City Is to Blame on Enforcement of Window Guards

Between 2001 and 2007, nine children died falling from windows, according to a report the Health Department issued in 2009. An audit by the New York City comptroller’s office has found deficiencies in the city’s window-guard enforcement program, which prevents children from falling through open windows.

The report, by the office of Comptroller John C. Liu, used a sample of 632 window-guard violations out of the 37,148 that were examined by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development in the fiscal years of 2008 and 2009.

Auditors found that nearly half of the violations were closed even though the department had not verified with tenants that the guards were installed; often the department’s decisions were based solely on the landlords’ promises that they had made the installations. Also, some of the violations were improperly closed, the report found, due to data-entry mistakes.

Under the city’s health code, landlords of buildings with three or more apartments must install window guards in units where a child younger than 11 lives, and, should tenants request it, also in common hallways.

Complaints about window guards are fielded and investigated by the Department of Health and forwarded to the Housing Department if there are violations.

The auditors from the comptroller’s office found that the forwarding of 1,500 violations between departments had been delayed months, and that the Health Department did not systematically follow up on open violations or address complaints in the recommended three-day time period.

In statements, both the Health Department and the Housing Department noted that reported child falls from windows had been sharply reduced — there were five last year citywide, compared with 217 in 1976.

Both departments contested aspects of the report. The Health Department said it had decreased its response time to complaints to one day in 2009 from three days in 2008 and the Housing Department said that tenants often denied inspectors access to their homes, preventing inspectors from verifying that window guards had indeed been installed.

Meanwhile, city legislation has been introduced that would streamline the implementation of the window-guard law by making the Housing Department solely responsible for its enforcement.