New York Is Our Home!

Protest Senator Pedro Espada’s Betrayal of Bronx Residents

2009-06-11T17:14:00.002-05:00

Join Housing Here and Now for a rally in the Bronx!

As the power struggle continues in Albany, tenants across the city still do not have the protections they deserve. Join Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and CASA-New Settlement (Community Association for Safe Apartments) as we protest Senator Pedro Espada. Please find the information below.

Protest Senator Pedro Espada’s Betrayal of Bronx Residents

Friday, June 12, at 11:30 a.m.
400 E. Fordham Road, at Webster Ave.
In front of Senator Espada’s empty “District Office”

By joining with the Senate Republicans, Espada ensures the defeat of important bills that would have protected tenants and affordable housing in New York!

Bronx tenants are especially likely to face serious challenges finding stable, safe, decent, and affordable housing. Recently, Bronx tenants and their allies had been hopeful that a Democratic controlled State Senate would pass important legislation that would help protect tenants and preserve affordable apartments. This legislation would have been especially important in Senator Espada’s district, which has 77,000 rent-regulated apartments, the majority of which are occupied by Latino and working class families.

In handing the State Senate over to Republican Leadership, Pedro Espada has directly halted legislation, which would have helped many of the tenants in those 77,000 rent regulated apartments in his district, and all over New York City.

Tenants and other constituents of Senator Espada’s district are also angry by the disregard that their Senator has shown them by failing to open an office in his district where he can offer services to the constituents he claims to represent. This fact is particularly offensive, given that it is well known that Senator Espada lives in the wealthy suburb of Mamaroneck, far outside of his Bronx district.

Tenants are offended by the fact the Pedro Espada is falsely claiming to act in the name of his constituents and of Latino empowerment. Instead of fighting to pass legislation to support his tenant-heavy district, instead he fought to take power for himself!

Directions: -- Take the B or D train to Fordham Road. Walk east along Fordham road till you get to the corner of
Fordham road and Webster Avenue.

Sponsored by
Latinos for Affordable Rents Coalition
North West Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition,
CASA – New Settlement (Community Association for Safe Apartments)
The Mitchell-Lama PIE Campaign
Housing Here and Now

TENANT MOVEMENT BLASTS SENATE COUP; PUSHES FORWARD WITH AGEND

2009-06-10T17:18:00.000-05:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – June 10th, 2009
A joint statement from NY’s two main tenant rights and affordable housing coalitions

TENANT MOVEMENT BLASTS SENATE COUP; PUSHES FORWARD WITH AGENDA

The tenant movement in New York is outraged by the June 8 power grab by two turncoats “Democratic” Senators to regain control of the New York State Senate for the Republicans.

Tenant leaders and advocates believe that these events were part of an effort by Senators Pedro Espada and Hiram Monserrate, as well as their Republican allies, to block pro-tenant legislation from being passed in the Senate this legislative session.

One of the central debates in the Senate that led to this attempted power grab was the tenant movement’s progress towards passage of S2237A, which would repeal vacancy decontrol, a provision in the rent laws which allows apartments to be taken out of rent regulation and converted to market rate housing. Vacancy decontrol is currently resulting in the loss of at least 20,000 units of affordable housing every year, accelerating the affordable housing crisis during a punishing economic downturn. Vacancy decontrol has led to widespread tenant harassment throughout New York City and the suburban counties as landlords attempt to remove tenants from their apartments, deregulate them, and increase the rents.

Senator Espada, Chair of the Housing Committee, had indicated that S2237A would be on the June 9 Housing Committee agenda. Representatives of the tenant movement had been promised by Senator Hiram Monserrate that he secured a commitment from Senator Espada to vote the bill out of committee and to vote for the bill when it came to the floor. The recent developments in the Senate will almost certainly hurt tenants’ efforts to ensure that important pro-tenant legislation will come to the floor for a vote this legislative session.

Monday’s events have led to widespread outrage in the tenant movement, which has been working for nearly four decades to help pro-tenant Senators regain control of the State Senate. Tenants had believed that pro-tenant legislation that is both so critical and so urgent would finally be passed this legislative session, with a Democratic majority in power. Instead, tenants have been betrayed at the eleventh hour by the very legislators they helped to elect.

The apparent coup d’etat was orchestrated by moneyed interests and their allies in the State Senate. Rochester billionaire Tom Golisano has been credited with helping Espada, Monserrate, and the Republicans strategize their takeover. And Joseph Strasburg of the Rent Stabilization Association was recently quoted saying “we’re pleasantly thrilled.” Once again, such interests have thwarted the democratic process and the will of New York’s voters.

“The legislators who have orchestrated this revolt are putting tenants’ rights and affordable housing in jeopardy. This is unacceptable; our elected officials must be accountable to their tenant constituents who helped them get elected and who have been counting on them to do the right thing,” said Maggie Russell-Ciardi, Executive Director of the New York State Tenants & Neighbors Coalition.

Tenants are planning actions in the districts to express their outrage and ask their Senators to do the right thing.

Press contacts:

Michael McKee, Treasurer of the Tenants Political Action Committee (917) 669-2977
Michelle O’Brien, Executive Director of Housing Here and Now (347) 265-9307
Maggie Russell-Ciardi, Executive Director of Tenants & Neighbors (212) 991-2657

Three Weeks to Go!

2009-06-04T13:32:00.002-05:00

We have only three weeks left in the 2009 Albany Legislative Session. With one final push, we are on the verge of winning the strongest slate of pro-tenant legislation in decades. The repeal of vacancy decontrol, protection of Mitchell-Lama and Section 8 tenants, and reforms of rent increases for rent regulated tenants need us to step up and push them through. Now is a crucial time for everyone to get involved. We need you!

Get involved by joining us in Albany, canvassing door to door on the weekend, rallying in the city, or phone banking in the evenings.

1. Come to Albany

Senate Housing Committee Vote
Monday, June 8
We expect three crucial pro-tenant bills to be passed out of the Housing Committee on Monday. Join our vans going up to cheer the vote.
Contact Jon Furlong for details: (212) 979-6238, ext. 203

Mass Mobilization for Floor Vote
We will be taking up 300 people when the repeal of vacancy decontrol finally comes to the Senate floor.
Date to be announced

Daily Albany Trips
Every day of the Legislation Session, Monday to Thursday, tenants and advocates are driving up to Albany to distribute factsheets to Senators entering the chambers. Join one of these trips!
Contact Jon Furlong for details: (212) 979-6238, ext. 203

2. Canvass

Canvass Senator Carl Kruger in Brooklyn
Friday, June 5 or Sunday, June 7
Knock on doors in Senator Kruger's District, talking with tenants about current legislation.
Contact Giti Dadlani for details (212) 608-4320 ext. 316.

Canvass Senator Jeffrey Klein in the Bronx
Saturday, June 6
We are going door to door in Senator Klein's neighborhood to talk with tenants about the importance of repealing vacancy decontrol.
Contact Michael McKee for details: (212) 577-7001

3. Rally in the City

Rally planned at Brooklyn Borough Hall next week! Date to be announced.

4. Phone bank

Phone banking in the evenings Monday through Thursday!
Call tenants in key Senate districts and help get them involved by contacting their Senator.
Contact Michael McKee for details: (212) 577-7001.

Daily Trips to Albany!

2009-05-22T14:21:00.010-05:00

Housing Here and Now and Real Rent Reform are coordinating trips to Albany during every day of the legislative session. We are distributing literature to the New York State Senate and staff on the importance of repealing vacancy decontrol.

Check out both the fact sheets we have already distributed:

4/20/09: TenantsPAC Memorandum of Support for Repeal of Vacancy Decontrol

4/21/09: A Profile of Rent Regulated Tenants

4/22/09: It's Not Just a Manhattan Issue: The Impact of Vacancy Decontrol on the Boroughs

4/27/09: It's Not Just the Rent: Tenant Protections Under Rent Regulation

4/28/09: Landlords Prosper Under Rent Regulation

5/5/09: Vacancy Decontrol Hurts Immigrants

5/11/09: The Future of Affordable Housing

5/12/09: Stronger Rent Laws Now! - On May 12, over 250 tenants from across New York lobbied for stronger rent laws in New York. Here is the flyer we distributed widely with our platform.

5/18/09: In Defense of Regulation

5/19/09: Regulation Is Not a Subsidy, It Is a Anti-Profiteering Measure

5/20/09: Nothing Short of Full Repeal! Why Raising the Threshold Won't Work

6/1/09: Vacancy Decontrol Affects Apartments Renting for Under $2,000

6/2/09: Destabilization Destabilizes Communities: the Threat of Predatory Equity

Tenant Legislative Package

2009-05-06T12:19:00.000-05:00

Real Rent Reform Campaign
Housing Here and Now
Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development
Working Families Party

NO MORE DELAYS – STRONGER RENT LAWS NOW!
May 6, 2009

Between now and June 22, the New York State Legislature must enact a number of necessary reforms to undo years of legislative giveaways to the New York City real estate lobby that have exacerbated the housing crisis in the city and suburban counties. While there are many important pro-tenant bills pending in both houses, the following represent the absolute minimum of necessary reform. This year. Not next year.

Full Repeal of Vacancy Decontrol
S2237-A (Andrea Stewart-Cousins, et al.)/A2005 (Linda Rosenthal et al.)
This bill repeals vacancy decontrol, which has already cost New York City and the suburban counties of Nassau, Westchester and Rockland Counties an estimated 300,000 apartments that have been removed from rent and eviction protections and are no longer affordable. The bill also re-regulates 90 to 95 percent of the apartments that have been lost to vacancy decontrol in the last 15 years.

Adequate protections for former Mitchell-Lama & Section 8 Tenants
S3326 (Andrea Stewart-Cousins, et al.)
This bill provides for rent stabilization coverage for all Mitchell-Lama and project-based Section 8 buildings that leave or have left those government-supervised programs, regardless of when constructed or first occupied. The bill further prohibits landlords of newly rent-stabilized buildings from seeking rent increases under the “unique or peculiar circumstances” loophole. This is the only bill providing for rent regulation coverage of post-1973 buildings that have already left Mitchell-Lama or Section 8 and did not then become rent regulated.

Reform Major Capital Improvement Rent Increase System
S745-A (Liz Krueger, et al.)/A1928 (Daniel O’Donnell, et al.)
This bill makes rent increases for building-wide Major Capital Improvements temporary surcharges, so that once tenants have paid off the cost of the MCIs, the rent increase disappears. The MCI rent increase must be listed as a separate surcharge on the rent bill, rather than being compounded with the base rent.

Reform Individual Apartment Improvement Rent Increase System
S5296 (Daniel Squadron, et al.)/A5316 (Sheldon Silver, et al.)
This bill makes three necessary and reasonable reforms that address the key problems in the 1/40th rent increase loophole: (1) it lengthens the amortization period for such rent increases from 40 months to 84 months, thus bringing it into line with the MCI program. (2) It allows direct agency oversight of such rent increases to discourage fraud. (3) It strengthens tenant notification to improve oversight.
….. over …..
Reform Owner Use Evictions Loophole
S2642 (Daniel Squadron, et al.)/A1685 (Vito Lopez et al.)
This bill closes one of the worst loopholes in the New York City Rent Stabilization Law of 1969, which allows landlords to recover “one or more” apartments for occupancy by the landlord or a member of the landlord’s family, and has been used to empty entire buildings. This bill limits recovery to one apartment, and requires the landlord to demonstrate “immediate and compelling necessity” as in NYC rent control and suburban rent control and rent stabilization laws.

Reform Preferential Rent Loophole
A465 (Hakeem Jeffries, et al.)
This bill closes another bad loophole that allows a landlord of a rent-stabilized unit to rent to a new tenant at a “preferential” rent lower than the legal rent, then later offer the tenant a renewal lease based on the legal rent, hitting tenants with huge rent increases, sometimes several hundred dollars, often forcing them to vacate. The landlord then collects another 20 percent statutory vacancy bonus and engages in this scam all over again with a new tenant, while steadily moving the legal rent closer to the $2,000 per month threshold for vacancy decontrol. A465 allows the landlord to revert to the higher legal rent upon vacancy, but requires that the lease be renewed based on the lower preferential rent.

