One Brooklyn
BROOKLYN, NY, March 31, 2019: Today, Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams demanded that the City return all four-family homes and smaller that are involved in the controversial Third Party Transfer (TPT) program administered by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), among other urgent reforms, following the landmark ruling in Kings County Supreme Court by Justice Mark Partnow that vacated foreclosure judgments against six property owners who lost their real estate through the TPT program. In his 69-page decision on Thursday, Justice Partnow said the wrongful property seizures were “not an isolated occurrence, but, rather…a widespread occurrence being experienced by many other property owners, who are being inequitably stripped of their valuable property rights.” Borough President Adams, who echoed Justice Partnow’s concerns about the “overly broad and improper” use of the TPT program, citing cases where properties have been seized due to bureaucratic error or for issues as minimal as late payments for water bills, was joined by Lamar Jones and Julio and Yudy Ventura, both of whom just won their cases in court. Also joining them were homeowners involved in an additional class action lawsuit, representing attorneys, others who have been impacted by the TPT program, and concerned community residents.
“This is the first time that a judge actually acknowledged what these property owners have been saying all the time: They should not have lost their property,” said Borough President Adams. “Some of the cases had millions of dollars in equity, but properties were lost for thousands of dollars in arrears. The City felt this was alright, and we’re saying ‘no, it’s not alright,’ and Justice Partnow’s decision says the same. This program, which was supposed to be used to help preserve affordable housing, has been a subterfuge to remove properties from homeowners who had their properties, in some cases, for more than thirty years. If they didn’t have a problem for thirty years with holding onto their properties when their properties were not active to investors and gentrification, why all of a sudden are homeowners in these same communities that have become extremely attractive unable to hold onto their properties?”
Borough President Adams has been a leading voice in criticism of the misuse of the TPT program as part of the greater wrongful property seizure crisis facing Brooklyn. Standing on the steps of the Kings County Supreme Court in Downtown Brooklyn, he renewed his call for a temporary moratorium on TPT seizures and other foreclosures in Brooklyn, as well as a full-scale forensic audit and investigation on the federal, state, and city levels into the issue of deed fraud in the borough of Brooklyn, including the role that the TPT program may be unintentionally playing in defrauding homeowners of their property. Borough President Adams additionally called for property owners to be paid for equity in all TPT seizures, addressing concerns about the loss of generational wealth in communities of color.
“Homeownership is the cornerstone of Black wealth, not only in New York City but across America, and there has been a long history of attempting to take property from communities of color,” said Borough President Adams. “We’ve had City agencies participating in the improper removal of properties from Black and Latino communities, and really all over the city. This is a travesty of justice at a minimum, and a maximum there were some illegal activities that took place. We’re calling on all levels of government to determine what happened.”
Earlier this month, Borough President Adams held a joint legislative hearing at Brooklyn Borough Hall with State Senator Velmanette Montgomery and Assembly Member Tremaine Wright to examine New York City’s homeownership housing crisis, hearing testimony from a packed room of homeowners who have lost their property and equity and have been left without support.
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