14 Wash Heights, Inwood Buildings Named 'Most Distressed' In NYC

UPPER MANHATTAN, NY — Another 14 buildings in Washington Heights and Inwood have gotten so many violations that they could face emergency repairs from the city, officials announced this week.

The 14 buildings, which include 394 apartments, were among 250 citywide that were added in the past few days to the city's Alternate Enforcement Program, which monitors the most distressed multi-family properties in the city.

The uptown buildings made up an eyecatching 32 percent of the 43 newly announced Manhattan buildings.

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's a look at the 14 Upper Manhattan buildings that were labeled among the most distressed in the city:

• 638 West 160th Street: 43 apartments
• 656 West 162nd Street: 50 apartments
• 425 West 162nd Street: 10 apartments
• 652 West 163rd Street: 54 apartments
• 438 West 164th Street: 22 apartments
• 705 West 170th Street: 21 apartments
• 600 West 176th Street: 22 apartments
• 580 West 176th Street: 31 apartment
• 517 West 180th Street: 26 apartments
• 570 West 182nd Street: 26 apartments
• 509 West 183rd Street: 31 apartments
• 550 West 183rd Street: 15 apartments
• 110 Terrace View Avenue: 19 apartments
• 128 Seaman Avenue: 24 apartments

Out of the 14 uptown buildings added to the program, 12 of them are in Washington Heights and two are in Inwood.

In Upper Manhattan, four of the buildings most recently added to the list are run by landlords who were named among the "worst" in New York City by the Public Advocate, who puts out a Worst Landlord Watchlist every year.

Those buildings include 638 West 160th Street, 580 West 176th Street, 600 West 176th Street, and 550 West 183rd Street.

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

"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 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 reporter Anna Quinn contributed to this report.