Reduce the Statutory Vacancy Bonus
A1686 (Vito Lopez et al.)
This bill reduces the statutory vacancy bonus from a minimum of 20 percent for a two-year vacancy lease to a minimum of 10 percent, and limits collection of the bonus to once a year.

Moratorium on Mitchell-Lama Buyouts
S2171 (Thomas Duane, et al.)/A6706 (Jonathan Bing, et al.)
This bill imposes an 18-month moratorium on Mitchell-Lama buyouts of rentals and coops, and requires DHCR to prepare a report to the Legislature with recommendations for how to preserve Mitchell-Lama housing.

Reform the NYC and Suburban Rent Boards
(To be introduced by Thomas Duane and George Latimer)
This bill restructures the four rent guidelines boards in NYC and the three suburban counties (originally designed by the real estate industry itself) to level the playing field and give tenants at least a chance of fair rent adjustments. Among the most important changes is a requirement for City Council approval of appointments by NYC mayor.

Restore Full Home Rule to New York City
S749 (Liz Krueger, et al.)/A1688 (Vito Lopez et al.)
This bill repeals the so-called Urstadt Law of 1971, named for Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s housing commissioner Charles J. Urstadt, and by doing so restores full home rule powers over rent and eviction laws to the New York City Council and Mayor.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Housing Here and Now (212) 979-6238 ext. 204
Real Rent Reform Campaign (212) 608-4320 ext. 316

Building Momentum to Repeal Vacancy Decontrol!

2009-03-03T16:54:00.001-05:00

We are all making strides to win the repeal of vacancy decontrol! With rallies across the city, three mass mobilizations of tenants in Albany and actions across the city, we are demanding the Senate step up and save rent-regulated housing. The bill is out – S2237-A – and now we need 9 more votes to win. The campaign needs everyone for mobilizing across the city, canvassing in the Bronx, and phone banking in Manhattan. Check out the details below!

Get Connected!

It is up to us! To win vacancy decontrol EVERYONE must rise to the challenge. Tenants across the city are taking action throughout March to push every last Senator to sign on to the bill to repeal vacancy decontrol. Get together with your tenant association, community group, church or union and join in these district actions, or plan your own.

Vacancy Decontrol Mobilizations

We will be mobilizing for the following dates in New York City and in Albany on Vacancy Decontrol. Please mark your calendars for the following:

Rally in Martin Golden's District Office
Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
Friday, March 20, 3:00 PM (Tentatively)

Rally at City Hall, Manhattan
Tuesday, March 24, To be Determined

Lobby day in Albany
Monday, April 6

Rally at Harlem State Office Building
Wednesday, April 15

Find out more:

Jon Furlong, Housing Here and Now, (718) 246-7900 x273

Canvass in the Bronx

Go door to door talking with rent-regulated tenants about vacancy decontrol in the Bronx. We’ll be gathering signatures, flyering, encouraging folks to make calls, and getting the word out one person at time. Senators Pedro Espada Jr. and Jeffrey Klein in the Bronx need to hear from the thousands of tenants in their district.

Volunteer for canvassing:

Orlando Torres (NWBCCC) at 718-584-0515 Ext. 412 or 917-213-7529 (cell), Orlando@northwestbronx.org

Tamara Cyzck (New Settlement/CASA) at 718-716-8000 Ext. 125, tamara.c@newsettlement.org

Community Voices Heard will be flyering this Thursday March 5th and Friday March 6th from 4:30-6pm.
Please Contact: Diego Quinones (Community Voices Heard) @ 212-860-6001 or via email: diego@cvhaction.org

Phone Bank in Manhattan

Two long-time tenant rights groups – Tenants & Neighbors and Tenants PAC – are phone banking from Manhattan offices into key Senate districts, encouraging tenants to get involved and speak out for the repeal of vacancy decontrol.

Volunteer for the phone bank:

Tenants PAC
11 Park Place, Suite 814 (between Broadway and Church Street. ½ block west of City Hall Park.)
Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, from 5:30 to 8:30 pm for the next few weeks.
Call Michael McKee at (212) 577-7001

Tenants & Neighbors
236 W. 27th St., 4th Fl. Call for dates and times
Call Pat Coleman at (212) 608-4320 Ext. 306

NOW is the time!!!

We can win vacancy decontrol! The bill will probably come to the floor to the floor of the Senate in April, after the state budget has been passed. We have about 6 weeks to move all the senators who have not signed on yet. NOW is the time! It’s up to us! Call me to talk about how you can get involved

Tenants Take Over Caucus Weekend!

2009-02-19T12:26:00.001-05:00

See below for a blow-by-blow from our Valentine's Day trip to Albany, and an update on upcoming vacancy decontrol actions. Our tentatively planned trip to Albany next Tuesday, Feb. 24 has been POSTPONED until mid-March.

Last Saturday, tenants from across the city flooded the Annual Black and Latino Caucus in Albany, calling on legislators to repeal Vacancy Decontrol!

Over two hundred tenants and leaders descended on the capital, calling on members and participants of the caucus to repeal vacancy decontrol. Tenants spent hours passing out flyers, handing out stickers, and collecting signatures demanding the passage of the Senate bill that would signal the most significant win for tenants in more than three decades.

Tenants held a press conference and rally at the Legislative Office Building, followed with the Caucus workshop on Housing. We were joined by Senators Andrea Stewart Cousins and Bill Perkins and our allies Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries. Tenant leaders moved the crowd, including Julia Boyd of ACORN, Joseph Ferdinand and Ramona Santana of the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, Narcisa of Make the Road NY and Cathy Stephans of Community Voices Heard.

Senator Andrea Stewart Cousins announced she introduced the bill to repeal vacancy decontrol in the Senate as S2237. It already has 23 co-sponsors, and needs only 9 more votes to win. The fight is on to get every Senator we can signed on to the bill in the coming weeks.

We closed the day marching through the concourse on their way to the buses, chanting so loudly that there could be no mistaking what everyone was there for.

The repeal of vacancy decontrol would halt the loss of tens of thousands of affordable apartments from New York City.We need to keep the pressure on to carry the bill through the Senate! Check out who has already signed on:

Has your Senator signed on?

GREAT WORK TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE LEAD!

Great work to all the groups that made a special effort to turn out members for this event, including Make the Road NY, ACORN, Community Voices Heard, Housing Conservation Coordinators, Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, Tenants & Neighbors and Tenants PAC. This event could not have happened with out all of your hard work and dedication to this effort.

NEXT STEPS

The tentatively scheduled Lobby Visit to Albany for Next Tuesday the 24th has been postponed. Stay tuned for an early-March press conference, and many more actions to come.

We need to do everything we can in pushing the Senate to pass the repeal of vacancy decontrol. There are nine Senators who have not yet signed on. Let's start planning phone banks, district rallies, flyering, forums, and everything else we can to get these Senators on-board with tenants. Get together with your group and brainstorm actions you can take on.

STAY IN TOUCH!

For more information on upcoming mobilizations, please contact me! I can be reached at (718) 246-7900 x273 or jon@housinghereandnow.org.

Has your Senator signed on?

2009-02-17T15:50:00.005-05:00

Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins has introduced S2237 in the State Senate to repeal vacancy decontrol. We have 23 co-sponsors. We need 32 votes to win.

Check back here for a tally of which Senators have signed on, and which haven't. We'll be updating this daily.

The following Senators have co-sponsored S2237 to repeal vacancy decontrol:

1. Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D- Westchester)
2. Liz Krueger (D- Manhattan)
3. Eric Adams (D- Brooklyn)
4. Joseph Addabbo (D- Queens)
5. Darrell Aubertin (D- Jefferson, Oswego, St Lawrence Counties)
6. Neil Breslin (D- Albany)
7. Ruben Diaz, Sr. (D- Bronx)
8. Thomas Duane (D- Manhattan)
9. Ruth Hassell-Thompson (D- Bronx, Westchester County)
10. Shirley Huntley (D- Queens)
11. Hiram Monserrate (D- Queens)
12. Velmanette Montgomery (D- Brooklyn)
13. George Onorato (D- Queens)
14. Suzi Oppenheimer (D- Westchester County)
15. Frank Padavan (R- Queens)
16. Kevin Parker (D- Brooklyn)
17. Bill Perkins (D- Manhattan)
18. Eric Schneiderman (D- Manhattan, Bronx)
19. José Marco Serrano (D- Bronx, Manhattan)
20. Daniel Squadron (D- Brooklyn, Manhattan)
21. Toby Ann Stavisky (D- Queens)
22. Antoine Thompson (D- Buffalo)
23. John Sampson (D- Brooklyn)

We need 8 more votes to get win!

These 9 Democratic Senators have not yet signed on:

1. Martin Dilan (D- Brooklyn)
2. Carl Kruger (D- Brooklyn)
3. Pedro Espada, Jr. (D- Bronx)
4. Jeffrey Klein (D- Bronx, Westchester County)
5. Malcolm Smith (D- Queens, Long Island)
6. Craig Johnson (D- Long Island)
7. Brian Foley (D- Long Island)
8. David Valesky (D- Syracuse)
9. William Stachowski (D-Buffalo)
10. Diane Savino (D- Brooklyn, Staten Island) - Savino removed her name as a co-sponsor.

As well, we are hopeful we can encourage these two downstate Republic Senators to sign on:

1. Martin Golden (R- Brooklyn)
2. Andrew Lanza (R- Staten Island)

Check back daily for updates.

TENANTS CHEER HISTORIC ALBANY VICTORY

2009-02-03T20:25:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, tenants and housing advocates with Housing Here and Now cheered as the New York State Assembly passed the repeal of vacancy decontrol, and a whole package of pro-tenant legislation. Over calls for us to quiet down, nearly 50 tenants from New York City and Albany applauded cheered as news of the vote came through on the Assembly session floor. This crucial victory comes following more than a year of hard work by the entire housing justice movement of New York City. We rallied throughout the city, we braved the snow in endless trips to Albany, we lobbied our legislators, and yesterday, the assembly heard our demands!

The repeal of vacancy decontrol would halt the loss of tens of thousands of affordable apartments from New York City. The Assembly's passage of the repeal yesterday is a giant victory for tenants. The final vote count is still be calculated. At last count, the repeal of vacancy decontrol passed 91 to 52. Now, we need to keep the pressure on to carry the bill through the Senate!

NEXT STEPS

Next, join Housing Here and Now on SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14 for the next mass mobilization to Albany to push the State Senate! We're headed up for Caucus Weekend, a key time where Democrats sets their agenda moving forward. We need a mass presence to show them we mean business, and that the repeal of vacancy decontrol has to be the top of their priorities.

GREAT WORK TO EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE LEAD!

Great work to all the groups that joined Housing Here and Now yesterday on the Assembly floor to represent tenants, including ACORN, Pratt Area Community Council, Mitchell-Lama Tenants' Association, Tenants & Neighbors, Tenants PAC, West Side Neighborhood Alliance and Park West Village Tenants Association. These folks turned out on short notice to show the Assembly that tenants are behind them in this key victory.

Special congratulations as well to all the groups who took the lead on last week's Senate lobby visits in Albany and recent in-district lobbying, including the above groups and North West Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, New York City AIDS Housing Network, Community Voices Heard, Make the Road NY, New York Immigration Coalition, Catholic Charities of Queens and Brooklyn, Real Rent Reform Campaign, Bushwick Housing Independence Project, Interfaith Assembly on Housing and Homelessness, Voices of Women Organizing, Picture the Homeless, Chelsea Tenant Action Committee,

STAY IN TOUCH! STAY IN THE FIGHT!

For more information on the Albany mobilization on Saturday, February 14 or to RSVP, contact Housing Here and Now's new Lead Organizer: Jon Furlong. He can be reached at (718) 246-7900 x273 or jon@housinghereandnow.org .

