The bill is co-sponsored by:
Senators Stewart-Cousins, Adams, Addabbo, Diaz, Sr., Duane, Hassell-Thompson, Huntley, Krueger, Monserrate, Onorato, Perkins, Schneiderman, Serrano, and Squadron.

If your Senator is has not yet signed on, please contact his or her offices immediately and ask that they sign on to S3326. (And don't forget to thank those Senators who have signed on.)

Click on "read more" below for the text of the bill and more information about why the PIE Campaign supports it. Contact Amy Chan at amy@tandn.org for more information about the PIE Campaign and supporting the bill.

Although the economic crisis has slowed the rate of buyouts, Mitchell-Lama housing remains at risk as long as the law permits landlords to convert buildings to market-rate.

In total, over 44,000 units of Mitchell-Lama housing in the city have been lost.

To protect tenants from unaffordable rents and displacement, the P.I.E. Campaign supports the extension of rent regulation protections to all Mitchell-Lama buildings.

Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins introduced a bill numbered S3326 (read the text below) that would:

• Place all Mitchell-Lama and Section-8 buildings into rent stabilization when they exit their subsidy programs;

• Retroactively place all Mitchell-Lama and Section-8 buildings into stabilization if they had not been at the time of the buy-out;

• Eliminate “unique or peculiar” rent increases.

The P.I.E. Campaign is calling on the State Senate and the Assembly to pass this legislation!

Below is the text of the statute with a few comments in italics.

AN ACT to amend the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seven-ty-four, in relation to limited-profit housing companies and other buildings or structures which received project-based rental assistance

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:

Section 1 Section 5 of section 4 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974 constituting the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four is amended by adding a new subdivision c to read as follows:

[Applies to Mitchell-Lamas and to Section 8 Projects]

c. Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, nothing shall prevent the declaration of an emergency pursuant to section three of this act for rental housing accommodations located in buildings or structures which were owned by a company established under article two of the private housing finance law [Mitchell-Lamas], other than a mutual company, which are no longer owned by such company by reason of a voluntary dissolution pursuant to section thirty-five of such law or
for rental housing accommodations located in buildings or structures defined as covered projects pursuant to section 8 [Section 8 projects] of the United States housing act of nineteen thirty-seven, as amended, or any successor statute, and any regulations promulgated thereunder in which rental housing accommodations received project-based rental assistance from the United States department of housing and urban development pursuant to contracts with the owners of such buildings or structures which expired or were terminated.

[Stabilized rent in post-1973 buildings will match that of pre-1974 buildings.]

The initial legal regulated rent for housing accommodations located in buildings or structures that were owned by housing companies or that were covered projects previously regulated under the private housing finance law or under federal law, shall be the rent charged to and paid by the tenant in occupancy on the date such regulation terminated or the most recent rent charged to and paid by a tenant prior to such date, including any income-related surcharges, as adjusted by all applicable guidelines increases and other increases authorized by law. [In post-1973 buildings already out of Mitchell-Lama whose rents were raised to market rate, this bill would roll back the rents to the last Mitchell-Lama rent (including surcharges) plus any Rent Guidelines Board increases since then.]

[No "unique or peculiar" increases]

The provisions of subdivision a of section nine of this act or of subdivision a of section 26-513 of the administrative code of the city of New York shall not apply to any housing accommodation which became subject to this act pursuant to the provisions of this subdivision.

[ Applies to buildings that left before as well as to those leaving later]

§ 2 This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply to housing accommodations located in buildings or structures owned by housing companies that dissolved on, before or after such date and to housing accommodations in buildings or structures that were covered projects and had contracts for rental assistance that expired or were terminated on, before or after such date; provided that the amendments to section 5 of the emergency tenant protection act of nineteen seventy-four made by section one of this act shall expire on the same date as such act expires and shall not affect the expiration of such act as provided in section 17 of chapter 576 of the laws of 1974.