opinion

Nancy Cutler: As code violations grow, so does risk

When a fire erupted at a Spring Valley house on New Year's Day, first responders already knew the building housed an illegal yeshiva dormitory, and weren't surprised to find multiple electrical code violations.

Village safety officials were first told about the illegal Yeshiva of Rockland dorm in March of 2011 by the Rockland County Illegal Housing Task Force, which seeks tips about code violations, turns information over to municipalities and then tracks the properties.

According to the task force, more than 60 properties in the 2 1/2-square-mile village have been flagged for various violations that have yet to be remedied. Many are illegal rooming houses created from carved-up single-family homes (like a house on Johnson Street that caught fire on Jan. 3 and left eight families homeless ).

Task force records show Ramapo and Spring Valley are Ground Zero for housing violations. But the problem is spreading. Illegal housing conversions have fueled disaster in Mount Vernon, where four family members perished in a 2013 blaze; the Bronx, where a 2005 fire killed two FDNY members, including John Bellew of Pearl River, and injured four, including Jeff Cool of Pomona; and in Brooklyn, where a November fire in an illegally subdivided apartment killed a tenant and injured 16 others.

Rockland task force Chairman John Kryger said fire officials from Dutchess to Westchester want to find out more about the Task Force's work. "They either see it coming, or it's already there," Kryger said of rampant code violations in neighborhoods, with little enforcement.

Flouting the law

A subdivided home can be a moneymaker. Tenants of a Spring Valley house destroyed in the Jan. 3 fire told officials that they paid, in cash, up to $1,500 for one floor, and up to $600 for one room. The building lacked working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.

And the punishment – if there is any – often comes in fines that are dwarfed by the profit potential. The Rockland task force found that even if a local judge levies fines, a violator may not bother to pay the municipality.

The problem has gotten so bad in parts of Ramapo and Spring Valley that the state Department of State Code Enforcement visited the area last year, at the behest of the task force and Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski, D-New City. Last week, Zebrowski wrote another letter to the state, seeking action.

Volunteer firefighters want the state to thoroughly investigate safety issues in sections of Ramapo and Spring Valley, hold hearings and, if needed, take over code enforcement.

State action presents a slippery slope: New York's a home rule state, so there's concerns about stepping on localities' jurisdiction. And there's the politics, including the worries about the appearance of singling out the Orthodox Jewish community for violations at yeshivas, and leaving immigrant families homeless after shutting down illegal housing.

Danger, though, should trump those concerns.

Tougher on violators

Meanwhile, Zebrowski, with support of fellow state Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee, D-Suffern, and Sen. David Carlucci, D-New City, is seeking legislative remedies.

Zebrowski is working on legislation that would:

• Mandate a minimum civil penalty for owners of buildings with fire and building code violations. Currently, a judge can impose a fine that is so low, compared to a high profit margin, it's "just the cost of doing business," Zebrowski said.

• Establish a crime of reckless endangerment of a first responder, for anyone who illegally alters a building and creates a condition that poses "substantial risk of serious physical injury to a peace officer, police officer, firefighter or emergency medial services professional."

Next step

After the recent fires in Spring Valley, Mayor Demeza Delhomme – who last month suspended the village's chief building inspector – called for a special meeting of the Village Board. He proposed hiring more inspectors. The board, though, failed to pass his plan, amid questions about funding.

The lack of action, even amid crisis, comes as no surprise. The village's elected officials have taken the art of political bickering to a whole new level. Now, the pressure is on all of the board to act.

The village, and the town of Ramapo, where code violators are granted temporary certificates of occupancy that stretch for years, may not be able to do it on their own. The state will likely need to intervene and straighten out a mess that's years in the making, and puts residents and first responders at grave risk.

Meanwhile, municipalities around the state need to pay attention. And state laws need to be updated, so code violators face a steep price for their irresponsible actions.

Twitter: @nancyrockland