2009-02-01T00:02:00.001-05:00

GET ON THE BUS FOR ALBANY THIS MONDAY!
Cheer the Assembly passing a major victory for housing justice
Demand the Senate carry the repeal of Vacancy decontrol through to the end!

MONDAY FEBRUARY 2
Free Bus from NYC:
Brooklyn: 7:30 AM; 2-4 Nevins St. & Flatbush Ave at ACORN's Office
Harlem: 8:30 AM; 135th St & Lenox Ave

RSVP to michelle@housinghereandnow.org or (718) 246-7900 x247

This Monday, 55 tenants and housing advocates will be headed to Albany. We will cheer the Assembly passing the repeal of vacancy decontrol to save New York's rent-regulated housing, and hold a press conference demanding swift action by the Senate. We're carrying the momentum from our 1,000 person rally on December 9 and last week's Albany lobbying to push the biggest victory for tenants in 34 years.

Coming Up

2009-01-15T12:09:00.003-05:00

Now is the time to get involved to repeal vacancy decontrol and protect rent-regulated housing in NYC!

1--- TOMORROW, Fri, Jan 16th: NYS Assembly Committee on Housing:
2--- Tuesday, Jan 27th: Housing Justice Lobby Day in Albany

* * * * *

1--- TOMORROW, Fri, Jan 16th: NYS Assembly Committee on Housing: Public Hearing on Rent Regulation

This Assembly hearing aims to determine what actions can be taken to preserve the existing supply of rent regulated housing and to encourage the development of new units. Join Housing Here and Now and show support for the repeal of vacancy decontrol.

When: Friday, January 16, 2009, 11:30 a.m.
Where: 250 Broadway, NYC, Assembly Hearing Room, Room 1923, 19th Floor

250 Broadway is directly across the street from City Hall, in lower Manhattan.

Let us know you can come: danielle@housinghereandnow.org, 646-202-3962

It is not clear how long the hearing will go on, but it is likely it will go into late afternoon, so come late if you must.

For more info or to submit form to testify: http://www.assembly.state.ny.us/com/Housing/20090108/

* * * * *

2--- Tuesday, Jan 27th: Housing Justice Lobby Day in Albany

Join Housing Here and Now in Albany to lobby key Senators in the fight to get their commitment to repeal vacancy decontrol. If you're interested and available in lobbying for this important day of action, please contact: danielle@housinghereandnow.org, 646-202-3962

Successful Membership Meeting and Lobby Training

2009-01-15T11:59:00.005-05:00

135 people from over 30 organizations from all around NYC participated in the January 13th Membership Meeting and Lobby Training! Congratulations to everyone involved. Photos--

To participate in upcoming lobby visits in Albany (January 27th) or in Senators' district offices throughout the upcoming weeks, be in touch:
danielle@housinghereandnow.org, 646 202 3962

2009 is the year

2009-01-07T12:59:00.002-05:00

...to overturn vacancy decontrol and protect rent regulated housing! With the Senate leadership decided and a new Democratic majority in place, we need to keep our eyes on the prize and let our State Senators know what our communities need.

Photos of the Rally!

2008-12-15T12:50:00.005-05:00

Check out photos of the December 9th
Rally to Overturn Vacancy Decontrol --

- From East Harlem Preservation, Inc.

- From Housing Conservation Coordinators

TENANTS ROCKED THE HOUSE!

2008-12-11T12:55:00.016-05:00

1,000 tenants, housing advocates, elected officials, clergy and community leaders turned out in force on Tuesday night to demand the end to vacancy decontrol! We had a tremendously successful rally that left everyone excited and ready to carry forward the end of vacancy decontrol and the greatest win for

tenants in decades. Our chants shook that building's foundations, our passion flooded the streets.

Congratulations and Thank you EVERYONE who made it such a success -- the 1,000 who turned out, the 100 volunteers, the dozens who poured countless hours in to make the rally happen! We are making history.

*************************

IN THIS POST:

1- Congratulations & THANK YOU!

2- Support from Elected Officials

3- Stay involved

*************************

1- *Congratulations & Thank You
..to everyone who worked to make the rally a huge success!

The Housing Here and Now steering committee groups: ACORN, Community Voices Heard, Make the Road NY, New York AIDS Housing Network, New York Immigration Coalition, North West Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, Tenants and Neighbors, Working Families Party

Other organizations that mobilized and helped make the rally a success: Casa/New Settlement, Catholic Charities of Brooklyn, Chelsea Tenant Action Committee, City Wide Task Force on Housing Court, East Side Congregations, Flatbush Development Corporation, Goddard Riverside Community Center, Good Old Lower East Side, Housing Conservation Coordinators, Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness & Housing, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, Met Council on Housing, Mirabel Sisters, Neighbors Allied for Good Growth, Neighbors Helping Neighbors, Park West Village, People's Firehouse, Pratt Area Community Council, Queers for Economic Justice, Real Rent Reform (R3), RENA (Riverside-Edgecombe Neighborhood Association), Rude Mechanical Orchestra, SRO Project, St. Nicholas NPC/UNO, Tenants PAC, United Neighbors Organization, West Side Neighborhood Alliance

People who were crucial to making it happen: Andres Mares Muro, Angel Vera, Ana Lugo, Ann Bragg, Ann Meigsinger, Anne Sullivan, Bob Masters, Bill Lipton, Diego Gerena-Quinones, Emmanuel Caicedo, Ericka Stallings, Erin Zipper, Erik Beach, Gladys Puglia, Henry Serrano, Hugh Ryan, Jay Toole, Javier Valdes, Jeremy Saunders, Jon Kest, Jon Westin, Laverne Holley, Liz Gardner, Maggie Russell Ciardi, Marc Greenberg, Rev. Mark C. Hallinan, Mike Mckee, Orlando Torres, Pat Boon, Patrick Coleman, Ramona Santana, Tunisha Walker, Lucas Shapiro, Elana Shneyer, Tenaz Dubash, Erin Carmen, Katie Goldstein, Liz McInnes...And more!

Everyone who mobilized, were bus captains and volunteers: Alex Garcia, Amanda Plumb, Annette Kirnan, Ariel Federow, Avi Rosenthalis, Bridgette Beatty, Bryan Sanchinell, Cameron Craig, Cesar Figueroa, Christopher Fussell, Chuck Tice, Clare Dockery, Clive Edwards, Daniel Lang/Levitsky, Dara Silverman, Dave Golden, Diego, Elida Ramirez, Edy Lyons, Edrie Cote, Elida, Emily Margolis, Emily Millay Haddad, Eric Alugas, Erica Weinstein, Eve Goodman, Evellin R Mejia, Francine Brewer, George Finley, Janet Ziff, Jaron Benjamin, Jay Jones, Jean Davis, Jeremiah Jones, Jesse Goldman, Joseph Ferdinand, Kurt Hill , Laura Rocio Ordonez, Leroy Matthews, Margo Kulkarni, Maria Quintanilla, Michael Hartwyk, Omayra Navia, Peter Gillespie, Rafael A Perez, Ronn Merriwether, Ryan Kuonen, Ryan Richardson, Saduf Syal, Sara Lalin, Shannon Barber, Wayne Harrington, Yolanda Coca ... And SO MANY More!

*************************

2- Support from Elected Officials:

On Tuesday December 9th, we held our allies in the State Legislature to our demands to end vacancy decontrol. Everyone who climbed the stage signed the pledge:

-- We will make the repeal of vacancy decontrol a top priority in 2009.

-- By January 10, 2009, I will speak to my Speaker, the future Housing Chair and the Governor and urge them to support the repeal of vacancy decontrol.

We had a strong showing with 13 state elected officials signing on: Senator-Elect Joe Addabbo, Senator Tom Duane, Senator Liz Krueger, Senator Diane Savino, Senator Eric Schniederman, Senator Jose Serrano, Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Senator-Elect Daniel Squadron, Assembly Member Karim Camera, Assembly Member Richard N. Gottfried, Assembly Member Hakeem Jeffries, Assembly Member Jose Peralta, and Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal; City Council Member Gale Brewer also showed her support.

*************************

3- Stay Involved

Membership Meeting & Housing Justice Legislative Advocacy Training

For the last 3 weeks of January, we will be scheduling visits with key State Assembly members and Senators who can push forward the repeal of vacancy decontrol. Join us for a training on conducting lobby visits and a meeting to plan our legislative strategy!

When: Tuesday, January 13^th, 6pm

Where: Grace Church, 86 4th ave (at 11th street) New York, NY

Give feedback

What did you think about the rally? What was good? What could be better next time? What should our next steps be?

Volunteer for Housing Here and Now!

Help build on the energy from Tuesday's rally! We need help with data-entry and phone banking so we can stay in touch with everyone who came. Give an hour or two to Housing Here and Now in the coming month!

RSVP/Contact: Danielle AT Housinghereandnow.org or 646-202-3962

*************************

* We apologize to anyone we missed! Thank you for everything!

Protect Rent Stablized Housing! End Vacancy Decontrol!

2008-11-14T11:55:00.016-05:00

This winter, New York tenants are going to end vacancy decontrol and win the greatest victory for the housing justice movement since 1974. Join us for this historic battle to save 100,000 rent-regulated units on the verge of elimination, and stop the devastating impact of deregulation.

Vacancy decontrol is the greatest threat to New York's affordable housing. This winter, we can end it and save 100,000 rent regulated units on the verge of elimination. Through vacancy decontrol, landlords can take a vacant apartment out of rent regulation when the rent reaches $2,000.

Download talking points - in English or Spanish about this issue.

New HHN Materials in Spanish

2008-11-06T15:05:00.005-05:00

We have three newly translated items about Housing Here and Now's two current campaigns:

¿Qué es el descontrol de vacantes? covers the basics of vacancy decontrol, its impact, and our current campaign for its repeal. Special thanks to Alexandra García for translating this.
Desregulación de Vacantes is the same document, in bullets, with a different translator. Thanks to Diego Gerena-Quinones and Community Voices Heard for arranging this translation.
Reformas Administratives de DHCR covers our demands for changes at the Department of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR). Special thanks to Community Voices Heard for translating these DHCR materials.
Carta DHCR is a demand letter we prepared for the Commissioner of DHCR for our October 21 protest.

NOW is the Time: Housing Here and Now takes action!

2008-11-06T13:38:00.010-05:00

Greetings,
Housing Here and Now is rolling into an aggressive fall campaign to overturn vacancy decontrol! On Tuesday 11/4, the voters of New York voted for a State Senate voted in a Democratic majority. This is the critical time to hold them accountable to securing affordable housing for ALL New Yorkers. Housing Here and Now is doing this exciting work and we hope ALL of you will participate.
Looking Forward--
Danielle Feris
Housing Here and Now, Lead Organizer

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
1) Coming Up! -- 12/9: Rally to repeal vacancy decontrol
2) 12/9 Rally to repeal vacancy decontrol -- Attend, mobilize & volunteer
3) Resources -- Fact sheet on vacancy decontrol, an article with brand new stats & updated website
4) Report-backs -- 10/21 DHCR Action & 10/28 Membership Meeting

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
1) Coming Up! -- 12/9: Rally to repeal vacancy decontrol

12/9: Rally to repeal vacancy decontrol
When the rent in a vacant apartment can be raised to $2000 a month, landlords can raise the rent to anything they want. This is known as "vacancy decontrol." The State legislature can end this, saving 100,000 regulated apartments in the coming few years. At this rally, we will come together and show our power to hold politicians accountable and END VACANCY DECONTROL! Download the flyer
Tuesday, December 9th, 6:30pm-8:30pm
Location: New York Society for Ethical Culture,
2 W 64th St at Central Park West, Manhattan; By Subway: 1 to 66th St; A,B,C,D to Columbus Circle

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
2) 12/9 Rally to repeal vacancy decontrol -- Attend, Mobilize & Volunteer

Attend the rally to repeal vacancy decontrol on December 9
Tell us you are coming! Need help with transportation? Need childcare? Let us know!

