Article of Interest to Tenant Advocates - 2/26/2018

EXCERPTED






Bloomberg News: New Housing Vacancy Survey
data show why it is so hard to find an affordable 
apartment

NYCHA
The Nation: How Trump plans to evict poor families 

from public housing

City Limits: Trump's HUD budget for 2018 would 
devastate NYC housing
Ross Barkan: Cuomo is not the savior that 
public housing needs (Village Voice)
Observer: Rapper Ja Rule joins NYCHA residents 
& City Council members in turning up heat on NYCHA

MCI: Queens Chronicle: Tenants picket DHCR, demand 
changes in MCI law

REZONING

Patch: Hundreds turn out for Community Board 
hearing on Inwood rezoning plan

Village Voice: City planning official tells Bushwick 

residents that displacement is not our problem

R3 Meeting on Feb. 26, 2018

Real Rent Reform Campaign Monthly Campaign Meeting Learn about efforts to  strengthen our rent laws Monday, February 26, 2018 6:30 -- 8:30 pm at Met Council on Housing 168 Canal Street, 6th Floor between Elizabeth & Mott Streets All are welcome. For info: Andrea Shapiro (212) 979-6238, ext. 102 andrea@metcouncilonhousing.org

Articles of Interest to Tenant Advocates - 2/21/2018

Daily News editorial: 2017 NYC Housing  & Vacancy Survey shows good & bad  news about housing crisis amNY: East Williamsburg tenants accuse  landlord of construction as harassment Patch: Brewer, Levine, uptown advocates  call for underused Dept. of Transportation  site to be used for affordable housing Homelessness Rafael Cestero: Trump's budget cuts  HUD funding by $8.8 billion, will increase  homelessness (The Hill)

NYS Sen. Hamilton wants to credit landlords who give preferential rents (30% of stabilized housing!)

Tell State Sen. Jesse Hamilton and Assembly Member Walter Mosley that we do NOT want our taxes to subsidize landlords for profits they wish they could make on about 30% of all rent-stabilized apartments.

They are proposing to give a tax credit to owners  - at least 55% of whom NYS's DHCR found used bait-and-switch tactics. 

Owners of  rent-stabilized apartments can rent them for LESS than the legal regulated rent if the owners can't find tenants willing to pay the legal regulated rent (LRR).  That lower rent is called a "preferential rent." This has been used as a way to lure tenants in and then at the next lease renewal, to raise the rent back to the LRR.  The tenant can't afford it and moves out - and the landlord gets an automatic vacancy increase to raise the next LRR.

Articles of Interest to Tenant Advocates - 2/16/2018

RACIAL SEGREGATION IN HOUSING Sally Goldenberg: City Council introduces fair  housing bills requiring City to report on progress  in ending racial segregation, & to address it  (Politico NY) The Nation: The average black family would need  228 years to build the wealth of a white family today Reveal News: Banks shutting the door to home- ownership for people of color REZONING Crain's: Governors Island rezoning moves forward Commercial Observer: Massive Jerome Avenue  rezoning nears final vote in City Council ARE YOU RENT STABILIZED? Ask Sam: I checked my apartment's rent history and  I think it was illegally de-stabilized. What do I do?  (Brick Underground)

Articles of Interest to Tenant Advocates - 2/4/2018

TENANT ACTION

The Nation: All over the U.S., tenants organize

 for rent & eviction protections; real estate lobby 

is worried

Brooklyn Eagle: Williamsburg tenants demand 

city help them return to their lofts after 3-year l

ockout

HOMELESSNESS

Albany Times Union: With 90,000 people in shelters 

statewide, advocates say Cuomo is not doing 

enough to help homeless, demand he support 

rent supplement legislation

CUOMO

Real Estate Weekly: Landlord Farkas brought 

Andrew Cuomo into negotiations with West 

VIllage Houses tenants to persuade them not t

o sue to stop 2006 conversion to coop; 

non-purchasing tenant now facing eviction, 

demolition of historic complex is threatened

Tenant/Inquilino: What will it take to force Andrew

 Cuomo to strengthen rent protections?

FEW AFFORDABLE VACANCIES

amNY: 2017 citywide net vacancy rate was 3.63 

percent, per Census Bureau; Speaker Corey 

Johnson will renew city rent laws, & will demand 

Albany close loopholes

Crain's: Comptroller Stringer says City is still 

sitting on vacant lots that could be used for 

housing construction

NYCHA

Michael Gartland: City Council members want 

Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen to testify about NYCHA 

failures (New York Post)

New York Times: Legal Aid Society threatens to 

sue NYCHA unless it refunds $15 million to 

tenants who have been without heat

Daily News: Health Dept. to study impact of 

NYCHA lead paint failures

New York Post: Public housing tenants protest 

outside de Blasio's State of the City speech

Patch: Trump's budget would slash funding for 

NYCHA

AIR BnB
Jonathan Westin: Airbnb profits from removing 

units from rental housing stock, fuels gentrification 

(Crain's Op Ed)

ALBANY

Tenant/Inquilino: The case against Jeff Klein & 

the IDC

Kendra Allenby: How the IDC keeps your rent 

high (Tenant/Inquilino) (CARTOON)

  

WNYC: Reclaim New York, funded by the same 

right wingers who helped elect Trump, seeks to 

upend local New York governments

Mike McKee

http://www.tenantspac.org/

How much vacant NYC land is being used for housing?

