NYC Tenants Don’t Want Tourists

By John Atlas and Peter Dreier

Tenants in New York City are getting fed up as growing numbers of tourists camp out in their buildings. Landlords have taken to evicting tenants from single room occupancy buildings and making their units available to tourists for overnights or one-week stays. A grassroots housing group has counted 36 buildings in the Chelsea and Clinton neighborhoods it believes are being used at least in part as youth hostels, vacation rentals or temporary quarters for corporate employees. Many of these landlords are converting their units without getting proper permits from the city. Housing advocates are pushing the city to consider legislative action to curb illegal conversions. (NY Times, 1/22)

John Atlas is president of the National Housing Institute.

Peter Dreier, an NHI Board Member, heads the Urban & Environmental Policy program at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Published by the National Housing Institute