State Passes 10 Housing Bills

The New York State Assembly took major strides on Monday to safeguard housing tenants, especially those living with rent regulation.

Making a bold legislative statement, the Assembly voted in 10 bills that all seek to provide more protection to tenants, particularly those facing the skyrocketing cost of New York City housing. The legislative package confronts head-on the dramatic loss of affordable housing, an issue that threatens the socioeconomic diversity of the city as well as its surrounding areas. The action comes four months after city residents took to the streets to protest rent hikes.

In her State of the City speech in 2007, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn called housing “the greatest financial burden on New Yorkers.” Yet despite the amount of attention rising rents have attracted, state legislation has often worked to increase the power of the landlord, not the tenant.

“There’s been a housing crisis in this city for a long time,” Jackie Del Valle, Director of Organizing for Housing Conservation Coordinators, said. “I think Albany has been increasingly anti-tenant for a long time, but there’s been some leadership change up in Albany so now there is more hope these bills will pass.”

The 10-bill package passed by the Assembly includes bills that repeal vacancy decontrol laws, increase penalties for tenant harassment, and revoke a statute that restricts the city’s power to pass strong rent regulation laws. Sponsored by five different members of the Assembly, including local Assemblyman Danny O’Donnell (D-Manhattan), the bills offered widespread protection for tenants, and began to address the trend of rent-regulated apartments slipping into the regular housing market.

The bills not only reduced the percentage by which landlords could raise rents per year from 20 percent to 10 percent, but also set strict rules about switching apartments from housing programs—such as the federal Section 8 program and the dying Mitchell-Lama Housing Program—mandating that rent prices could not be raised during the transition.

One bill also revoked the state Urstadt Law, which prohibited cities with a population of one million or more from strengthening rent regulation laws that would provide more comprehensive coverage than allowed by the state. Repealing this law, which effectually crippled the city’s ability to greatly increase housing regulation, is a tremendous gain for the city government, increasing local control over its affordable housing stock.

The bills also seek to end the practice of deregulating housing units that have a legal regulated rent of $2000 or more per month and are occupied by a tenant earning more than $175,000 per year. While these limits were once sensible, they haven’t been adjusted for inflation in years. The result is that many people who still need rent-regulated apartments find that their incomes surpass this threshold—so they are forced out.

In a press release, assemblymen expressed the need for new housing bills.
“New York’s broken rent laws have led to the loss of more than 300,000 rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments,” Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), Speaker of the Assembly, noted.

Assemblyman Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn) said, “New York cannot continue to bleed affordable housing as it has in the past decade,” adding that the legislative package “stands to preserve potentially thousands of tenants in rent-regulated apartments” from oft-suffered intimidation from landlords and soaring rent prices.

Still, it could seem that these legislative changes are coming too little too late. While rents have been increasing for years, the real estate market in Manhattan today seems to be on a downward trend, with sellers asking less for property. Sudden real-estate price cuts—in some areas by as much 50 percent—have drastically altered the New York real estate market.

Del Valle recognized that affordability has been particularly problematic during the housing bubble, but said that this new legislation is timely because of how it reacts to today’s economy. “These bills,” Del Valle explained, “don’t cost the state anything so it’s really smart for them to focus on this issue now.”

Unlike the talk about the budget that has people everywhere biting their nails nervously, altering these laws costs nothing and benefits thousands, Del Valle explained. “This is going to offer relief for a big majority.”

Del Valle also pointed out that bill A.2005’s repeal of vacancy decontrol will help “re-regulate rents that went to market rates in the last few years,” allowing those who have fallen on tough economic times more affordable options.

Members of the local community are also excited by what these new housing bills will mean. “Affordable housing is the number one capital budget priority for the Community Board,” Community Board 7 Chairperson Helen Rosenthal said, adding that it is also the board’s top legislative priority.

“We’re just thrilled and we hope it makes it through the state senate and that the governor passes it,” Rosenthal added.

Del Valle agreed. “I’m really impressed with the package of bills because they really get at the heart of the housing issue.”