2 Upper West Side Buildings Named Among 'Most Distressed' In NYC

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A pair of apartment buildings on the Upper West Side have amassed so many violations that they could face emergency repairs from the city, officials announced on Wednesday.

The two UWS buildings — which include 58 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.

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.

Here are the two Upper West Side buildings that were labeled among the most distressed in the city:

215 West 109th Street (Between Broadway and Amsterdam): 25 apartments

311 West 95th Street (Between Riverside and West End): 33 apartments

It is not the first time that the 215 West 109th Street address has appeared in reports of buildings with management issues.

The UWS address also appeared on the unfortunate 2021 ranking of the annual Worst Landlord Watchlist compiled by the New York City Public Advocate's office, the latest of which was released last fall.

The building had 130 violations last year from the city's Housing Preservation and Development Department, the fourth most of any building on the Upper West Side during the period.

• Read More: 7 Upper West Side Buildings Make NYC's Worst Landlords List

"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," HPD Commissioner Adolfo Carrión, Jr. said in a statement this week.

"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."

Manhattan made up less than a quarter of the latest round of distressed buildings; Brooklyn properties comprised nearly half the list, with 119 in total, followed by 72 in the Bronx, 43 in Manhattan and 16 in Queens.

Almost all of the Manhattan buildings recently added to the "most distressed" list are in Harlem and Washington Heights.

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.

Patch reporters Anna Quinn and Nick Garber contributed to this report.