Protestors Demand Changes in NY Housing Laws

Low-income tenants and activists gathered despite the cold on the steps of New York’s City Hall today to protest what they called landlord fraud in a series of rent increase loopholes.

The tenants and activists also released a report titled “The $20,000 Stove.” This report calls for the elimination of a program that lets landlords raise new tenants’ rents on rent-controlled apartments by 1/40^th the cost of improvements made on apartments.

Landlords are raising rents without showing documentation of the improvements, said Irene Baldwin, the executive director of the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, an organization of 93 affordable housing groups. Some landlords use the no-documentation loophole in the program to claim false improvements and raise rent prices without having to show proof, said Baldwin.

            “We need to crack down on this abuse,” said New York State Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried of Chelsea and Midtown. “Businessmen go to jail when they commit fraud. Landlords should go to jail too.” 

            After rent reaches $2000 each month, landlords can charge whatever they want because the apartment is no longer under rent control, said Baldwin.

“I hope changes come soon,” said Carmelo Robles, a 78-year-old volunteer for the Mirabal Sisters Cultural and Community Center, a non-profit organization promoting tenant rights for immigrants and low-income residents of West Harlem. “If nothing changes, pretty soon we will all be living on the streets.”

Current legislation to change the 1/40^th program will be voted on in the upcoming months in the New York legislature in Albany. If passed, the new legislation will require landlords to provide proof of any improvements and will also change the amount landlords can charge to 1/84^th the amount of documented improvements, said Stephen Levin, the Chief of Staff for New York State Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez of Brooklyn.

            “Right now landlords are in control, ” said New York State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn. “But we will not rest until the days when landlords abusing tenants comes to an end.”