Brooklyn's Three-Quarter Houses Continue to Be Plagued by Corruption and Abuse

In the face of rising rates of homelessness and meager resources to address the crisis, the city continues turning to shady and corrupt landlords to house the homeless.

In this year’s latest investigative unearthing of ongoing trouble within the shelter system, the New York Times has done follow-up interviews with the landlord and tenants of one particularly corrupt “three-quarter house.”

The current system of privately owned and loosely regulated three-quarter houses provide desperately needed shelter for recovering addicts, the mentally ill and the destitute.

But many landlords of these operations have been found to abuse their tenants and collect kickbacks from tenants’ Medicaid fees — in addition to receiving their monthly shelter allowances. Landlords collect city-paid allowances of $215 a month per tenant, $300 for tenants on disability, according to a New York Times investigation.

Brooklyn alone has as many as 600 three-quarter houses, a government official estimated in May.

These abusive institutions survive by providing an alternative to a grim and overburdened shelter system that the poor are often desperate to avoid.

One flophouse operator, Yury Baumblit, continues to profit from providing meager shelter out of his Crown Heights townhouse at 579 Ralph Avenue — despite a January court date for illegal eviction, in addition to being a convicted multi-felon and known hustler, the New York Times reported.

Baumblit’s current Brooklyn operation crams 36 men into a two-bathroom, five-bedroom home. In a recent listing, the 3,072-square-foot single-family townhouse appears to be recently renovated — all-white walls, airy rooms and shining appliances. As confirmed by the New York Times investigation (which does not list the building’s neighborhood or address), Baumblit does not own but rents the house for $3,850 a month.

The needy who rent from Baumblit face far more difficult tenant terms than those of a conventional listing. After recruiting tenants from hospitals, substance-abuse programs and homeless shelters, Baumblit requires them to go to specific treatment programs during the day, regardless of their histories or need. Only those who pay a higher rent aren’t required to attend.

Tenants say Baumblit forced them to relapse just to test positive on drug and alcohol tests that would keep them in treatment programs, or risk eviction, according to the New York Times.

The problem of three-quarter housing is similar to the problem of cluster-housing — another maligned alternative to the shelter system that relies on private partnerships. In both instances, city payouts and a lack of regulation can make housing the homeless more profitable than operating conventional rental units, especially in rent-regulated buildings.

Landlords of three-quarter homes face minimal regulation and only rare prosecution from a city that is grateful for affordable shelter, no matter how infested and decrepit. Without the means to live elsewhere, the very poor or substance-dependent don’t have the resources to sue or more effectively advocate for better conditions.

As rents, property values and rates of homelessness soar ever higher, the only answer in the face of such corruption is a better shelter system that can afford to finally cut ties with exploitative private benefactors.

[Source: NYT]

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