“Because we were slaves in Egypt.” More than a dozen times (e.g. Deuteronomy 10:19) the Torah inspires Israel to social ethics by reminding us that, because our self-consciousness was shaped by the experience of powerlessness, we must take care of powerless people whenever we can.

Given our long history of exile, Jews are called to pay particular attention to the problems of inadequate housing. We at Ansche Chesed take valuable strides in this vein through our nightly shelter (which as always needs your help!) Let me also call your attention to a campaign I have joined, and encourage you to learn more about as well.

Through a coalition called “Housing Here and Now,” www.housinghereandnow.org, in partnership with the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing, I am supporting efforts to persuade New York City’s most neglectful landlords to correct the hundreds – sometimes thousands – of building code violations in their various properties in New York’s poorest neighborhoods. Last week, along with Catholic and Protestant clergy, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and city council member Robert Jackson, I visited a site in Inwood, deemed to be Manhattan’s most decrepit building, with more than 800 code violations in 76 units, some dating – literally – to 1979. We and about 150 residents and community activists rallied in the street to call upon the owner to “fix it now.” Later that week protesters also rallied outside the owner’s apartment, along with Mayoral candidate Fernando Ferrer, and posted pictures of his uptown tenement in the lobby of his downtown apartment building.

Landlords are legally bound to fix “immediately hazardous” Class C violations within 24 hours of notification and “hazardous” or “non-hazardous” violations within 30 or 90 days. Yet neglected violations can persist for years. Meeting residents – nearly all of whom are Hispanic, many of whom did not speak English – and seeing their homes was an arresting experience. Uneven floors – one with a hole large enough to see into the apartment below, modestly covered with a plastic garbage bag and duct tape – peeling walls, collapsing, profusely leaking ceilings, cockroaches, rodents. It is unconscionable that any child of God lives in these unsafe, undignified conditions. Sure, I know this is New York, where housing is expensive and cramped. Not everyone can have 1,800 square feet with a 24- hr d/m, big closets, w/d, and rvr vw. But no one should be like the 3-person family I met who pay $646 a month for a tiny two-room apartment with only partial bathroom walls and a tub sinking into the floor.

There are multiple ways to work to improve this sorry state. One is to support the Healthy Homes Act, a bill before the city council demanding that the city intensify inspections and ensure the repair of dangerous violations. The key to this is hiring more inspectors: today only 300 inspectors are responsible for 1 million apartments in five boroughs. Knowing that there will be little sustained follow-up basically permits a neglectful landlord to do whatever he or she wishes. Contact your council representatives – for most Ansche Chesed members, either Gale Brewer, Bill Perkins, or Phil Reed, although the latter two are leaving office – and the Mayor in this election year to support the enforcement of the building code.

But also, as Jews, we have some special share in this particular shame of our city. If you read the names of those listed as the 10 most neglectful landlords. . . well, let’s just say that if they all met in a room we’d be on our way to a minyan. In that vein, it is worthwhile for us to consider the demands Jewish law, Halakha, places on landlords.

First, one premise of Halakha is Dina de’Malkhuta Dina – “the law of the land applies.” If the city demands that you fix a leak in the ceiling, then you are bound to do it as a religious, not only a civic requirement.

More fully, Jewish law stipulates that landlords must supply renters with any maintenance service that would require a specialized artisan, such as installing locks. The Talmud provides a (non-exhaustive) list of examples: “The landlord is required to attach a door, to open windows, to reinforce the ceiling, to support the beams. . .” (Conversely, renters supply the improvements which do not require a specialist and which last only temporarily, such as bringing ladders or clearing the gutters.) Should a house collapse, a landlord is obliged to find the renter another place to live (although the language of the contract can modify this commitment). Should a house remain standing, but become so decrepit that it too dangerous to live in, the landlord is required to repair it to safety standards. [Sources: B. Talmud Bava Metzia 101b-103a; Maimonides, Laws of Rental Agreements, 5:6-8; Tur/Shulhan Arukh Hoshen Mishpat, 313-314.]

One commentator insightfully explains the principle underlying these rules: One who accepts rent payments enters an implicit contract to spend that money to keep the property livable. We wish landlords well, and hope they make a nice profit. But profitability is not the prior condition which must be met for them to expend money on necessary repairs they are already bound to perform. The opposite is true: if you’re taking people’s rent, you’re committing yourself to keeping their home safe. Moreover, the renters themselves are permitted to spend their rent money directly on necessary repairs. Why not? Sure the money is owed to the landlord, but it’s also the landlord’s obligation to fix the floor. In that situation, the renter would be doing the landlord a favor by taking care of the repairs more quickly. [Based on R. Jacob of Lissa, Poland, d.1832, Netivot HaMishpat].

Judaism is profound and holy because it makes us better people, and makes the world a better world. May our New York Jewish community find the strength to hold ourselves to its demands.

Finally, a happy postscript – subsequent to the writing of the rest of this note: Ultimately finding the right lever, Housing Here and Now, along with the community organizing outfit ACORN, appealed to Citibank, which holds a $3.8 million mortgage on the property. This did the trick. The bank, the landlord, the residents and the activists worked out an agreement by which the owner promised to make necessary repairs. The attorney for the owner told the Daily News: “You will see a very different building by the end of this year.”