While Albany leaders failed to pass a comprehensive package of housing legislation this week, some advocates and high-ranking lawmakers have been working on a pair of bills they say could strengthen protections for tenants across New York City’s stock of roughly 1 million rent stabilized apartments.
The Rent Guidelines Board Tuesday voted in favor of rent hikes between 2 to 5 percent for a one-year lease and 4 to 7 percent for two-year leases. A final vote won’t happen until June, but the preliminary numbers have historically set the goalposts: annual adjustments have fallen within these ranges since 2004, when the board began using them.
The latest vacancy data now mirrors pre-COVID figures following a “pandemic-height outlier,” according to New York State’s affordable housing agency. The number of empty apartments also matches the vacancy rate prior to landmark 2019 tenant protections that landlords blamed for the spike in empty units last year.
Tenants say they fear the property owners are waging a war of attrition, waiting the renters out until they give up, move on and forfeit the rent-regulated apartments.
A new report finds renters are being priced out of housing across the country—not because of a lack of supply, but because of the inadequacy of our incomes.
Some say New York could relieve high rents by removing rent regulations. And other people say the world is flat.
Ocean Village lost power after Sandy. But danger and deprivation were nothing new to its 1,000-plus residents, who hope a new owner and $110 million in public financing change the tide.
The city is in the midst of an historic plan to build affordable housing. But people who want to live in those low-income units face enormous difficulty finding and applying for government-subsidized apartments.
Taking advantage of a new law to help tenants, lawsuits alleging landlord harassment are under way.
Landlords can’t turn away renters if their rent money comes from government assistance. Despite a new law, however, they’re still doing exactly that.
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