As counties across the state have increasingly had to rely on hotels to house families experiencing homelessness, residents who are placed in them consistently say some of these hotels are in poor condition with little being done to fix the problems.
The county social service departments are required to inspect the hotels based off a checklist provided by the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance and are responsible for ensuring that the hotels meet local housing code requirements.
But the OTDA doesn’t perform any inspections itself, and so as long as counties pass the hotels, the state accepts their reports…