of a violation of any provision of this article, or for a material misstatement in the application for such license, or if such licensee has been guilty of fraud or fraudulent practices, or for dishonest or misleading advertising, or has demonstrated untrustworthiness or incompetency to act as a real estate broker or salesman, as the case may be. In the case of a real estate broker engaged in any course of conduct including, but not limited to, the interruption or discontinuance of essential building service, that interferes with or disturbs the peace, comfort, repose and quiet enjoyment of a tenant.
Candidly, the Secretary of State rarely uses its enforcement powers to punish brokers who engage in such conduct. So too is the case with respect to the federal government and the Fair Housing Act which attempts, among other things, to prevent discrimination in housing. Once again and historically there have been few prosecutions by the federal government against those who engage in such practices. In recent years our Village has passed laws and prosecuted real estate brokers for renting illegal dwellings. See Westbury Village Code § 248-293 (amended 12-2-99 by L.L. No. 3-1999).
Twenty years after this Grand Jury Report, the problem of illegal multiple dwellings has been exacerbated by other societal issues such as a huge influx of immigrants, both documented and undocumented, from Mexico, El Salvador and other parts of Latin and South America. In addition to the welfare recipients of twenty years ago being dumped by the Department of Social Services into our neighboring community of New Cassel, now so-called migrant day laborers occupy many dwellings both in New Cassel and in our Village. Homeowners who live in single family dwellings are fighting against enormous, competing influences from industry; shopping malls and major thoroughfares in an effort to preserve the residential character of our community. The de facto down-zoning of the community by the proliferation of illegal multiple dwellings is a fact of life that cannot be stopped by strict code enforcement alone. More affordable housing must be built and made available to all people regardless of whether they are here
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 New York DUI Attorneys
DUI Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to DUI Lawyers in your area.
|
|