The Housing Headlines to Read This Week

Here are the housing headlines you need to read this week.

• As a senate hearing on rent laws got underway Thursday, protesters outside were getting feisty.

Huge commotion outside of the Senate’s Brooklyn rent regulation hearing. Protestors claiming that the elimination of MCIs/IAIs would eliminate jobs. Tenant advocates pushing back. pic.twitter.com/011ApwRmGt

— J.T. Falcone (@jtfalc0ne) May 16, 2019

• Hundreds of tenants and advocats flooded Albany on tuesday to advocate for major rent reforms. The senate is currently considering nine bills to strengthen and expand the rent laws. Gothamist has the story.

The pressure is on from all angles:

• Labor leaders are pushing Gov. Cuomo and legislative leaders to enact rent reforms, the Daily News writes.
• Protesters are targeting Jamaica state Senator for his resistance to rent control legislation, QNS reports.
• Albany insiders say it’s increasingly likely that rent reforms could be bundled with charter school and marijuana legislation in an end-of-session omnibus bill, the Daily News reports.

In planning and zoning, 

• Citing the affordability crisis, dozens of residents, advocacy groups and elected officials testified last Thursday that the Charter Revision Commission’s recommendations do not go far enough on land use and planning. (RSVP for a discussion of the comprehensive planning proposal Thursday May 23).
• Curbed reports that The Department of City Planning (DCP) will explore mandating a minimum lot size for non-residential projects.
• The city selected five architect-finalists in a competition to design affordable housing on small lots, Curbed reports.
• A new tool, created by the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development and the City Council, combines multiple public datasets showing threats to displacement by community and council district and by individual building.

At NYCHA,

• The design of a Harlem public housing apartment where six family members died in a fire last week had inadequate exits. Thousands of NYC apartments are similar, the New York Post reports.  
• After missing the deadline to hire a new NYCHA CEO, de Blasio says one can be expected by July 1, The New York Post reported.
• 3,000 households could feel effects of a Trump administration rule barring public housing subsidies to undocumented immigrants, the City reports.