Mobilize your friends and neighbors to attend the rally
Let's pack the room with community members from across NYC who want affordable housing NOW!-- Download this flyer and distribute it far and wide! (Short on toner? Download this simpler flyer). For printed flyers and other support in your outreach, contact us.

Volunteer at the rally
HHN NEEDS YOU! -- There a ton of important roles to fill to help make the 12/9 rally run smoothly, so that our voices will be heard loud and clear by the elected officials. Are you available on Tuesday 12/9? Can you arrive early at 4pm and help set up? Can you volunteer during the event? Can you stay late till 9:30pm and help clean up? Tell us!

Contact Danielle at danielle at housinghereandnow.org or 646-646-202-3962 to RSVP, tell us your needs, get flyers or sign up to volunteer!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
3) Resources!

Fact Sheet -- The basics of Vacancy Decontrol, how it works, and our campaign to repeal it.
http://www.housinghereandnow.org/pdfs/What_is_Vacancy_Decontrol.pdf

Article -- More on Vacancy Decontrol with up-to-date facts and statistics.
http://www.housinghereandnow.org/pdfs/Vacancy_Decontrol_Gotham_Gazette.pdf

Flyers-- for rally to repeal vacancy decontrol on December 9. Be in touch if you need printed copies. Both flyers are bilingual in English and Spanish.
Here is a stylish flyer that needs a lot of toner to print: http://www.housinghereandnow.org/pdfs/12-9_rally_stylish.pdf
Here is a less-stylish simple flyer that is easy to print: http://www.housinghereandnow.org/pdfs/12-9_rally_simple.doc

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
4) Report-backs -- 10/21 DHCR Action & 10/28 Membership Meeting

10/21 DHCR Action
On October 21, tenants from across New York City gathered to demand the Department of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) step up and do it's job! We had simultaneous protests in the Bronx and Manhattan, and demanded DHCR crack down on illegal rent increases, landlord harassment, and fake Major Capital Improvement (MCI) increases. We also asked DHCR to hold public forums for more tenants to bring their concerns, and establish a community advisory panel. We played music, gave speeches, made some noise, and made our voices heard! Special thanks to the tenants of Make the Road NY, who filled a bus and brought the noise; Legal Aid Society, who helped formulate the demands; and tenants from Community Voices Heard and New York City AIDS Housing Network for being a key part of the organizing. We'll be stepping up our campaign to push DHCR into the winter. Join us!

10/28 Membership Meeting
There were over twenty participants from twelve organizations. We debriefed the 10/21 DHCR action; had a great discussion about the meaning and implications of Vacancy Decontrol; publicly committed our organizations to concrete turn out goals for 12/9; and signed up to volunteer on 12/9. The meeting was overall positive and productive. Big thanks to New York Immigration Coalition for hosting and to our fabulous facilitators, James and Anne!

New vacancy decontrol documents

2008-10-31T11:28:00.007-05:00

Check out the new documents we've put together highlighting vacancy decontrol and how we can end it:

What is Vacancy Decontrol? lays out the basics of vacancy decontrol, how it works, and our campaign to repeal it.
Andrew Beveridge's article on vacancy decontrol has some of the most up-to-date facts yet on vacancy decontrol, including information that 100,000 apartments were on the verge of deregulation in 2005!
We have a new, stylish flyer for the rally to overturn vacancy decontrol on December 9, made by our stellar volunteer graphic designer Erin Zipper. It is bi-lingual in Spanish and English.
For those whose printers might have have trouble with the heavy blacks of our stylish flyer, we're also including a simple flyer for the same 12/9 rally to repeal vacancy decontrol.

DHCR Action and Upcoming Rally

2008-10-24T18:35:00.009-05:00

Housing Here and Now: Fall Actions

Here at Housing Here and Now, we're hitting the fall season running. We're keeping up the fight for a New York that belongs to everyone. Check out our current work:

DHCR Action this last Tuesday
Citywide rally to end vacancy decontrol and save rent-stabilized housing on December 9
Housing Here and Now welcomes Danielle Feris as our new Lead Organizer

DHCR Action: Last Tuesday

This last Tuesday, Oct. 21 tenants from rent-stabilized apartments throughout the city joined forces to protest the Department of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR). At their regional office in Lower Manhattan, and the borough office in the Bronx, tenants demanded DHCR crack down on landlord abuse of Major Capital Improvement rent increases, illegal rent hikes, and landlord harassment. Tenants shared powerful stories of fighting back against landlord abuses, while others went upstairs to present our demands. We joined together in song, music, and action.

Check out our materials about the protest:

We got news in Metro, Epoch Times, City Limits, and on NY1 and WWRL.

We'll keep the campaign for reform at DHCR going strong. If we can't get DHCR to do the right thing on their own, the next step is pressuring the Governor to stand by tenants.

All out for December 9 rally to Overturn Vacancy Decontrol

On November 19, one thousand tenants, advocates, union members, and communities of faith will join together to demand the end to vacancy decontrol! Vacancy decontrol is the loophole that allows landlords to deregulate a vacant rent-stabilized apartment when they could raise the rent to $2,000. New York City looses over 10,000 apartments to vacancy decontrol every year. Eventually, vacancy decontrol could be the end of New York's rent stabilized apartments. This year, we can end it and save rent-stabilized housing!

Tell all your neighbors, friends, family, and community. Our newly elected officials will be there to show us where they stand. We have to show in force we will do what it takes to save affordable housing and a future for all New Yorkers!

Citywide rally to end Vacancy Decontrol
Tuesday, December 9, 6:30 PM

The Society for Ethical Culture

2 West 64th street at Central Park West

Housing Here and Now welcomes a new Lead Organizer

This Monday, Danielle Feris will begin work as the new Lead Organizer of Housing Here and Now. She brings a rich organizing experience with Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and supporting Domestic Workers United. We were impressed with her passion, vision, and commitment to building tenant power and housing justice for all New Yorkers. You can reach her at danielle at housinghereandnow.org, or her cell (646) 202-3962. Call her about the Nov. 19 rally, and how we can work together in creating real people power.

As well, you might be getting a call from Ann Meisinger, our new outreach volunteer. She's committed four hours a week between now and December 9 to making turnout calls for the rally to overturn vacancy decontrol. You can reach her at ann at housinghereandnow.org. We are always looking for more volunteers.

Keep up the struggle for housing justice!

In solidarity,

Michelle O'Brien, Executive Director
Housing Here and Now

DHCR Protest in the Bronx

2008-10-22T20:22:00.001-05:00

On October 21, tenants from across the city joined forces to demand administrative reforms from DHCR. Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, a core steering committee member of New York Is Our Home and Housing Here and Now, organized a protest at the Bronx DHCR office.

Check out the photos from the Bronx protest, by Dino Rossi:

Go Away!
Originally uploaded by Housing Here and Now - New York Is Our Home

Don't Cry
Originally uploaded by Housing Here and Now - New York Is Our Home

Group Hug
Originally uploaded by Housing Here and Now - New York Is Our Home

MPagan
Originally uploaded by Housing Here and Now - New York Is Our Home

Fist 3
Originally uploaded by Housing Here and Now - New York Is Our Home

Proud
Originally uploaded by Housing Here and Now - New York Is Our Home

Housing Here and Now Endorses Real Rent Reform's Oct. 1 Rally

2008-09-30T16:34:00.003-05:00

Housing Here and Now is proud to announce our support and endorsement of Real Rent Reform Campaign. We encourage our membership and allies to turn out for the October 1 city-wide rally against the rent hikes of the Rent Guidelines Board, in demanding affordable housing and the slowing of New York City's housing crisis.

Real Rent Reform and Housing Here and Now have fought together for very similar platforms, both committed to overturning vacancy decontrol, keeping apartments formerly under Mitchell-Lama and Project-Based Section 8 in the rent stabilization system, and pushing a comprehensive strategy of defending affordable housing for all New Yorkers. We have been allies in each other's work, and are together building a strong, unified housing justice movement.

Upcoming fall events for Housing Here and Now members, tenants and affordable housing advocates:

October 1: Real Rent Reform City-wide Rally, 5:30 PM, Harlem State Office Bldg Plaza, 163 West. 125th St., east of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd.

November 19: Housing Here and Now City-Wide Rally to Overturn Vacancy Decontrol, Location and time to be announced.

Protest now before the elections to show the candidates we mean business, and after to demand they follow through!

Please support Real Rent Reform as an ally and fighter for affordable housing. To join us in endorsing the campaign, or to find out more, contact Real Rent Reform at 212-979-6238, ext. 204 or join@realrentreform.org.

Check out the links below for more information about Real Rent Reform's remarkable work:

- The R³ legislative agenda . A Spanish version is also available here.

- The flier for the October 1st Real Rent Reform rally, in English and Spanish.

For a united NYC tenants' movement!

Housing Here and Now Campaign Planning Meeting - Wed, Sept. 24

2008-09-23T15:28:00.003-05:00

Last spring, many of you mobilized for local rallies and trips to Albany for the repeal of vacancy decontrol, the $2,000 loophole in our rent laws. We successfully fought this legislation defending tenants through the Assembly. Now it is time to take the next step, and end vacancy decontrol altogether.

Join us in planning the next steps of the campaign!

Housing Here and Now Campaign Planning Meeting

Wednesday, Sept. 24, 6:30 PM

Grace Church

802 Broadway, enter at 4th Ave. and 11th St.

Spanish translation will be provided. Wheelchair accessible.

All are welcome.

We will be spending the time planning a major, 1,000-person rally on November 19, demanding the end to vacancy decontrol! We are also planning creative events through the fall to highlight the need for stronger rent laws and better housing.

Save the date: November 19, Rally to End Vacancy Decontrol!

Gov. Signs Shelter Allowance Increase for NYCHA

2007-09-13T08:58:00.000-05:00

On Aug. 15, the Governor signed a bill to increase NYCHA's shelter allowance to the level that private landlords receive for tenants on public assistance. This is an important step forward in the effort to secure public housing for the 600,000 New Yorkers who live in these developments. The shelter allowance increase will provide an additional $63 million in funding to NYCHA over the next two years.Thanks to all who campaigned for this. The intensive push of calls and letters, press work and other grassroots organizing paid off. The Governor was under pressure to avoid this spending, but ultimately did the right thing. There is much more to do to ensure full funding for public housing and to preserve other types of housing low and middle-income families rely on, but this is an important moment to celebrate.

Message from Starrett City Tenant Leader on Buy Out Notice

2007-09-04T08:37:00.000-05:00

From Linda Tilton, ACORN member and Starrett City Leader:

We got rid of the potential buyer, Clipper Equity, who was trying to buy Starrett City for $1.3 billion. For that much money, Clipper would have had no choice but to raise rent and displace tenants who could not afford the new high rents.

But here we go again! We just got a buy out notice – the landlord wants to leave the Mitchell-Lama program. It’s sad to think that Starrett City might not remain as it is. The people who built Starrett City built something wonderful and should be proud of this. Instead, the money becomes most important, not the people or the place. We are going to remain strong and united. We are not giving up.

Starrett City Receives Buy Out Notice

2007-08-30T08:09:00.000-05:00

Tenants of Starrett City, the country's largest federally subsidized complex with 5,881 apartments, received notice on Wednesday August 29 of their owner's intention to buy out of the Mitchell Lama program.

Join tenants and elected officals for a rally and meeting on Wed. Sept. 5th at 7pm at the Christian Cultural Center at Flatlands and Louisianna Avenues (across the street from the Pathmark).

Knickerbocker Tenants Hit with Buy Out Notice

2007-08-28T08:57:00.000-05:00

Along with Castleton (Staten Island) and General Sedgwick (Bronx), Knickerbocker Plaza (Manhattan) was recently hit with a notice that their landlord plans to buy out of the Mithcell Lama program.