Gotham Gazette

Comptroller Again Calls Out City on Vacant Land; City Again Punches Back

February 14, 2018 | by Sam Raskin

Excerpts:

Comptroller Scott Stringer held a press conference Monday morning in front of a vacant lot on West 115th Street to criticize the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) for “dragging its feet” on creating affordable housing on empty city-owned land.

. . . .

“HPD is aggressively developing its 1,000 remaining public sites for affordable housing, almost all of them small and hard to develop lots,” said HPD Commissioner Maria Torres-Springer, through a spokesperson.

DHCR Commissioner says NYC has an affordability crisis

amNY: 

NYC faces an ‘affordability crisis’ in housing, says commissioner of Department of Housing Preservation and Development

By Ivan Pereira   ivan.pereira@amny.com February 11, 2018
EXCERPT: 

New York City residents are still struggling to find homes despite the city having the largest housing stock in its history, according to a report to be released Monday.

The Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s triannual housing vacancy survey found that the net vacancy rate in the five boroughs was 3.63 percent between January and May in 2017.

Articles of Interest - 2/10/2018

New York Times: Family stuck in shelter for 
3 years while  landlord drags feet on correcting 
violations

Daily News: NYCHA tenants sue City for 
ceiling collapse

Riverdale Press: With help from Housing Rights 
Initiative, Bronx tenants sue Weinreb Management 
for flaunting rent law requirements

New York 1: Chinatown tenants begin hunger strike, 
demand HPD take over structural repair of 85 Bowery

J.G. Collins: To encourage landlords to lower 
unrealistic asking rents, apply commercial rent tax 
to vacant storefronts (City & State OpEd)

Harvey Epstein: Living in New York City isn't a 
privilege (Town & Village OpEd)

Join the R3 campaign to reach tenants in 4 State Senate districts

Help reach tenant voters in  4 important state senate districts: Join the Real Rent Reform Campaign  reaching out to tenant voters in the districts of four senators who are members of the breakaway group that collaborates with the  Republicans to keep them in control of the state senate. As long as the  Republicans control the senate, we will not be able to pass any pro-tenant bills. These four  members of the so-called Independent Democratic Conference are standing in the way of tenant legislation,  even though some of them claim to support the bills. The Real Rent Reform Campaign is recruiting  volunteers to knock on doors of prime voters  who live in rent-regulated apartments in these  districts, to ask for their help in applying pressure  to their senators to pass these bills. Most of these   canvasses will take place on Monday & Tuesday  evenings. Here are links to the leaflets we are using for this  canvass:  Alcantara Hamilton  Klein:  Peralta To volunteer or for more information, get in touch with Andrea Shapiro of Met  Council on Housing:  (212) 979-6238, ext. 102 or  andrea@metcouncilonhousing.org.  OR SIGN UP DIRECTLY.

Articles of Interest to Tenant Advocates - 2/4/2018

New York Times: Affordable housing crisis about to  get even worse, thanks to Trump Karen DeWitt: State senate Dems say first  priority if they gain majority is campaign  finance reform, including closing the   LLC loophole (NPR) City & State profile of Jeff Klein, leader of  rogue state senate Democrats  Daily News: 53 elected officials demand  immediate fix for NYCHA heating systems The Intercept: Trumpkins are considering  work requirements & rent hikes for HUD- subsidized housing The Lo-Down: 85 Bowery landlord paying for  some displaced residents to stay in Chinatown  hotel until vacate order is lifted Greenpoint Star: Ex-president of Lindsay  Park Mitchell-Lama coop in Williamsburg  faces 3 years in prison for taking bribes  while complex deteriorated

Articles of Interest to Tenant Advocates - 2/10/2018

New York Times: City Council grills NYCHA chair  Shola Olatoye on heat failures; Speaker Corey  Johnson asks her to apologize, she refuses Greg Smith: NYCHA chair accompanied by city's  top lawyer to city council hearing (Daily News) New York Post: Olatoye says City Hall ignored  her pleas for more money for repairs Observer: De Blasio says public housing tenants  deserve living standards to the extent that the   City can afford to provide them Bill Mahoney: Real estate developers among  biggest donors to Cuomo's re-election campaign,  governor still raking in LLC money (Politico NY) City Limits interview with a very defensive IDC  senator Marisol Alcantara on Inwood rezoning &  legislation to strengthen rent protections Steve Wishnia: Chinatown tenants face at least  6 more weeks homeless before structural repairs   are completed at 85 Bowery (Village Voice) amny: 85 Bowery tenants plan hunger strike  in effort to get back into building vacated for   safety violations, demand HPD take over repair work Observer: Cuomo sets post-budget April 24 as date for  special elections for 2 vacant state senate & 9 vacant  state assembly seats