15 Crown, Prospect Heights Buildings Are NYC's 'Most Distressed'

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — Another 15 buildings in Crown and Prospect Heights have gotten so many violations that they could face emergency repairs from the city, officials announced.

The 15 buildings — which include 283 homes — were among 250 citywide that were added this week to the city's Alternate Enforcement Program, which monitors the most distressed multi-family properties across the city. They include 14 in Crown Heights and one in Prospect Heights.

Under the program, the buildings' landlords will have four months to fix thousands of open violations or face penalties. The city will step in and make "emergency repairs" at the landlord's expense if they don't meet the deadline, according to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

“All New Yorkers deserve safe, well-maintained homes, and landlords across the city need to know that if they are unwilling to do what is right to provide that, we will take action,” said HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión, Jr. “The Alternative Enforcement Program is an effective set of tools at our disposal to hold landlords accountable when they don’t do right by their tenants, and we are not afraid to use them if it means getting the city’s most troubled buildings into shape quickly.”

In Crown Heights, three of the buildings most recently added to the list are run by landlords that were named among the "worst" in New York City by the Public Advocate, who puts out a Worst Landlord Watchlist each year.

They include a St. Johns Place building that has racked up an average of 222 violations in the past year, according to the watchlist.

Another two buildings on Eastern Parkway have seen 91 and 126 violations in the past year, according to the list.

A total of 50 buildings connected to the Worst Landlord Watchlist were among the 250 citywide added to the Alternate Enforcement Program, officials said.

Brooklyn made up nearly half of the latest round of distressed buildings with 119 added to the program. 72 buildings from the Bronx, 43 in Manhattan and 16 in Queens were also added to the program.

In total, the 250 buildings added this week have nearly 40,000 open housing code violations, 9,442 of which were deemed "immediately hazardous" and include problems like mold, rodents, lead-based paint and a lack of heat, hot water or electricity.

Here's a look at the 15 Crown and Prospect Heights buildings that were added to the program:

• 1362 Pacific St.
• 1616 President St.
• 1054 Park Pl.
• 1969 Pacific St.
• 949 Park Pl.
• 565 St. Johns Pl.
• 1159 Eastern Pkwy.
• 327 Eastern Pkwy.
• 1515 St. Johns Pl.
• 161 Buffalo Ave.
• 569 Empire Blvd.
• 1745 President St.
• 974 St. Marks Ave.
• 1193 EAstern Pkwy.
• 417 St. Johns Pl. (Prospect Heights)