Without the cultural history of Genderal Sedgwick -- this development produced hip hop artist Kool Herc -- Knickerbocker lacks the same creative option to avoid buy out. (Sedgwick tenants are working to get their building historic landmark status.) But Knickerbocker tenants are organizing as energetically as ever, and recently secured a piece in the New York Times featuring this photograph.

Support Castleton, Sedgwick, Knickerbocker, Starrett City and all Mitchell Lama tenants -- organize for affordable housing and Mitchell Lama preservation!

MESSAGE FROM RITA POPPER, KNICKERBOCKER TENANT LEADER:

Although shocked by our buy out notice --we thought it was due much later --
we remain united in our effort to make sure that all the tenants, not only enhanced voucher-eligible tenants, get the right to remain in their apartments.

Loss of Knickerbocker Plaza from the affordable housing pool would be a tragedy, as would be the loss of other Mitchell Lama developments. I look around my neighborhood and see nothing but luxury housing or walk-up tenements where the median monthly rent is $2,500 and I am shocked. In a way, getting rid of all affordable housing is akin to "financial cleansing." Luxury or market rate housing produces a very transient community. Affordable housing is the strong thread in the fabric of a community – it means stability.

This is a sad day because of the lack of foresight of our city planners. We have worked very hard to get legislation to preserve affordable housing. Unfortunately, immediate financial gain by owners who do not live in our community is superseding the will and ability of our city’s affordable housing planners. Let's keep working to get preservation legislation. It's the tenants’ only hope.

Spitzer signs 421a legislation

2007-08-28T08:48:00.000-05:00

Gov. Spitzer signed the 421a legislation on Friday August 24th. Some key provisions are:

-Expansion of the area within which affordable housing must be built to include all Manhattan and more outer borough neighborhoods

-Affordable units must be in the developments themselves -- no off-site certificates allowed

-Special provisions for the Atlantic Yards project, allowing it to claim tax breaks for higher income housing; however, this special treatement may be amended in further legislation

Check out the Pratt Center for Community Development's website for a map and more info: http://www.prattcenter.net/nyc421areform.php.

About Housing Here and Now

2007-08-23T16:20:00.000-05:00

In February 2005, a broad coalition of unions, clergy, community organizations and advocates launched Housing Here and Now, a citywide effort to ensure creation and preservation of decent affordable housing for all poor, working and middle-class New Yorkers. Our initial goal -- much of which we achieved --weas to win commitment from the Mayor to keep the Battery Park City promise to use funds for affordable housing, to provide permanent housing for homeless people living with AIDS, to build support for stronger state rent laws, and to improve housing maintenance code enforcement. In our second and third years, we built on our early wins by taking on reform of the City’s 421a luxury tax break program and challenging irresponsible multifamily lending. Now we are in the midst of our biggest effort to date: a campaign to strengthen our state’s rent laws and repeal vacancy decontrol.

New York City is a renter city: two-thirds of its housing units are rentals. But our stock of low-rent housing is rapidly shrinking. We are projected to lose nearly 140,000 rent-regulated units to high-rent vacancy decontrol between now and 2015 – and this is just one of several mechanisms by which we are losing affordable units. The loss of low-rent housing units is most devastating for already-vulnerable populations: immigrants, people of color, the poor and near-poor, and single women. According to the 2006 American Community Survey, female headed renter households were far more likely to live in poverty than either female headed owner households or male headed renter households. Of 437,790 impoverished households in the New York City area, 223,159 were female headed renter households; only 23,230 were female headed owner households and 29,674 were male headed renter households.

Read about Public Housing in the Gotham Gazette

2007-08-23T10:23:00.001-05:00

Did you know NYC was the first US city to build public housing? Learn more in Joe Lamport's recent article, "Hard Times in the Projects."

http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/housing/20070820/10/2261

Excerpts from Press Coverage on NYCHA Shelter Allowance Increase

2007-08-16T11:29:00.000-05:00

Daily News
August 16, 2007
Adam Lisberg

47M Boost to City Housing

Gov. Spitzer yesterday signed a bill giving an extra $47 million a year to the New York City Housing Authority - which may help the cash-strapped agency avoid devastating job cuts.

"We must do everything we can to preserve our affordable housing so New Yorkers don't have to spend their entire paycheck on rent or mortgage payments alone," the governor said.

The bill eliminates a funding disparity under which private landlords were given more funds than public-housing authorities to help subsidize residents on public assistance.

NY Post
August 16, 2007 -- Albany
Kenneth Lovett

City Gain As Spitzer OKs Housing $$

"After a long period of neglect, state government is finally focused on solving the housing crisis that has pushed too many working New Yorkers out of the middle class and prevented those struggling New Yorkers from climbing up into economic security," Spitzer said.

Bloomberg called the new law "a major win" for the city housing authority's 400,000 tenants.

NY Sun
August 16, 2007
Special to the Sun

Housing Authority To Receive Additional $40M

The New York City Housing Authority will receive more than $40 million in additional taxpayer funds, as Governor Spitzer signed into law a bill increasing the state's contribution to the public housing agency.

The legislation calls for the state and city to each increase their contributions to NYCHA by about $11 million a year, with the federal government contributing about $22 million.

Deal reached on 421a luxury tax break program

2007-08-15T16:59:00.000-05:00

In an attempt to require more affordable housing from luxury developers receiving tax breaks -- and responding to the efforts of advocates and tenants -- the City Council passed Local Law 58 in December 2006. The law required greater numbers of affordable units from those landlords claiming 421a tax benefits.

In June 2007, the state legislature expanded on this local law, including new outer borough neighborhoods in the "exclusion zone," the area within which affordable units must be included to receive the tax break. The state legislation requires that 20% of the units in these buildings be affordable to households at 60% of the area median income ($42,540 for a household of 4) and that units remain affordable for 40 years. Employees of these buildings must be paid at the City's prevailing wage.

For more information, and for a map of the exclusion zone, check out http://www.prattcenter.net/nyc421areform.php.

421a deal passes the state!

2007-08-15T15:13:00.001-05:00

THE NEW YORK TIMES: August 8, 2007

Bill Aims to Spur Housing for the Poor in New York

By JANNY SCOTT

New York City officials and state legislators have reached an agreement to overhaul a popular tax break for apartment building developers. The aim of the revision is to encourage the construction of tens of thousands of apartments for New Yorkers of limited means.

.It will significantly expand the number of neighborhoods where developers are required to include apartments for low- and moderate-income tenants in new buildings in order to receive tax breaks.

Bertha Lewis, executive director of New York Acorn, an advocacy group for low-income people, said: “This deal means fewer developers will get fewer dollars to build luxury high rises in gentrifying neighborhoods. Not only that but hundreds of millions of dollars will be set aside to build affordable housing.”

Under the 421-a program, begun in the 1970s to spur housing development of any kind, developers have received a 10- to 25-year exemption from the increase in property taxes that results from their work. When the real estate market in Manhattan revived in the 1980’s, the program was modified to require developers in central Manhattan to build not just market-rate apartments but some lower-priced units to obtain the tax break.

Gov. Spitzer closes "unique or peculiar" loophole!

2007-08-15T15:07:00.000-05:00

Closure of the "unique or peculiar" loophole -- which allowed landlords of pre-1974 Mitchell Lamas to unfairly deregulate their units upon buy out -- has been a long-time goal of affordable housing activists! Congrats to all NY Is Our Home campaign leaders, Mitchell Lama tenants and housing organizers who helped make this happen!

Governor Spitzer puts kibosh on rent hike loophole
BY ADAM LISBERG
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, July 18th 2007, 4:00 AM

Gov. Spitzer has closed a loophole that could have let landlords in the Mitchell-Lama housing program jack up rents by thousands of dollars.

"I was so happy I cried," said Sue Susman, president of the tenants association in an upper West Side building where she said a one-bedroom apartment could have jumped from $450 a month to $2,100.

Apartments in former Mitchell-Lama buildings are subject to New York's rent stabilization rules.

Owners of 24 buildings recently told the state Division of Housing they faced "unique and peculiar" circumstances and were entitled to raise rents on almost 5,000 apartments to market rates. Some rents would have tripled.

"Some landlords have attempted to get around the rent stabilization laws by manipulating the so-called unique and peculiar loophole," said Dina Levy of the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board. "Spitzer has done the right thing by closing the loophole and protecting the rights of thousands of tenants."

Call on Governor Spitzer to pass the NYCHA shelter allowance increase!

2007-08-08T17:04:00.000-05:00

Join Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh, community groups and other assembly leaders to call on Governor Spitzer to pass the legislation to increase the shelter allowance for NYCHA!

WHEN: FRIDAY AUGUST 10th, arrive at 10:45AM

WHERE: Steps of City Hall

WHY: This legislation (A7905/S4329) would enable NYCHA to receive the same shelter allowance payments for residents who receive public assistance that are now provided to private landlords. This increase would be a huge step towards closing NYCHA's budget deficit.

For Your Phone: Affordable Housing Ringtone

2007-06-29T14:28:00.000-05:00

"Starrett City and its 20,000 residents can't wait until the fall for the legislature to protect their homes. Their homes are set to be sold before the next session begins - and then they'll have nowhere to turn . . . We can't wait one minute longer. The Assembly has passed this important legislation, but we need the Senate and the Governor to put these bills on their agendas before they can become law. If Governor Spitzer and Senator Bruno do not act during this session, we will immediately lose 6,000 affordable apartments and thousands more in other Mitchell-Lama buildings . . . There are only two possibilities - either we pass these vital reforms, or thousands of the voters who believed we would change New York for the better will be pushed out of their homes."
- Assemblyman Darryl C. Towns, chair of the Assembly's Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Caucus

The state legislative session ended with the Republican-controlled State Senate refusing to take action to protect affordable housing, even though thousands of units of affordable housing are going to be lost this summer without Senate action.

New York Is Our Home made a trip to Albany during the legislative session to demand that Governor Spitzer and Senate Majority Leader Bruno pass A795, the Save Starrett City bill, and A352. The Assembly Housing Committee and the Assembly Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Caucus joined with us. So what was our reception in the Senate?

Republican Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno flat out refused to meet with us.

That's a disgrace. With rents the way they are, Joe Bruno and his Senate Republican majority ought to be ashamed. And we're going to make sure everyone knows it.

First, tell your State Senators to pass affordable housing legislation.

Then download the New York Is Our Home "Shame on Bruno" ringtone for your phone.

When Bruno wouldn't meet with us in Albany, we protested outside of his office. Our chant then was "Shame on Bruno." Now we've turned that chant into a ringtone for your phone so you can put the pressure on. Here's the original ringtone and the remix version. When someone asks you what your ringtone is, explain how the Senate Republicans and Joe Bruno are getting rid of affordable housing through their inaction. If enough people download the ringtone then word will spread to your friends and to their friends, and we can reach enough people to force action to protect affordable housing.

If you want to know more, here is a detailed description of what New York Is Our Home stands for and here is the Losing Ground report that documents the housing affordability crisis.

One last bonus: more pictures from the "Hands Around Stuy Town" rally. These are from the West Side Neighborhood Alliance at the rally and prepping for it beforehand.

Rally Pics and Next Steps

2007-06-22T18:00:00.000-05:00

More pictures from the "Hands Around Stuy Town" Affordable Housing Rally.

100 people have taken the monthly rent increase survey. Be sure to take the survey if you haven't yet. Once you have, ask your friends to take the survey.

We'll have more next week. If you're on MySpace, get a sneak peak by adding the WFP as a friend.

And, to wrap it up, vote on how you want to use the interactive rent increase map:

Rally Pictures and Next Steps

2007-06-01T16:41:00.000-05:00

Here are more pictures from the "Hands Around Stuy Town" Affordable Housing Rally:

We've started a project to create a citywide map of rent hikes. The first step is collecting survey information from you about how your rent has changed over the past years. Almost 100 people have taken the survey, which means there are enough responses to create the map. But we want to make it better, and for that we need your help.

