The Village of Westbury, working together with the Nassau County Police Department, executed an administrative search warrant last week for a single family home that was found to be illegally occupied by 14 people.
The warrant was signed by Village Justice Thomas Liotti on March 4.
Upon inspection, building inspectors found multiple housing and fire code violations, which resulted in 21 summonses to the owner. Among the violations were multiple counts of illegal rental units within the home, multiple kitchens, property and maintenance violations and an insect infestation.
Four different families, comprised of 14 people, including at least six children, were living in the single family home in the eastern section of the village. The village had received prior complaints about the home but hadn’t been able to do an inspection. According to village mayor Peter Cavallaro, the home was owned by an absentee landlord. This was the landlord’s first offense and he will now have to come to court to address the summonses. The village does not handle the evictions of the people occupying the home.
“This is just a continuation of our efforts to try and get at these illegal dwellings,” said Cavallaro. “This [absentee landlord] made money off people by cramming them into a home that didn’t have suitable living conditions. It’s the most egregious type of living condition you can have because it’s not good for the people living there and it’s not good for the neighborhood.”
Search warrants are just one way the village has taken a proactive approach to fight illegal housing. Last year, the mayor and board also increased housing enforcement, utilized housing sweeps, and increased fines and other measures to better enforce the housing laws. Most recently, the board amended its building code to ban residents from adding entrances or bathing facilities to their basements.
