Tight budgets raise focus on illegal rentals

Richard Tedesco

With school budgets strained to the breaking point, school district administrators and residents in the New Hyde Park area are expressing concerns about the incidence of illegal rentals that are frequently fueled by people attracted to area schools.

“There is a finite amount of money that it costs to educate a child,” said Marianna Wohlgemuth, president of the Lakeville Estates Civic Association. “We have to educate our children, but the parents should pay their fair share.”

Officials and residents say the Herricks, New Hyde Park-Garden City Park and Sewanhaka school districts are being targeted by people illegally renting basement space in houses or a single family renting a house and inviting other people to share the living space. In some cases, no proper leases exist.

The illegal renters, officials and residents say, enroll their children into area schools but don’t pay property taxes to support the schools their children are attending.

Wohlgemuth said the Town of North Hempstead, which ultimately bears the responsibility for sorting out illegals rental situations, isn’t doing enough to prevent them or remedy circumstances where they occur.

“My perception is that it’s weak,” Wohlgemuth said of the town’s initiatives to deal with illicit rentals. “It’s not enough.”

But Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Jon Kaiman said the town administration proactively responds to every reported instance of a possible illegal rental. But, Kaiman said, the process sometimes requires months of investigation and court action to resolve a specific situation.

“We have an attractive place to live so people are going to scam to live here,” Kaiman said. “We are doing our part and where somebody decides to cheat, we act.”

Kaiman points to the town’s cooperative effort with the Herricks School District as an example of a successful program it has established to combat the problem.

The program with Herricks started in the middle of 2010, according to Town of North Hempstead Councilman Thomas Dwyer. He said who said the program was kick-started by Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth, who wanted suspect rentals in district investigated.

“This was really a concentrated effort,” Dwyer said, explaining that the school district administration alerts the town’s legal and building department to rental situations it deems suspicious.

Over the past year, Dwyer said the town has reviewed 100 rentals to determine whether they complied with legal standards. During that time, 25 summonses have been written and 31 living situations have been brought into compliance with the law, or the landlords have made filings for rental registrations.

Of 76 cases investigated by the town within Herricks district, 56 investigations have been completed to date, said Dwyer, with eight cases currently under investigation and nine remaining to be examined. In three cases, the town discovered duplicate leases.

“We’re always trying to think of ideas and be innovative in how we approach this. It’s a very sensitive issue and we don’t want to attack this in a way that innocent people are hurt,” Dwyer said.

Bierwirth said the town has been “extraordinarily attentive” in dealing with suspect rentals uncovered most frequently by the district administration staff.

“I think in terms of identifying illegal rentals, it’s been exceedingly effective,” Bierwirth said. “It has rarely resulted in someone leaving the house and, therefore, the school district .”

The legal process of resolving illicit rental situations is typically time-consuming, he said.

“To the extent that there’s been slow downs, it’s because once it goes to the court process, it can take quite awhile,” Bierwirth said.

Dwyer said the problem is complicated by the custom in some cultures of extended families living together, a practice that may be foreign to some residents, but is a protected practice under federal law.

“Culturally, in Indian families, senior family members live with a son or daughter,” said Jonai Singh, president of the Herricks Council of PTAs.

“It is also quite common for two brothers and their families to live together.”

Singh noted that the same practice is common among Chinese families. She said that residents’ complaints are often based on misperceptions , and she said traditional Asian living customs are “something this community has to come to recognize.”

Asian students currently represent more than half of the student population in the schools throughout the Herricks district, with families frequently drawn to live here specifically because of the Herricks district’s strong reputation.

Singh noted that PTA members have been active in working with the district administration to stem the tide of illegal rentals.

“Those things are unacceptable. I’m a taxpayer here too. It is important to bring clarity,” Singh said. “At the end of the day, it takes everyone to step up.”

The district is being conscientious, according to Singh, who noted that the geographic spread of the district, which encompasses New Hyde Park, Garden City Park, Searingtown, Albertson and part of Williston Park, makes the problem more difficult for the town to address.

“In today’s economic times, people are forced to move in with relatives. Other times, it might be because of the quality of the school district,” said Robert Katulak, New Hyde Park-Garden City Park Superintendent of Schools.

Katulak said the district is vigilant in addressing suspicious rental situations.

“Nobody gets a free ride,” he said, noting that the school board isn’t usually inclined to permit families to pay tuition for students who should not be attending district schools because of the resulting strain on the system.

Joseph Wendling, a former New York City Police detective employed by the district on a per diem basis to investigate rental irregularities, said it’s difficult to sort them out. Suspected offenders know the legal guidelines and maintain only one kitchen facility and mask signs of using basement space and he said he currently knows of five district residences housing multiple families.

“It can’t be remedied,” Wendling said, pointing to one suspect house in an informal tour of the district. “You can put as many people in that house as you want.”

Wendling works by following real estate listings, checking on recent property sales and tracking changes of address. Improper school attendance is sometimes facilitated by people who permit others who may live in Queens to use their district address.

“There are a lot of families who want their kids to go to our schools,” said Michael DeMartino, principal of New Hyde Park Memorial High School.

Proximity of the area school districts to the city line make their facilities attractive targets for people who simply can’t get the same quality of education in Queens, DeMartino said.

DeMartino said that like other schools in the Sewanhaka district, New Hyde Park Memorial maintains stringent standards for registration, including forms requiring notarization and documentation to verify students’ identification and residence.

But, he noted, people still find ways to short circuit the system and persistent vigilance seems to be the only reliable remedy.

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