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They offered affordable places to live to low-income New Yorkers, including many working-class families working in restaurants and hotels in one of the world’s most expensive housing markets. Basement apartments also provide additional income for small homeowners, many of whom are immigrants.
“Most people rent basements if you have a home in most places and your basement is big enough,” Ms Seecharran said.
But this week, sad scenes took place in these basements as rain flooded New York City.
Deborah Torres, who lives on the first floor of a building in Woodside, Queens, said she heard the desperate pleas of a family, including a young child, from their basement apartment as the floodwaters rushed in. getting into the apartment – or going out – to help. The family did not survive.
At a home in Forest Hills, Queens, floodwater rushed through a sliding glass door into a basement, trapping 48-year-old Darlene Lee between the flat’s steel front door and the door frame. Property manager Patricia Fuentes heard Ms. Lee scream for help as others tried to save Ms. Lee as the waters rose. But they could not save him.
There are long-standing problems with the arrangement of such apartments. The law governing these apartments is complex and includes rules that say a basement must have ceilings at least 7 feet 6 inches high and living spaces must have a window. Before the apartments are rented, they must be approved by the municipality with a certificate of use.
Between January 2011 and Tuesday, the city received more than 157,000 complaints about illegal conversions. Illegal conversions include basements converted into residential units, as well as single-family homes converted into multi-family buildings and units converted into short-term rentals.
But more than half of the cases were closed after an inspector was unable to access the residence, according to the New York Times’ analysis of building department data.
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