McKee's Media - Jan. 31, 2020

STATE TENANT PROTECTION LAWS The Real Deal: Rent overcharge cases pile up as new rent law increased potential liabilities for landlords Georgia Kromrei: Support grows in state legislature for bill to bar no-fault evictions; majority of Democrats in both houses sign on as sponsors (The Real Deal)  Georgia Kromrei: Landlords deal with the rent law aftershocks (The Real Deal)  The Jersey Journal: City Council in Jersey City proposes to strengthen rent control law  Denis Slattery: New poll finds most New Yorkers support taxing the rich (Daily News) Qns.com: Carl Heastie appoints Mitchell-Lama housing working group Matthew Haag: Facades on 1,400 NYC buildings are dangerous to pedestrians, as landlords flout law, ignore enforcement & $31 million in fines (New York TImes) HOUSING SHORTAGE Daily News editorial: The only way to address the housing shortage in NYC is to build more market-rate housing New York Post editorial: New rent law is harming New York City's housing stock Historic.ly: Debunking Traditional Economics Arguments Against Rent Control Michael Kimmelman: Everything you think you know about housing is probably wrong; "density" a misunderstood concept (New York Times) (MUST READ)

McKee's Media - 12/20/2019

ARTICLES OF INTEREST TO TENANT ADVOCATES

HEAT SENSORS TEST

Shant Shahrigian: HPD will install heat sensors in the 50 residences with the most heat & hot water violations, under new City Council bill (Daily News)

WAREHOUSING VACANT STABILIZED APARTMENTS / TENANT ACTION
Josh Barbanel: NYC landlords slow-walk apartment upgrades, blame new rent law (Wall Street Journal)

Sabina Mollot: More tenants asserting rent overcharge claims as landlords delay filing non-payment cases in NYC Housing Court (Real Estate Weekly)

REZONING

Elizabeth Kim: In huge defeat for de Blasio, judge knocks down Inwood rezoning (Gothamist)

Daniel Geiger: Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer rejects plan to rezone Lenox Terrace apartment complex (Crain's)

MCIs
Georgia Kromrei: Tenants call for moratorium on MCI rent increases until DHCR issues new regulations to implement 2019 reforms (The Real Deal)

McKee's Media - 12/10/2019

ARTICLES OF INTEREST TO TENANT ADVOCATES: ZONING / DISPLACEMENT Shelterforce: Blame zoning, not transportation,  for displacement Caroline Spivack: 7 unfinished NYC infrastructure  projects poised to change the city in the 2020s  (Curbed NY) NEW STATE CRIMINAL PENALTIES FOR  HARASSING LANDLORDS Georgia Kromrei: Cuomo signs bill to increase  criminal penalties for landlords who harass  tenants (The Real Deal) DEM. CANDIDATES' HOUSING POLICY Shelterforce: Comparing housing platforms  by Democratic candidates for president TAX BREAKS FOR BIG DEVELOPERS Neil Demause: New School study uncovers  another $1 billion in subsidies to Hudson Yards (Gothamist) WHO'S GOT THE POWER IN ALBANY? Albany Times Union: Landlords form new advocacy  group to lobby for watering down historic 2019 rent law Albany Business Review: Landlords, business groups  banding together to push back on new state rent law Joe Mahoney: More bad news for state senate  Republicans (Lockport Union-Sun & Journal) Nick Reisman: Power flows to tenants group  (NY State of Politics) Zach Williams: A list of the GOP state senators  who are not running for re-election (City & State) TAX THE RICH IN ORDER TO. . . . Michael Gartland: Affordable housing advocates call  on Albany to end  tax breaks for luxury developers &  redirect money to fix public housing (Daily News)

Dec. 3, 2019 - Tenants PAC celebration

Dance The Night Away to the music of The Love Handles. Join Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Corey Johnson to celebrate the great tenant victory in Albany earlier this year, and to wish Michael McKee a happy 80th birthday. Tickets start at $80, more if you can afford it. Click on the button below to buy a ticket, or to make a contribution if you cannot attend. All proceeds will be used to support pro-tenant candidates in next year's crucial elections, and to fight for even stronger rent laws in Albany. Tuesday, December 3 6:30 - 9:00 pm The Cutting Room 44 East 32nd Street (between Madison & Park Avenues)

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE A TICKET

McKee's Media - Nov. 29, 2019

LANDLORDS UPSET AT NEW HOUSING LAW
John Leland: Real Estate thought it was invincible in New York. It wasn't. How the industry plans to rebound after a tough year (New York Times)
Josh Barbanel: NYC evictions are plunging under new rent control law (Wall Street Journal)
Georgia Kromrei: National landlord groups fund RSA/CHIP lawsuit against New York State rent law (The Real Deal)
Kathryn Brenzel: REBNY's new president James Whelan promises more aggressive effort to fight tenant protections (The Real Deal)
Middletown Times Herald-Record: New Windsor manufactured homes tenants protest upcoming rent hike
Elizabeth Kim: Met with unrelenting tenant opposition, landlord of Atlantic Plaza Towers backs down on installing facial recognition technology (Gothamist)

