CITY HALL -- With blighted, mold-infested homes still dotting the neighborhoods hit by Hurricane Sandy, Staten Island elected officials are looking again to pass a law allowing the city to enter abandoned homes and remove mold there.
"We think we have a bill that navigates that fine line between actually being effective and respecting property rights," Borough President James Oddo said.
The bill -- to be introduced at Wednesday's City Council meeting -- would create a "Remediation of Unsafe Flooded Homes Program" allowing two city agencies to inspect flood-damaged vacant homes and remove mold or other dangerous conditions inside.
It isn't the first attempt at allowing the city to remove mold from private homes -- as a councilman, Oddo introduced a similar bill in July 2013. But it was met with resistance from the Bloomberg administration, leaving the problem unresolved a year and a half after the storm -- a timeline Oddo called "an embarrassment."
"Nineteen months later, we're trying to find the right language to make a constitutional bill to get government to do something on mold," Oddo said Monday. "That's beyond a joke, but that's where we are. We're using all the tools we have at our disposal."
The bill introduced last year asked the Health Department with tackling the mold problem -- and went nowhere with the agency's leadership at the time, with the department saying it did not consider mold in neighboring homes a community health concern.
TWO AGENCIES
The new bill would task the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Department of Buildings with inspecting vacant homes that show signs of flood damage -- and making repairs and remediating mold if the homeowner won't, passing the cost along to the owner. The city can already perform repairs in homes for other nuisances -- such as mice infestation, or when a landlord doesn't fix the heat.
"With the City Council legal division, we've been working on this since over a year ago, and they went back and reworked this bill yet again. And the sense of the urgency that they have is kind of striking when compared to the complete lack of concern demonstrated by the previous leadership at the Health Department," Oddo said.
Mold has festered in many homes since the storm. If it had been declared a public health threat by the previous administration's Health Department, the city may have been able to secure federal FEMA funding for a broader mold removal program, one city government source said.
A program through the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York provided mold remediation, but couldn't access homes that have been abandoned.
NEW LEGISLATION
The new bill will be sponsored by City Councilman Steven Matteo (R-South Shore), Minority Leader Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore) and Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Queens), and introduced at the request of Oddo.
Matteo said Sandy was a difficult time for Staten Island residents and city government -- and mold has been a complicated issue for both groups.
"This bill gives government the ability to enter a home and determine the best way to remove the problem when property owners are nowhere to be found and cannot be reached," he said. "This is a reasonable measure designed for extreme circumstances that I believe will be a critical tool in the fight for a better quality of life in our community."
Said Ignizio: "These disregarded homes are more than just eyesores. They are a blight on our communities, a potential health hazard and they bring down property values, adding insult to injury to so many homeowners who are just beginning to get back on their feet and reinvest in their own homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
The Remediation of Unsafe Flooded Homes Program would target only homes that aren't registered for Build it Back, and that are abandoned, vacant, or in foreclosure, and haven't been fixed up since the storm, according to the legislation.
EVIDENCE OF FLOODING
For a home to be eligible, there would have to be evidence it had been flooded in the storm, and evidence the structure is abandoned. HPD would have to notify the homeowner and the mortgage holder within 30 days, provide information on programs available to deal with flood damage, and give the homeowner 30 days to contest the city's inclusion of the home in the program.
The city would perform an inspection of the home and issue an order to the owner to correct any safety or sanitary violations.
If the homeowner doesn't follow through, the city will make the fixes. If remediation costs more than the property is worth, the city could take other action, including demolishing the home.
Homeowners, or the bank if the home is in foreclosure, would be on the hook for any inspection fees -- and for the cost of any remediation work. If they don't pay up, the unpaid cost will be added as a lien on the property.
Oddo said he hopes the bill meets more success this time around.
"The key now is hoping the de Blasio administration has a completely different mindset, and believes that mold in homes is a community concern," Oddo said.