Tom Waters and Victor Bach, Housing Analysts for the Community Service Society, have published a new Policy Brief exploring the effects that the vacancy decontrol of rent-stabilized apartments is having on low-income New Yorkers.

Click here for the article.

Tom Waters wrote, "Although rent regulation is not a low-income housing program but rather a program to prevent excessive rents resulting from the city’s chronic housing shortage, it does reach a population with lower incomes than the city as a whole."

The authors "find that vacancy decontrol is not only affecting high-income areas, but causing rapid changes in areas of Upper Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn where many low-income New Yorkers live."

The only chance for the only retroactive Mitchell-Lama bill is if Governor Paterson calls an extraordinary session of both houses to consider S.3326-A/ A.4359-A.

Please e-mail the letter below to the 4 addressees in the Governor's office:

• Larry.Schwartz@chamber.state.ny.us

• Peter.Kiernan@chamber.state.ny.us

• Haley.Plourde-Cole@chamber.state.ny.us and

• Howie.Katz@chamber.state.ny.us

June 25, 2009

Governor David A. Paterson
Executive Chamber
Albany, New York 12224

Dear Governor Paterson:

I urge you to call both the State Senate and the State Assembly into extraordinary session to take up S3326 (Stewart-Cousins, et al.)/A4359-A (Pretlow et al.) This bill puts into rent stabilization all buildings that will leave or that have already left the Mitchell-Lama or project-based Section 8 program, regardless of when constructed, and closes the “unique or peculiar circumstances” loophole. It would set the rent for post-1973 buildings at the lawful rent for January 2007 (as does the vacancy decontrol bill).

This is the ONLY bill that would protect tenants in buildings already out of Mitchell-Lama, and would

• Make affordable some 10,900 apartments in post-1973 buildings many of whose tenants are being evicted and displaced, with thousands more fighting for their homes, and

• Keep affordable 7,215 apartments in pre-1974 buildings whose tenants are facing “unique or peculiar” increases as the landlords drag yet another case against DHCR through the courts.

These tenants cannot wait.

You know us; you know the issue. We count on you to save our homes.

Thank you.

Very truly yours,

[Your Name & Address]

Despite pleas by city politicians for a rent freeze, the Rent Guidelines Board ordered increases in for lease whose renewal goes into effect any time from October 1, 2009 through September 30, 2010:

• 1-year lease renewal increase: the higher of $30* or 3%

• 2-year lease renewal increase: higher of $60* or 6%.

*That alternative only applies if the tenant has lived in that rent stabilized apartment for 6 years or more - and the apartment itself has been rent stabilized for at least 6 years. So the alternative does not apply to buildings that left Mitchell-Lama under 6 years ago.

Urge Governor David Paterson to include tenant bills in any special session he calls.

With the NYS Senate in a deadlock, the Democrats and Republicans appear to be conducting their separate business- but no laws are getting passed in the waning minutes of this legislative session.

Tenants cannot afford to wait until 2010 - by which time thousands more affordable apartments will be lost forever.

Click on read more below for a letter to e-mail the Governor. You can also call the Governor at (518) 473-7619, attention Larry Schwartz and Peter Kiernan, or telephone at (518) 474-4246.

Click here for a review of the rally.

Tenants Protested Sen. Espada's Betray of Bronx Residents.

This protest was sponsored by:

Latinos for Affordable Rent Coalition
Northwest Bronx Community Clergy
CASA - New Settlement (Community Association for Safe Apartments)
Housing Here & Now
The Mitchell-Lama PIE Campaign
and more groups.

For WHY tenants came, click on "read more" below.

On June 8, 2009, State Senators Pedro Espada (facing ethics violations) and Hiram Monserrate (facing trial for domestic violence), cast their lot with the Republicans and shifted the State Senate majority to the GOP.

This will likely undermine the entire tenant agenda. See "Taking a Rent Check" in the New York Observer.

While Monserrate has switched back, that leaves the NYS Senate in a deadlock, so Gov. Paterson will be calling special sessions. Let him know that you want him to include the tenant agenda in his sessions!

The NY Times, Daily News and Crain's New York Business.com have good stories.

The Rent Stabilization Group, which represents landlords, said. "We're pleasantly thrilled."

Let Espada and Monserrate know how you feel on the Citizen Action website.

Stay tuned for tenant actions, joining others dismayed at this literal coup d'état.

A federal district court ruled in favor of the federal Dept. of Housing & Urban Development and against Larry Gluck of Stellar Management in the case of Castleton Park on Staten Island.

The court ruled that the development could not be removed from the Mitchell-Lama program since there remains a shortage of affordable housing in the area.

Congratulations to Legal Aid attorney Ellen Davidson who represented the tenants.

On June 3, 2009, the Highbridge House and Columbus 95 cases had a hearing on the landlords' motion for summary judgment in State Supreme Court (the lowest court for this purpose). (Click here for a chart of the case so far.)

The main issues:

I. Whether DHCR's Nov. 2007 regulations (that just leaving Mitchell-Lama is not by itself a unique or peculiar circumstance) should be applied to applications for U or P increases that were filed before the regulations became law.

II. Whether the regulations are valid.

For details, click on "read more" below.

The Mitchell-Lama P.I.E. Campaign is going up to Albany and needs your help on

• Tuesday, June 2

• Monday, June 8 (possibly)
• Tuesday, June 9

• Tuesday, June 16

• Monday, June 22

to lobby individual legislators to sponsor the Stewart-Cousins / Pretlow bill, S.3326 / A.4359.

To participate, contact Amy Chan of the P.I.E. Campaign.