MAX
COURIER LIFE, A M BR B G PRIL 26–MAY 2, 2019 25
Protesters rally
for rent control
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
State politicians must enact
so-called universal
rent control, protesters
demanded at a march in
Bushwick on April 18.
More than 100 demonstrators
rallied in support
of a slate of bills making
their way through
the Albany legislature
by Democrats aiming to
renew and expand rent
regulations, before New
York’s rent laws expire
this June.
The bills aim to close
loopholes for rent-stabilized
tenants and expand
their existing protections
to all private tenants
in the state, which
will make housing safer
for vulnerable New Yorkers,
according to one protestor
and housing activist
who received a 30-day
eviction notice to leave
her Bushwick apartment
by the end of April.
“I do not understand
how we have created a
system that makes it normal
to harass tenants
and put them out onto the
streets. My family, like
fi ve million other renters,
needs support in the
form of legal protection,”
said Mireya Vega, who
is also a member of the
tenants rights advocacy
group Make the Road
New York, which organized
the march down the
north Brooklyn neighborhood’s
Knickerbocker
Avenue terminating at
her apartment building
at Flushing Avenue.
The organization is
part of a statewide coalition
called the Upstate
Downstate Housing Alliance,
which lobbies politicians
of both houses to
enact nine pieces of legislation
before the June 15
deadline.
The bills, which aim
to bolster protections for
currently-stabilized tenants,
include laws to stop
landlords from deregulating
those apartments
if the rent of a unit surpasses
$2,733 a month or
if the occupant leaves.
These tenants have
several protections under
the current rent
laws, such as prohibiting
evictions without good
cause and limiting rent
increases to somewhere
between 0-2.5 percent, as
determined annually by
each city board.
These regulations
only apply to buildings
with six or more units,
but several gentrifying
neighborhoods — such as
Bushwick and East New
York — have a housing
stock with mostly smaller
buildings, according to
the Alliance.
One local state pol who
has been vocal on housing
said that this creates
an arbitrary discrepancy
of rights which favors the
landowners over tenants,
as is the case with Vega’s
impending eviction.
“For no other reason
than that it is a smaller
building, they are excluded
from the protections
of rent regulations,”
said state Sen. Julia Salazar
(D-Bushwick). “Our
rent laws advantage
property owners over
tenants.”
The legislator in
March introduced a bill
which would prohibit
landlords from evicting
a tenant or not renewing
their lease without good
cause, such as the tenant
not paying their rent,
substantially violating
their lease terms, or if
the landlord or someone
in their immediate family
want to move into the
apartment.
Salazar said that her
bill was just one of many
that she and her fellow
pols upstate will have
to make law in order to
wrest power from landlords
and make the city
more affordable.
One protestor said
that she saw her community
forced out of neighboring
Williamsburg due
to a loosely-regulated real
estate market and now
fears that the same will
happen in Bushwick.
“I used to work in
Bushwick for 28 years and
I know the situation,” said
Maria Cortes. “We are
losing the neighborhood,
we are losing everything
and we have the right to
live over here, New York
is our home and we want
to stay in New York.”