Take the monthly rent increase survey, ask your friends to take it, and vote on how you want to use our interactive rent increase map.

What Kind Of Map Do You Want?

2007-05-29T14:57:00.000-05:00

This is your campaign. As the Hands Around Stuy Town Rally approached, you got the chance to pick an online project that would involve people in New York Is Our Home and spread the word about what we're doing to protect affordable housing in New York City. The winning idea was a project to create a citywide map of rent hikes.

We launched that project last week by asking for your address and monthly rent for the last few years. Already, almost 100 people have taken the survey. That means we're ready to create the map.

We want it to be as interactive as possible. Before we go forward, tell us how you want to use the map.

After you vote, take the monthly rent increase survey if you haven't yet and then ask your friends to take it.

Who Came? 7,000 People

2007-05-25T09:13:00.000-05:00

You made history Wednesday night. 7,000 people. 92 groups. 38 elected officials. That's who came to the Hands Around Stuy Town Rally.

New York City's housing crisis has been building for years. You know that, because you've been living through it.

But you put New York's broken rent laws front and center. You put rent stabilization back on the map and put vacancy decontrol back in the public discussion. You served notice that it's time to pass the Save Starrett City Law and put all Mitchell-Lama buildings into rent stabilization. And you let everyone know that New York Is Our Home!

The rally was a huge success - but it's just the beginning. So what can you do now?

We're launching a new project to create a citywide map of rent hikes. We're asking you for your address and monthly rent for the last few years. The result will be an interactive map charting how individual rents have risen in recent years and showing areas with dramatic rent increases.

Please spend a minute to take the monthly rent increase survey.

We're also going to Albany on June 5th to demand that the Senate and Assembly pass legislation immediately to put all Mitchell-Lama buildings into rent stabilization and to close loopholes that allow landlords to get out of rent stabilization. Email Chloe Tribich from Housing Here and Now for details if you can join us on June 5th in Albany!

An event this large doesn't just happen. It's the result of a lot of hard work.

We'd like to thank everyone who came. You made the event the success that it was. And a special shout out to the speakers and elected officials who came and to the groups in the New York Is Our Home coalition who all did so much work to publicize this event (listed along the right hand side of this page).

Here's some of the coverage we got for the rally:

Ed Ott Gets Going on Affordable Housing [Politicker]
Hands Across the East Village [Daily Intelligencer]
Hands Across the Complex [Empire Zone]
Heading to Stuy Town Today? Bring Purell [Curbed]
10,000 Expected at Affordable Housing Rally [The Real Estate]
WFP Turns Up The Heat On Affordable Housing [Daily Politics]

Check back for more!

Thanks to Those Who Spoke

2007-05-24T17:47:00.000-05:00

"If we do not fix rent regulation, New York's working-class and middle-class will slowly bleed to death. What makes this place great is that we're all in this together - nurses and computer techs and teachers and struggling actors and cops and everybody. Let's keep it that way."
- Dan Cantor, Working Families Party

Yesterday's speakers at the Hands Around Stuy Town Rally conveyed the passion and urgency of the crowd. Thank you all! The speakers included:

Mary Brosnahan, Coalition for the Homeless
Bertha Lewis, ACORN
Dan Cantor, Working Families Party
Ed Ott, Central Labor Council
Hilda Chavis, NW Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition
Randi Weingarten, UFT
Lillian Roberts, DC37 AFSCME
and elected officials.

Here's the Central Labor Council's Ed Ott speaking:

Who Came? The Electeds

2007-05-24T17:13:00.000-05:00

Here's the list of elected officials who came to yesterday's Hands Around Stuy Town Rally. Thank you all!

Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum
Comptroller William Thompson
Council Speaker Christine Quinn
Borough President Adolfo Carrion
Borough President Scott Stringer
Senator Martin Connor
Senator Thomas Duane
Senator Liz Krueger
Senator Kevin Parker
Senator Bill Perkins
Senator John Sabini
Senator John Sampson
Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins
Assemblyman Jonathan Bing
Assemblyman James Brennan
Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell, IV
Assemblyman Ruben Diaz, Jr.
Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat
Assemblyman Richard Gottfried
Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi
Assemblyman Brian Kavanagh
Assemblyman Rory Lancman
Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal
Assemblyman Keith Wright
Council Member Charles Barron
Council Member Bill de Blasio
Council Member Gale Brewer
Council Member Inez Dickens
Council Member Mathieu Eugene
Council Member Dan Garodnick
Council Member Alan Gerson
Council Member Eric Gioia
Council Member Robert Jackson
Council Member Letitia James
Council Member Jessica Lappin
Council Member Melissa Mark-Viverito
Council Member Darlene Mealy
Council Member Rosie Mendez
Council Member James Sanders
Council Member David Yassky

Update: added Senator Bill Perkins and Council Member Gale Brewer to the list

7,000 and Counting

2007-05-23T15:51:00.000-05:00

The New York Is Our Home coalition is closing in on 100 groups. And with all those groups working to turn people out for tonight's Hands Around Stuy Town Rally, there are now over 7,000 people coming!

As part of the rally, we're asking for your help to launch a new project to map rent increases in New York City. Fill out our online monthly rent increase survey with your address and recent monthly rent history. The result will be an interactive map at NewYorkIsOurHome.org charting how individual rents have risen in recent years and will collectively show areas of dramatic rent increases.

Take the survey today!

Thank You!

2007-05-23T15:42:00.000-05:00

Thank you for your help to launch a new project to map rent increases in New York City.

The result of everyone's online monthly rent increase survey will be an interactive map at NewYorkIsOurHome.org charting how individual rents have risen in recent years and showing areas with dramatic rent increases.

There's one more thing you can do right now: tell your friends. Click here to send email using your own address book.

Losing Ground

2007-05-23T15:07:00.000-05:00

There is no doubt that New York City is in the midst of a housing affordability crisis. Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Shaun Donovan recently referred to an "affordability squeeze" and acknowledged the need to preserve regulated apartments.

Losing Ground (pdf), a new report from Housing Here and Now, documents the threat to affordable housing in New York City and lays out solutions to the problem.

The New York Is Our Home campaign has united tenant groups, the Central Labor Council and the Working Families Party to craft the following proposals to preserve our affordable housing stock and allow New York City to retain its diversity and vibrancy:

Preserve Rent-Regulated Units, including repeal of vacancy decontrol to eliminate the rent threshold that allows owners to decontrol units once they become vacant and hit that threshold.
Prevent unfair rent increases and tenant harassment by strengthening enforcement of the rent laws and making other reforms at the NYS Division of Housing & Community Renewal (DHCR).
Preserve Mitchell-Lama and Section 8 Housing, including extending rent regulations to ALL Mitchell-Lama and Section 8 buildings and closing loopholes that undermine rent protections.
Preserve State and City-built public housing by restoring State and City funding to protect 27,000 units of public housing and to preserve thousands of Section 8 vouchers with an annual State contribution of $70 million and a City contribution of $120 million.
End the State's Discrimination against New Yorkers Living with AIDS by capping rental payments to 30% of a tenant’s income. The State now requires some tenants living with AIDS and receiving SSI to pay all but $330 of income toward rent.

What They're Saying About Affordable Housing

2007-05-22T15:48:00.000-05:00

Support is building for tomorrow's Hands Around Stuy Town Rally. 95 groups have joined the coalition. 7,000 people are coming to the rally tomorrow - blowing past our initial goal of 6,000 people. And more than 50 state legislators have endorsed the New York Is Our Home! agenda.

People are talking. Here's what they're saying.

Here's Ed Ott, Executive Director of the New York City Central Labor Council, a federation of 400 affiliated local unions representing over one million working men and women in New York City:

"A top priority at the Central Labor Council since our inception has been to protect affordable housing and preserve tenant rights for the working men and women we represent. The lack of affordable housing in New York has become an unmitigated crisis. With tenant rights our focus, we will continue to work hard to protect the millions of low and moderate income tenants who now live in daily fear of losing their homes."

Here's George Gresham, President of 1199 United Healthcare Workers East, a union representing 275,000 nurses, nurses aides and home health care aides:

"Our deeply flawed rent laws have failed to protect the affordable housing that we have, squeezing thousands of New Yorkers out of their homes, with thousands more on the brink. It is absolutely vital to working families in this City that our elected officials make immediate progress on this agenda."

Here's Dan Cantor, Executive Director of the Working Families Party:

"Elected officials need to realize that the housing crisis in New York City has reached a boiling point. While the Bloomberg Administration is building 165,000 new units of affordable housing, we are set to lose more than twice that in the coming years. Already we have lost hundreds of thousands of units of affordable housing in this City. We are putting this back on the agenda and making this a litmus test for the 2008 elections. We will be judging our elected officials by their success and commitment to this affordable housing agenda."

Here's Randi Weingarten, President of the United Federation of Teachers:

"In terms of our government's investment in protecting affordable housing, the rent is way past due. Thousands of working families – including teachers, teacher's aides and home daycare workers – lost their homes to skyrocketing rents last year. Thousands more will lose them this year. This agenda for reforming our destructive rent regulation laws cannot wait."

Here's Bertha Lewis, Executive Director of NY ACORN:

"After Stuyvesant Town, after Starrett City, after tens of thousands of rent stabilized units being converted in our neighborhoods, when are our elected officials going to step up and say 'enough'. On Wednesday we are going to wrap ourselves around Stuyvesant Town to send a message and put this issue back on the map — and then we're going to fan out into Senate and Assembly districts and work until election day to ensure that this finally gets on Albany's agenda."

We'll give the last word to Julie Miles of Housing Here & Now, Director of the New York Is Our Home Campaign:

"This is a big agenda. But as the mayor has reminded all of us — we need to take action today to secure New York City's future. Securing the hundreds of thousands of affordable units that we are losing by repealing vacancy decontrol is the most important action government leaders can take to solve the affordable housing crisis."

New Flyer Is Up - Now Pass It Out!

2007-05-22T11:04:00.000-05:00

Our latest flyer for the Hands Around Stuy Town Rally tomorrow is up on the site (pdf).

Take a minute right now to download it, print it out, make copies, and flyer your building tonight when you go home. This last minute push to remind your neighbors about the rally will really boost turnout.

See you tomorrow!

Next Week We Rally

2007-05-15T15:57:00.000-05:00

Next week, you will be able to meet 6,000 other New Yorkers who care about affordable housing and join together to do something about it. Wednesday, May 23rd, is the day 6,000 of us join Hands Around Stuy Town. More than a massive rally, this is going to be visually stunning event.

RSVP today!

We're expecting the attention and excitement of the rally will bring new people here to the web site to find out more. So we're planning now for ways to get all those people involved. It can be serious or it can be fun, but it needs to send the message that New York Is Our Home!

Here are a couple of our ideas. Vote for which one you like best, or post your own idea in the comments.

Hands Around Stuy Town : 12 Days To Go

2007-05-11T18:18:00.000-05:00

We're now less than two weeks away from the Hands Around Stuy Town Affordable Housing Rally.

Momentum is building for the rally. Borough Meetings in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan were high energy and well attended.

May 23rd will be even bigger. Over 80 groups are on the phones calling their members to bring 6,000 people to the rally. And 70 people have RSVPed online.

We're expecting the attention and excitement of the rally to send a wave of people to the web site, and we're looking for ways to get those people involved. It can be serious or it can be fun, but it needs to send the message that New York Is Our Home!

Here are a couple of our ideas. Vote for which one you like best, or post your own idea in the comments.

May 23rd Affordable Housing Rally - RSVP Today!

2007-05-08T11:49:00.000-05:00

What: "Hands Around Stuy Town" Affordable Housing March and Rally.

Why: Because rent is out of control, and New York Is Our Home!

When: Wednesday, May 23rd, at 5pm sharp

Where: Stuyvesant Town between 14th and 23rd Street on 1st Avenue in Manhattan

Who: You and ~~6,000~~7,000 other New Yorkers who care about affordable housing and are willing to stand up and be counted.

How: RSVP today!

