NEW CITY – Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann announced Friday that the town has gone to court to shut down 15 residences that officials say are illegally converted into unsafe dwellings, housing too many people and rife with safety violations.

The town is seeking state Supreme Court court orders to get the properties vacated. The next step would be to force the two landlords who own the 15 houses to re-convert them to their permitted use, often as single-family residences.

“We will pursue every legal action,” Hoehmann said. He called the illegal conversions a business model based on putting lives at risk.

Clarkstown Town Attorney Kevin Conway confirmed that beyond fines, repeat offenders of building violations could face jail time if convicted in justice court.

Clarkstown: Landlord’s 9 houses hit with allegations of overcrowding and dangerous living conditions

Hoehmann identified the landlords as:

“This will not be tolerated in Clarkstown,” Hoehmann said.

Some properties were listed with the town’s rental registry but others were not, he said.

In one house that on paper is a single-family residence, about 24 people were living there, including three families occupying the second floor, Hoehmann said. Code violations in this and other houses abound, he said, which jeopardize the residents and first responders in case of fire or other emergency.

“We always learn in just about every case that these are recent arrivals to the country,” Hoehmann said.

‘Unscrupulous landlords’ and immigration wave

The problem has grown exponentially since more newcomers to the U.S. head to New York City and then Rockland amid a swell of immigration at the Southern border, Hoehmann said.

He, Rockland County Executive Ed Day, and U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler said several times Friday that it was the “unscrupulous landlords” who were taking advantage of immigrants amid a housing crunch.

Hoehmann recalled a recent call for inspectors to a house where 30 residents appeared to be living. At another site, which was supposedly restored to a single-family residence, an inspector discovered a false wall that obscured a ladder leading to an attic where people could live.

“It’s migrants coming into this country who are being victimized,” Hoehmann said.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Illegal housing with immigrants in Clarkstown lands landlords in court