West Village Building Appears On Annual Worst Landlord Watchlist

WEST VILLAGE, NY — In a year when rent payments became more challenging to make for countless New Yorkers, residents still had to contend with mistreatment by their landlords, and an annual report by the city's Public Advocate names one West Village building as one of the worst run in New York City.

A building at 326 Bleecker Street made the list based on the average number of violations they received this year from the city's Housing Preservation and Development Department.

The three-unit building in the West Village had 25 violations from the department this year.

According to the rankings, the residents of the building have a median annual income of $126,601, and 11.14 percent of residents are white.

In an online news conference, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said the pandemic had exacerbated already-dire housing conditions.

"When we overlay communities that were hit hardest by COVID, those are the same communities that have some of the worst landlords and folks who are living in some of the worst conditions," Williams said.

The ranking uses HPD data on the two most severe classes of violations, which can include rodent infestations, lead-based paint, failure to provide public doors and lighting or a lack of heat, hot water, electricity or gas.

The New York City Housing Authority — with more than 341,000 open work orders across 326 developments — was given its own designation as worst landlord for the third year in a row.

"We have endured systemic neglect before this health crisis and we are still fending for ourselves when it comes to trying to survive while living in NYCHA," said Saundrea Coleman, a resident of the Isaacs Houses on the Upper East Side, who said she deals with excessive heat, faulty elevators and a rat infestation on the houses' grounds.

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