Rockland County Landlords Making the Most of the Illegal Migrant Crisis

by M.C. Millman

Rockland officials have discovered more migrant flophouses in the county and are taking legal action over the unlawfully converted single-family homes packed with illegal migrant renters.

Town Supervisor George Hoehmann announced in a news conference Thursday that Clarkstown officials are seeking a court order to allow them to inspect 37 rental homes handled by First Choice SV Property Management LLC. At the same time, more overcrowded, illegally converted single-family homes are being reported, including one on Quaspeck Boulevard in Valley Cottage, which Clarkstown has taken to court.

Hoehmann and Rockland County Executive Ed Day both expressed that they are they were worried for the safety of the new migrants as well as the safety of first responders called to handle emergencies at the illegally overcrowded locations.

"There were 25 people inside a single-family home," Hoehmann said at the news conference. "At least some are in the country illegally and appear to be recent arrivals. There were people sleeping in the attic crawl space. This is completely unacceptable."

Clarkstown first discovered a flophouse on New Hempstead Road in September, as reported by Rockland Daily here, where more than 31 illegal migrants were living in a 1,500-foot square house.

Hoemann shared that First Choice Property Management, the managing company of more than 300 rental homes in Rockland County, has violated Clarkstown law not only by not putting their rentals on the rental registry in Clarkstown but also by allegedly illegally renting illegal migrant flophouses. And so far, sixteen of those properties have refused town inspectors and are therefore suspected to be in violation.

After winning a final ruling against the New Hempstead house, which forced all residents to vacate the premises and reconvert the home back to a legal single-family home, Clarkstown is working to do the same thing to the Valley Cottage house as well as five other properties, one on Storms Road in Valley Cottage and four in Nanuet. Clarkstown's Town Council also authorized counsel civil action against the management company. 

"We said this publicly months ago," Rockland County Executive Ed Day stated on social media. "Among other things, the actions of New York City would overwhelm an already lean housing stock. Fast forward to today, we are now in the midst of cracking down on property management companies and absentee owners looking to make money off the migrant crisis. In this case, we are working with the Town of Clarkstown, and my compliments to Supervisor Hoehmann and his team for their efforts and partnership with our Rockland County Codes Investigation team.

"We are again requesting assistance from the NY State Attorney General for investigative assistance and resources."

According to Day, the illegal housing in Rockland has "all the earmarks of a criminal enterprise."

Given the statistics presently being shared, which include the facts that between September 2022 and March 2023, Rockland County experienced a 35 percent increase in the number of children under foster care, more than 1,000 new students enrolling in a single school district, most needing ESL classes; and food pantries that ran out of food, what Clarkstown is seeing now, is only a drop in the bucket when it comes to the illegal housing of illegal migrants.