Always complaining about the cost of housing in New York? Do something about it. An unprecedented coalition including the Working Families Party, labor unions, and nearly every housing organization in New York City and led by Housing Here and Now has united to form New York is Our Home.

We're launching a massive, grassroots campaign to break the logjam in Albany and protect our homes. And we're kicking things off with a rally and march at Stuy Town on May 23rd.

We're holding the rally at Stuy Town, but it's a rally for all New Yorkers. It's a rally about the threat to Starrett City. It's about the nearly 1.5 million existing affordable units we're at risk of losing. It's about what's happening to housing prices all over New York City and the rising price of housing that we're all struggling with.

Will New York City be taken over by luxury condos? New York Is Our Home believes in a New York City in which working families have just as much right to live as hedge fund managers. This is your chance to stand up and be counted.

Send the message that New York Is Our Home! RSVP today!

Lower Manhattan Borough Meeting Tomorrow

2007-05-04T16:07:00.000-05:00

Lower Manhattan Borough Meeting

Saturday, May 5th
11am
Middle Collegiate Church, 50 East 7th Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues

This is the last of the Borough Meetings, so if you've been waiting be sure to come on Saturday. For more information contact Wasim Lone from GOLES at (212) 533-2541 or by email

Brooklyn Borough Meeting Tonight

2007-05-02T14:06:00.000-05:00

Brooklyn Borough Meeting

Wednesday, May 2nd
6:30pm
Brooklyn Borough Hall, Court Room, 209 Joralemon Street

Head over after work. And you're going to want to head over, because now they've got skits and songs on the agenda. For more information contact Theo Moore from the Working Families Party at (718) 222-3796 x209 or by email

Upper Manhattan Borough Meeting

2007-05-01T18:31:00.000-05:00

The New York is Our Home! citywide campaign is organizing tenants to fight to preserve affordable housing in New York by changing unfair rent regulation laws.

The Upper Manhatten Borough Meeting was the third in a series of Borough Meetings happening across the city, all leading up to a massive Affordable Housing Rally on May 23rd expected to draw thousands of New Yorkers.

A full house turned out to last week's Upper Manhattan Borough Meeting. 182 people, mostly from tennant associations in Harlem, filled the room before security started turning people away. Elected officials at the meeting included Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito, Councilmember Miguel Martinez and staff from State Senator Bill Perkins, Speaker Christine Quinn, Congressman Rangel, Assemblyman Keith Wright, Councilmember Robert Jackson and Councilmember Inez Dickens.

Discussion focused on the May 23rd "Hands Around Stuy-Town" Affordable Housing Rally. Expect a strong Upper Manhattan contingent at the rally. Councilmembers Melissa Mark-Viverito and Miguel Martinez pledged to fill 4 buses with people for the rally.

Join us at the May 23rd Rally - RSVP today!

Landlord Revenue Rising

2007-04-27T17:12:00.000-05:00

That's the word from the Rent Guidelines Board, where a staff report found that landlord net operating income grew by 1.6% (that's earnings minus operating and maintenance expenses). More at the New York Times and Gothamist.

Queens Borough Meeting

2007-04-26T18:28:00.000-05:00

Last night a diverse coalition of tenants and affordable housing advocates met at Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens as part of the Queens Affordable Housing Borough Meeting.

Marilyn Charles captured the mood of the crowd with her story:

"I have lived in Queens for over 30 years. As a longtime resident, I fear the impact that bad rent laws and sky-high rents are having on me and my community. We need an affordable place to live."

The New York is Our Home citywide campaign is organizing tenants to fight to preserve affordable housing in New York by changing unfair rent regulation laws.

Marilyn's story is already to common. From 2002 to 2005, rents increased citywide by 10 percent. And if we don't act now, it will become even more common. Over the next ten years, the City will lose an estimated 300,000 affordable apartments. There's a looming exodus of working families from New York City.

The Queens Borough Meeting was one in a series of meetings happening across the city, all leading up to a massive rally May 23rd expected to draw thousands of New Yorkers that will highlight these troubling trends. The May 23rd rally is at the Stuyvesant Town public housing development in Manhattan. Rally participants will demand protections for the rapidly dwindling City supply of affordable housing, including:

Preserve rent-regulated units.
Repeal vacancy decontrol to eliminate the $2000 rent threshold that allows owners to decontrol units once they become vacant.
Prevent unfair rent increases and tenant harassment by strengthening enforcement of the rent laws.
Preserve Mitchell-Lama and Section 8 Housing.
Pass Assembly Bills 795 and 352, which would extend rent regulations to ALL Mitchell Lama and Section 8 buildings and close loopholes that undermine rent regulation protection.
Restore State and City funding of Public Housing.
Limit rental payments for New Yorkers living with AIDS to 30% of a tenant's income. The current State assistance program requires tenants living with AIDS to pay all but $330 of income toward rent.

I'll give the last word to Julie Miles of Housing Here & Now, Director of the New York Is Our Home Campaign:

"Securing the hundreds of thousands of affordable units that we are losing is the most important action government leaders can take to solve the affordable housing crisis."

Queens Borough Meeting Tonight

2007-04-25T15:15:00.000-05:00

Queens Borough Meeting details

Wednesday, April 25 - Tonight!
6:30pm
Queens Borough Hall in Room 213, 120-55 Queens Boulevard in Kew Gardens
The meeting will be in Spanish and in English

Tenants, affordable housing advocates, clergy, Queens Borough President Helen M. Marshall, Senator Toby Ann Stavisky, Assemblyman Jose Peralta and Councilman Joseph Addabbo are meeting tonight as part of the Queens Affordable Housing Borough Meeting. We'll talk about increasing rents and the decreasing number of available affordable apartments and discuss ways to preserve affordable housing in New York by changing unfair rent regulation laws.

Tonight's Queens Borough Meeting, last week's Bronx Borough Meeting, and the three upcoming Borough Meetings are all leading up to the May 23rd "Hands Around Stuy-Town" rally, where thousands of New Yorkers will demand protections for the City's rapidly dwindling supply of affordable housing.

Tonight's Borough Meeting is being coordinated by the Working Families Party, ACORN, Queens Congregations United for Action, Tenants & Neighbors, Queens Community House and QLOUT. For more information contact Theo Moore from the Working Families Party at (718) 222-3796 x209 or by email

Bronx Borough Meeting

2007-04-24T15:23:00.000-05:00

Over 200 people came to the Bronx Affordable Housing Borough Meeting last Thursday to talk about solutions to the city's affordable housing crisis.

Some of the groups that came include the Working Families Party, CASA, NWBCCC, Tenants & Neighbors, CVH, NYCAHN, ACORN, CB #4, Sheridan Ave Coalition, Twin Parks TA, MOM, Bronx Pentecostal Food Pantry, Zion Faith D.L.U., Concourse Village Inc. Mitchell Lama Residents, POTS, 1889 Sedgwick Ave TA, BHNCC, PTH, NIDC, Picture the Homeless, RAIN, NYC Labor Chorus, Skyview TA, Youth CAHN, UHAB, Nos Quedamos, CB #2, Housing Council Pct, Soundview Senior Center, United We Stand Tenant Association, South Bronx Action Group, Janel Towers TA, and the National Alliance of HUD tenants: Low Income Housing Coalition.

Elected officials in attendance include NYC Councilmember Joel Rivera, NY State Senator Jose Serrano and staff from Assemblymember Jose Rivera's office, Public Advocate Betsey Gotbaum's office, Assemblymember Aurelia Greene's office, NYC Councilmember Anabel Palma's office and Councilmember Maria Carmen del Arroyo's office.

I've posted pictures from the meeting to the right and on flickr. If you've got pictures of your own share them with everyone by posting them on flickr and tagging them "NewYorkIsOurHome"

There are four more Borough Meetings scheduled. Which one are you coming to?

NYC Affordable Housing Shrinks

2007-04-20T14:38:00.000-05:00

The Furman Center has released the 2006 edition of their State of New York City's Housing and Neighborhoods report (via DMI Blog). We're just starting to go through it, but a couple of parts jump out.

On affordability:

The median share of income New York City renters spent on rent rose from 28.6 percent in 2002 to 31.2 percent in 2005, even though 30 percent is commonly considered the maximum burden households should take on.

On the available stock of affordable housing:

Households earning 80 percent of the City's median income - about $33,000 in 2005, or roughly the starting salary of firefighters - could afford to pay $830 in rent in 2005. The number of units affordable to those households fell by almost 205,000 units during the three years between 2002 and 2005. Although 58 percent of the City's rental housing was affordable to such households in 2002, only 48 percent of the rental stock was aﬀordable to those households in 2005.

And on the cost of owning a home:

Between 2000 and 2005, the median sale price for all condos, single-family, and 2-4 family buildings increased by 68%, reaching $480,000 in 2005, up from $285,805 in 2000.

These record high sale prices, combined with stagnating incomes, have led to a declining share of home sales that are affordable to households earning the City's median income ($43,434 in 2005 dollars). In 2000, 11 percent of home sales were affordable; that number dropped to less than 5 percent in 2005.

These problems are solvable, if we take action. New York Is Our Home is working with state legislators to tackle the affordable housing crisis head on. Starrett City is the poster child, but this fight is about the whole city. We want to cover more housing under rent stabilization rules, and we want rent regulations to be stronger.

You can do something. Read the New York Is Our Home approach and then come to the Affordable Housing Borough Meeting near you.

Bronx Borough Meeting Tonight

2007-04-19T09:56:00.000-05:00

Bronx Borough Meeting

Thursday, April 19 - Tonight!
6:30pm
Lincoln Hospital Auditorium, 234 East 149th St., enter on Morris Ave.

For more information contact Rasheedah Shabazz from the Working Families Party at (718) 222-3796 x205 or by email or Jackie Del Valle from New Settlement Apartments/CASA at (718) 716-8000 x125 or by email

If You're Not Coming, You're Missing Out - Now With Skits

2007-04-18T16:20:00.000-05:00

All the Borough Meetings are moving forward with an impressive lineup of community groups and elected officials.

The Bronx will kick things off with the first, and likely largest, Borough Meeting. 200 people are expected tomorrow, April 19, at 6:30pm in the Lincoln Hospital Auditorium at 234 East 149th St. (enter on Morris Ave).

But the Brooklyn Borough Meeting is going the added mile to stand out. Their secret weapon? Skits.

We'll have the video, or watch it in person.

Bushwick Bound

2007-04-16T10:51:00.000-05:00

Brooklyn is getting ready for its May 2nd Affordable Housing Borough Meeting with a planning meeting on Monday the 16th at 3:00pm sharp.

To get there take the 38, 54 or 60 bus or the M train to the Myrtle Ave stop, then go two blocks to the San Jose Church at 185 Suydam St.

We'll finalize the Brooklyn Borough Meeting agenda and work on the skits.

That's right, skits. Be there.

Affordable Housing on the Agenda in Albany

2007-04-13T16:01:00.000-05:00

The state legislature starts up again next week after a two-week post-budget vacation. Lower Hudson Online kicks things off with a rundown of legislation likely to be addressed in the remainder of the session. Affordable housing is on the agenda:

Rent regulation: The law that controls rents for several hundred thousand apartments, mostly in New York City but also some in Westchester and Nassau counties, expires at the end of May. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he wants to raise the limit of $2,000 a month, above which controls on rents are removed.

"Two thousand dollars a month does not now pay for a luxury apartment," Silver, D-Manhattan, said of rapidly rising rents in the city.

But landlords are sure to resist any attempt to change that cap, which has been reducing the number of apartments where rents are limited during the past few years.

And not a moment to soon. A rent affordability report (pdf) from the New York City Rent Guideline Board (via Empire Zone) had this to say:

household income for rent stabilized tenants declined in real terms by 8.6% between 2001 and 2004, remaining at a nominal $32,000 for both years . . . In addition, evictions and possessions rose almost 8% in 2006, as well as an increase in the proportion of calendared cases that resulted in eviction, the highest level in nine years.
. . .
half of all households residing in rental housing pay more than 31.2% of their income in gross rent, and half pay less. Furthermore, more than a quarter (28.8%) of rental households pay more than 50% of their household income in gross rent. Generally, housing is considered affordable when a household pays no more than 30% of their income in rent.

