Saturday, February 24, 2018

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.

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.

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

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.