China News Service, January 25. According to the American Overseas Chinese News Network, on January 22, New York State’s Attorney General Zhan Lexia announced that the owner of the apartment at 132-40 Sanford Avenue in downtown Flushing and related parties who repeatedly violated the rent stabilization law The management company reached an agreement, instructing the other party to take a series of corrective measures to compensate for the past behavior of forcing tenants to move by changing locks.

According to the agreement, the owners are required to receive anti-discrimination training and donate US$50,000 to non-profit organizations dedicated to the rights of tenants in the Asian community.

　　According to information released by the Office of the Attorney General, in 2017, the owners of the above-mentioned properties hired security after they submitted an application to the New York State Attorney General’s Office to convert the rent-stabilized apartment at 132-40 Sanfu Avenue into Kangdou. The company changed the lock on the front door of the building to an electronic lock.

However, the owner and management company did not apply to the New York State Office of Housing and Community Redevelopment for permission to change the door lock.

This violates the New York State rent stabilization apartment regulations.

　　The subsequent key fob distribution process also put a heavy burden on tenants.

Many tenants did not receive a new key fob.

They were mistakenly told that they needed to show a valid New York State ID or other government-issued ID in order to receive a new key fob.

But at the time, only US citizens and permanent residents were eligible to obtain government-issued ID documents, and there were a large number of Chinese non-citizens and non-permanent residents living in the building. The new regulations made them feel that they had no right to enter their houses.

The DHCR regulations stipulate that the homeowner must accept any form of identification of the tenant, as long as it contains the tenant's photo, and the landlord of the rent-stable apartment is not allowed to request an ID card issued by a specific state or jurisdiction.

　　In addition, in March 2018, when the security company distributed key cards to tenants, it also illegally recorded information from the tenant’s ID card, and then used the information in the ID card as a basis to conduct 13 private investigations on certain tenants. .

Ten of these 13 tenants are Chinese, and as a result, seven tenants (including six Chinese) were forced to abandon their apartments.

　　As part of the punishment, the 132-40Sanford LLC apartment owner will donate US$50,000 to a non-profit organization that protects the rights and interests of the tenants in the Asian community; and receive anti-discrimination training for staff by the New York City Human Rights Commission; and achieve confidentiality without ID Key card distribution; and when the key card is distributed, agree not to record any data in the ID card.

(Zhang Fan)