Speaker Silver is right that we need to do something about rent stabilization and vacancy decontrol. The time has come for an ambitious approach to affordable housing. Read the New York Is Our Home approach and then come to one of our upcoming Affordable Housing Borough Meetings.

Save the Date: Affordable Housing Borough Meetings

2007-04-10T17:32:00.000-05:00

Mark the closest New York Is Our Home Borough Meeting down on your calendar, and get involved in the planning by signing on as a member group (there's a sign-up form on the right side of the page) or calling the Borough Meeting contact person.

Bronx Borough Meeting
Thursday, April 19
6:30pm
Lincoln Hospital Auditorium, 234 East 149th St., enter on Morris Ave.

For more information contact Rasheedah Shabazz from the Working Families Party at (718) 222-3796 x205 or by email or Jackie Del Valle from New Settlement Apartments/CASA at (718) 716-8000 x125 or by email
Queens Borough Meeting
Wednesday, April 25
6:30pm
Queens Borough Hall in Room 213, 120-55 Queens Boulevard in Kew Gardens

For more information contact Theo Moore from the Working Families Party at (718) 222-3796 x209 or by email
Upper Manhattan Borough Meeting
Thursday, April 26
6:30pm
Harlem State Office building on the 3rd Floor in the "Windows of Harlem" Cafeteria, 163 West 125th Street at 7th Avenue

For more information contact Rasheedah Shabazz from the Working Families Party at (718) 222-3796 x205 or by email
Brooklyn Borough Meeting
Wednesday, May 2nd
6:30pm
Brooklyn Borough Hall, Court Room, 209 Joralemon Street

For more information contact Theo Moore from the Working Families Party at (718) 222-3796 x209 or by email

Lower Manhattan Borough Meeting
Saturday, May 5th
11am
Middle Collegiate Church, 50 East 7th Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues

For more information contact Wasim Lone from GOLES at (212) 533-2541 or by email

Translation from English into Spanish will be provided at all of the Borough Meetings.

And everyone should mark down Wednesday, May 23rd, as the day of the big New York Is Our Home Kickoff Rally around Stuyvesant Town. Meet at 5:00pm between 14th and 23rd Street on 1st Avenue in Manhattan to be part of the action. For more information contact Chloe Tribich from Housing Here and Now at (718) 246-7900 x250 or by email.

Starrett City Still Under Siege

2007-04-09T15:47:00.000-05:00

Past rejections haven't stopped Clipper Equities and David Bistricer from putting a new proposal on the table to buy Starrett City and turn it into luxury condos.

First, a quick recap: The Clipper Equities development group led by David Bistricer proposed buying Starrett City, home to 14,000 people, for $1.3 billion. Analysts agree that a price tag that high means Bistricer intends to convert Starrett City to luxury condos. The proposed sale quickly became a proxy fight over affordable housing, and was derailed by an outpouring of community outrage.

Bistricer's latest proposal shamelessly calls for tens of millions of dollars in new public subsidies to Clipper Equities. In return, they'll convert Starrett City to luxury condos slowly instead of doing it right away.

Governor Spitzer and Senator Schumer both came out against Bistricer's new proposal to purchase Starrett City. From the New York Times:

Mr. Bistricer's latest plan to buy Starrett City for $1.3 billion has already received a chilly reception from Governor Spitzer, who spoke out in support of the tenants early on. In a letter last night to the Bistricer group, Mr. Spitzer's housing commissioner, Deborah Van Amerongen, said the plan "failed to adequately ensure that Starrett City would be preserved as viable affordable housing in the future, and would be unworkable under existing statutory law."
. . .
Senator Charles E. Schumer also sent Mr. Bistricer a letter this week saying he had "serious concerns" that the proposal "shifts a significant burden to the federal government, while not doing enough to protect the middle-class character of the development."
. . .
"I will do anything I can to keep it middle class," Mr. Schumer said of Starrett City. "But I'm not going to fight for more subsidies so the seller can make a bigger profit."

This is a major victory, but it's still a temporary one. The proposed sale of Starrett City and the sale of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village needs to light a fire under city and state officials to protect our existing affordable housing.

Starrett City won't be out of the woods until the New York State Legislature and Governor Spitzer pass legislation to keep Starrett City rent stabilized and repeal vacancy decontrol. That will be a lasting victory for Starrett City and affordable housing throughout New York. Until then, Starrett City residents have to live with the threat of eviction hanging over their heads.

Sign the petition.

(crossposted at Working Families Blog)

Location for the Queens Borough Meeting

2007-04-05T17:18:00.000-05:00

We've got a location for the Queens Borough Meeting:

Wednesday, April 25
6:30pm
Queens Borough Hall in Room 213, 120-55 Queens Boulevard

For more information contact Theo Moore from the Working Families Party at (718) 222-3796 x209 or by email

And we've lined up Queens Borough President Helen Marshall to be the host.

Find the Borough Meeting nearest you.

Real Estate Prices Rising

2007-04-03T16:49:00.000-05:00

The April release of quarterly real estate data shows the New York City real estate market is getting less affordable. From a New York Times article focused on Manhattan and Brooklyn (via Gothamist):

the average price of an apartment in Manhattan rose to $1.22 million in the first quarter of this year, up from $1.14 million in the last quarter of 2006
. . .
Buyers also seemed more willing to pay higher prices for new condominiums in Brooklyn. Corcoran said the average overall prices in Brooklyn rose 22 percent, to $628,000 in the first quarter of this year from $514,000 in the first quarter of 2006.

And prices are only going up:

"In the second quarter, I think we're going to see more appreciation because of the high level of activity" early this year, said Jonathan Miller, president of Miller Samuel, an appraisal firm.
. . .
"People were holding back a little bit more a year ago,” said Hall Wilkie, president of Brown Harris Stevens, though he added, "Anybody who was holding back, isn't."

But there's also an increasing willingness to take on and solve this problem. Witness yesterday's conference by the Drum Major Institute asking, "Is New York City still a middle-class town?" Alongside discussion by a number of mayoral candidates (here and here), DMI released a survey entitled Saving Our Middle Class. From their report:

"Affordable rent" tops the list of the middle class's biggest challenges. Two out of three respondents describe affordable rent as one of the top three middle-class concerns in the city and it is the only one to get a majority response.
. . .
New York City leaders agree: building more government-funded affordable housing and increasing funding for k-12 education would be very effective at strengthening and expanding the city’s middle class.

And there's this blog post on Room 8 by State Senator Serrano on reforming the 421a tax exemption:

The 421a tax exemption looms somewhere on the Albany horizon, and it's not yet getting the attention it deserves.

Created in the 1970s to fuel development in a depressed city, the exemption program has been periodically reformed to help protect affordable housing in a now booming market.
. . .
I believe there is room for improvement in the city proposal

You can get involved. Find the Affordable Housing Borough Meeting nearest you.

And read what New York Is Our Home would like to see happen.

(crossposted at the Working Families Blog)

Lower Manhattan Planning Meeting Tonight

2007-03-29T11:20:00.000-05:00

Lower Manhattan Planning Meeting : Come help plan the Lower Manhattan Borough Meeting this Thursday, March 29, at 6:30pm at 535 E. 5th St. For more information contact Wasim Lone from GOLES at (212) 533-2541 or by email.

Check the list of Borough Meetings to find the one nearest you.

Affordable Housing Borough Meeting Agenda

2007-03-28T11:42:00.000-05:00

Join tenants, community members, faith leaders and elected officials at New York Is Our Home Borough Meetings to plan for the big May 23rd Kickoff Rally around Stuyvesant Town and send the message that New York Is Our Home!

We'll talk about:

Why rents are getting so high
What needs to happen in state and city government to make rent affordable
How we can work together to WIN

Check the list of Borough Meetings to find the one nearest you.

Affordable Housing Debate Tonight

2007-03-26T11:31:00.000-05:00

This should be good, and give a sneak peak into the arguments we'll hear against affordable housing.

Debate on Rent Regulation : Should Governor Spitzer Enhance or Phase Out New York's Current System? : Craig Gurian, Executive Director of the Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York, is debating Peter Salins, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, on the question of rent regulation and whether to enhance it or phase it out. Debate is Monday, March 26, at 6:30pm in the McNally Amphitheatre at Fordham Law School, 140 West 62nd Street.

Affordable Housing Events Friday and Sunday

2007-03-23T13:39:00.000-05:00

Two affordable housing events are coming up, one Friday night and one on Sunday:

Stop the Evictions Informational Picket this Friday night : The Salvation Army is evicting all of the tenants from two of its residences for low and moderate income women, the Ten Eyck and the Parkside, in order to sell the empty buildings for the highest price. Protest the evictions and the loss of more affordable housing at the Salvation Army's Spring Gala on Friday, March 23, from 6 to 6:30pm outside the New York Hilton (6th Avenue and W 53rd Street).
Renters' Tax Credit Press Conference this Sunday at noon : Join City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, State Senator Diane Savino and State Assembly Member Keith Wright for a press conference to call for the Renters' Tax Credit, a $300 refundable tax credit for middle and low-income renters. Event is Sunday, March 25, at noon on the steps of City Hall.

Report From the Wednesday Meeting

2007-03-22T12:46:00.000-05:00

Here's New York Is Our Home Campaign Director Julie Miles wrapping up last night's campaign meeting:

Thanks to all who turned out to Wednesday's meeting. With 200 people in attendance, a rousing theme song to get us started, and active participation in the planning for borough events leading up to our May 23rd rally at Stuy Town, the New York is Our Home campaign is moving.

Coming soon: details on the New York Is Our Home Borough Meetings in April and early May.

Campaign Meeting Tonight

2007-03-21T13:14:00.000-05:00

You're invited to join us tonight to launch our coalition effort to preserve affordable rental housing. New York Is Our Home - let's make sure it stays that way!

All welcome. Please pass the word.

Campaign Meeting
THIS Wednesday, March 21
6:30 PM
UFT, 52 Broadway, 2nd Floor
(off Exchange Place in downtown Manhattan: closest station is 4/5 train to Wall St. )

Spanish translation will be provided. See you there tonight!

New York Is Our Home Platform: Endorse Today!

2007-03-21T12:44:00.002-05:00

Millions of New Yorkers cannot afford a decent place to live. The most recent City data shows that 28% of New York City renters pay at least half of their income for rent. Thousands of affordable units in Mitchell-Lama and Section 8 buildings are being lost every year, public housing is being squeezed, and hundreds of thousands of rent-stabilized apartments have been lost to vacancy decontrol.

An unprecedented coalition including the Working Families Party, labor unions, and nearly every housing organization in New York City has united to form New York is Our Home. We want to cover more housing under rent stabilization rules, and we want rent regulations to be stronger. We're calling on the State to immediately:

Preserve Mitchell-Lama and Section 8 Housing

Extend rent regulations to ALL Mitchell Lama and Section 8 buildings.
Declare a moratorium on buyouts until a comprehensive preservation program is in place.
Provide a tenant right of first refusal to purchase these buildings, at prices set by an appraisal board.

Preserve Rent-Regulated Units

Repeal vacancy decontrol to eliminate the rent threshold that allows owners to decontrol units once a unit meets the threshold and become vacant.
Prevent unfair rent increases by strengthening enforcement of the rent laws.

Preserve State-Built Public Housing

Restore $70 million in funding for operating state public housing to the State budget to preserve 20,000 units of state public housing and help preserve thousands of Section 8 vouchers.

Limit Rental Payments for New Yorkers Living With AIDS

End the State's discrimination against people living with AIDS who are being forced to contribute all income except $330 per month towards their rent. All other rental assistance programs cap the amount to just 30% of their income.

Sign the petition.