NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – New York City’s worst landlords were determined and the top 100 names were released on Wednesday, putting a spotlight and shaming the most negligent property owners in the city, the Office of the Public Advocate announced on Wednesday.
The ranking is determined by the number of dangerous housing violations in their buildings and Johnathan Santana, landlord and the head officer for Daniel Ohebshalom, property owner, ranked number one again, retaining his place from last year.
Santana had 3293 open violations across 306 units in buildings on the list.
Since last year, Ohebshalom has faced numerous legal scrutiny, and has settled three separate lawsuits with the city in recent months, totaling $4.2 million dollars, over failures to rectify dangerous conditions at a range of buildings.
"Johnathan Santana and Daniel Ohebshalom may be shameless in their negligence and predatory practices, as is clear in their record violations, but it’s clear that spotlighting and shaming them and other worst landlords in the city can have meaningful impact,”New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams said.
The release of the list follows last week's 1915 Billingsley Terrace building collapse in the Bronx and highlights the impact of unchecked safety and code violations.
Yonah Roth is listed as the head officer of the Bronx building and records show that Roth affiliated with Jacob Zanger ranks 50.
“Through tenant organizing, legal battles, and legislative initiatives, we can hold bad actors to account and deliver relief for New Yorkers facing unlivable conditions and declining unaffordable rents,” Williams said. “We need to ensure other landlords on the list that accountability and change go beyond the top spot to landlords throughout the list and the city."
The top five worst individual landlords, based on average HPD open violations following Johnathan and Ohebshalom, are David Tennenbaum with 2,416, Larry Hirchfield with 1,394, Sima Abdavies with 1,372, and Alfred Thompson with 1,341.
The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the city's worst overall landlord, is chronically underfunded, the release stated. As of October 2023, NYCHA has 596,000 open work orders and needs about $80 billion to fix current problems.
The full list has 100 landlords.