NEW RENT LAW:  STATEWIDE AND MOBILE HOME PARKS
Anna Gronewold: City of Albany moves towards opting into state rent control law (Politico NY)
Jeremy Moule: Rochester takes first step toward rent stabilization as mayor agrees to conduct vacancy survey (Rochester City Newspaper)


CITY DOESN'T COLLECT LANDLORD FINES / LANDLORDS ASK FOR $$
Gothamist: NYC fines landlords for lead but rarely comes to collect
Kathryn Brenzel: REBNY asks City to help landlords pay for lead abatement (The Real Deal)
NYCHA
Greg Smith: NYCHA monitor being paid $600 per hour (The City)

HOMELESS
Brooklyn Daily Eagle: Jehovah's Witnesses DUMBO hotel will become housing for formerly homeless New Yorkers

DISCRIMINATION AND DISPLACEMENT
Newsday: Black homebuyers & renters face discrimination from Long Island real estate brokers 
David Cruz: Special report: The vanishing Bronx homeowner (Norwood News)
New York Times: As Newark rebuilds, could black residents be pushed out?
Michael Kimmelman: Essex Crossing is the anti-Hudson Yards (New York Times)
New York Times: Surging rents, housing shortage leave working-class Californians at risk of displacement  

McKee's Media 11/08/2019

ARTICLES OF INTEREST TO TENANT ADVOCATES:

MCI RULES RETROACTIVE

Kathryn Brenzel: In a blow to landlords, state housing agency says new MCI rules are retroactive (The Real Deal)

AIRBnB

Luis Ferré-Sadurní: Massive defeat for Airbnb as Jersey City voters overwhelmingly approve stricter regulations on short-term rentals (New York Times)  

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/05/nyregion/airbnb-jersey-city-election-results.html  

Daily News editorial: NYC needs to crack down on Airbnb for illegal short-term rentals

The Real Deal: Airbnb lost by a landslide in Jersey City. What went wrong?

REBNY unhappy with new rent laws

Commercial Observer: https://commercialobserver.com/2019/11/what-will-rebny-do-after-losing-the-rent-reform-battle/  

Josh Barbanel: Bowing to real estate pressure, state tax officials reverse policy, will allow LLCs to purchase condos without disclosing names of owners (Wall Street Journal)

Georgia Kromrei: Big developers pitched alternate rent plan to Albany before passage of 

June law, might try again for new legislative session (The Real Deal)

American Apartment Owners Assn.: Rising rent control is slowing development & investment

NEW YORK CITY

Samar Khurshid: Re-elected Public Advocate Jumaane Williams will keep pushing de Blasio on housing, policing (Gotham Gazette) 

Patch: Council Member Mark Levine faces ethics probe for failure to report rental income from condo he owns with his wife

McKee's Media, 9/12/2019

ARTICLES OF INTEREST TO TENANT ADVOCATES:

OPTING INTO RENT STABILIZATION (ETPA)

Hudson Valley One: Kingston first upstate city 

to take steps to opt in to state rent stabilization 

system

WAREHOUSING and OTHER 

RESISTANCE TO NEW LAW

Georgia Kromrei: Blackstone reverses course, 

says it will rent vacant apartments at Stuy Town 

(The Real Deal)

Elizabeth Kim: Following backlash, Blackstone 

commits to renting all vacant apartments at Stuy 

Town (Gothamist)

Sabina Mollot: Landlords warn that warehousing 

could become "the new normal" (Town & Village)

Michael DeMasi: Upstate landlords organize to fight 

new rent law; 250+ landlords register for Sept. 10 

workshop; new PAC formed (Albany Business Review)

Michael DeMasi: 350+ upstate landlords attend 

workshop (Albany Business Review)

Kathryn Brenzel: Deputy Mayor Vicki Been says 2019 

rent law might have gone too far, disses bill to prohibit 

evictions without good cause (The Real Deal)

Will Bredderman: De Blasio thinks rent reforms might 

have "unintended consequences" (Crain's)

Tenants seek to join suit landlords filed against 

laws

Sarina Trangle: Tenant advocacy groups seek to join 

landlord lawsuit against New York rent control laws as 

intervenor parties (amny)

Crain's on tenant advocacy groups motion to 

intervene in landlord lawsuit against rent control laws

DHCR Goofs Then Corrects 

Michael DeMasi: State housing agency issued incorrect 

information about which landlords are subject to new rent 

law (Albany Business Review)

DHCR SUMMARY OF THE NEW RENT LAW

OTHER STATES PASSING RENT LAWS

New York Times: California rent control bill advances,

 fueled by housing crisis

TENANTS FIGHT BACK

Claudia Irizarry Aponte: Sunset Park tenants sue to 

compel restoration of building months after devastating 

fire left them homeless (The City)

https://thecity.nyc/2019/09/tenants-ousted-by-sunset-

park-blaze-fight-for-answers.html