MEDIA ADVISORY
For immediate release: September 19, 2007
Tenants Celebrate as
City Shuts Down Illegal Hotels!
Mayor Wins Injunction against Three Illegal Hotels:
Tenants form “Illegal Hotel Watch” to
Enforce It
What:
Press Conference to applaud City’s recent injunction
to prohibit rentals of residential units to tourists.
Tenants announce formation of “illegal hotels
watch”
Who:
Elected officials and tenants affected by illegal
hotels.
When:
Thursday, September 20, 2007, 11:00am
Where:
In front of the Mount Royal at 315 West 94th Street,
between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive.
On Thursday September 20, 2007 at 11:00 a.m., tenants
and elected officials will gather to celebrate the
first time the City has won an injunction to shut
down illegal hotel operations in three Upper West
Side SRO buildings and to highlight the Mayor’s
Office of Special Enforcement’s aggressive action
in taking steps to ensure that this practice is stopped.
Tenants will speak about their experience of being
harassed to make room for tourists by the building’s
infamous manager, Fitos Neophytou, nominated by the
Village Voice as one of the city’s 10 worst
landlords. Tenants will announce the formation of
an Illegal Hotel Watch created to ensure that the
city is committed to ending the plague of Illegal
Hotels.
Illegal hotels have become a growing problem in New
York City as landlords and managing companies continue
to evict tenants and convert apartments, Single Room
Occupancy (SRO) units, and other affordable housing
stock into hotel rooms, often booked over the Internet
to unsuspecting tourists visiting the city. A group
of elected officials, tenant advocates, and tenants
formed the Illegal Working Group which seeks to put
an end to the rental of units to tourists in residential
buildings and to have those units returned to the
affordable housing market for residents of New York
City.
Confirmed rally speakers include: Manhattan Borough
President Scott Stringer, State Senator Liz Krueger,
State Senator Eric Schneiderman, Assemblymember Linda
B. Rosenthal, NYC Councilmember Gale Brewer, tenants,
and community groups.
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