We’ll win! Tenant advocate sees big gains
BY LINCOLN ANDERSON
This is shaping up to be the Year of the Tenant. The year
the pendulum swings back in a big way in favor of
renters versus landlords. The year when rent regulation
could make truly historic gains, not just in New York
City — but statewide.
So says Michael McKee, the treasurer of TenantsPAC.
McKee has been fi ghting in the trenches for decades as
one of New York’s longest-serving and most prominent
tenant activists.
“We’re going to win,” he assured. “The only question
is how much.”
With both houses of the state Legislature now controlled
by Democrats, and with a Democratic governor,
the stage is set for sweeping changes benefi tting
renters. A package of nine bills is waiting to be passed
in the current legislative session, which concludes at
the end of June. Together, the bills are being dubbed
the “Universal Rent Control Platform.”
Vacancy deregulation, for one, is expected to be
scrapped.
“That’s gone,” McKee said. “Everyone expects that
to go.”
Currently, unoccupied apartments renting for
$2,775 per month can be removed from rent regulation.
This provision is a major impetus for harassment:
Bad-actor landlords attempt to harass tenants out of
their homes — through lack of heat or hot water, or
disruptive renovation work inside buildings — so they
can eventually boost rents above the threshold, and
turn units market rate.
The “End Vacancy Decontrol” bill is sponsored by
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and
Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal.
In another change that would rock the real-estate
scene, that same bill would also “re-regulate” apartments
that have been deregulated that currently rent
for under $5,000 in New York City and $3,500 in
Nassau, Westchester and Rockland counties. McKee
and his fellow tenant advocates want this to apply to
all apartments deregulated since vacancy control fi rst
went into effect — since 1994 in the city, 1997 in the
suburbs.
Under rent regulation, landlords would then only be
able to charge annual rent increases based on the rates
set by the local Rent Guidelines Board.
“All these people who moved into these apartments
that were deregulated, they would be protected from
arbitrary rent increases and arbitrary eviction,” the veteran
tenant organizer said.
As for how many apartments could potentially be
re-regulated, McKee said, “Three hundred thousand is
probably the low end.”
Landlords voluntarily register apartments they remove
from regulation, but it is not required. So, while
the offi cial number of deregulated units is around
155,000, it’s likely much higher according to McKee.
However, the current Assembly version of the bill
would only re-regulate apartments going back to
2013.
Also part of the package, a separate bill, “Expand
the Emergency Tenant Protection Act,” would allow
rent regulation throughout New York State. Currently,
only New York City and three surrounding counties
can opt into the program.
McKee said there is interest in many localities for
adding rent regulation. He mentioned Rochester, Buffalo,
Syracuse, Binghamton, Newburgh, Schenectady,
Albany, New Paltz, Hudson, “even in Akron, a little
county near Erie.”
“This has never happened in my 49 years of organizing,”
he marveled. “It’s very exciting.”
“This is the year we should fi nally be able to make a huge change,”
he said. “This is a sunset year: The rent laws come up for renewal
— they have to renew the laws.”
Again, McKee predicted, “Cuomo is going to try to water
everything down behind closed doors to help his real estate
buddies who give him campaign cash. He’ll say he’s fi ghting
PHOTO BY CHUCK DELANEY
Michael McKee, of TenantsPAC, says this is
the year to make big strides on rent regulation,
after decades that have seen it progressively
whittled away.
Another bill would eliminate the vacancy bonus,
under which landlords can jack up the rent by 20 percent
every time a new tenant takes over an apartment.
Another measure would end landlords’ ability to add
rent hikes based on necessary major capital improvements,
or M.C.I.’s, on buildings. Still another would
keep “preferential rent” for the life of one’s tenancy; in
other words, if a landlord is having diffi culty fi lling a
regulated apartment and gives you a rent below what he
can legally charge, he can’t later raise the rent on you.
“I think Cuomo’s going to try to water these down
behind closed doors,” McKee predicted, “but we’re
warning our friends in the Legislature to make sure
that doesn’t happen. We know we’re going to win, but
we’re going to try to win big.”
The pro-landlord Republicans are fi nally out of the
picture, according to McKee.
“The Republicans are now literally irrelevant in both
houses,” he scoffed.
As for whether all Democrats would be onboard, he
said, “There are Democrats and there are Democrats,
and that’s what we’re working on.”
Of course, Big Real Estate will utilize everything in
its arsenal to block the bills or dilute them.
“They’re using their typical tactics of stealth and
cash,” McKee said.
He said tenant advocates hope a negotiated bill will
be done by late May or early June instead of at the end
of the legislative session when anything can happen.
“Look what happened to the pied-a-terre tax,” he
noted. “It was a done deal. It was in the budget — and
all of a sudden, the pied-a-terre tax was out of the budget.
We expect the landlords will try to do the same
thing on rent.”
Nevertheless, the tenant activist remains optimistic.
for tenant protections, but everything he’s saying is
vague.
“Cuomo will be behind vacancy decontrol,” McKee
said, “but not re-regulation.”
A phone call for comment from the Real Estate Board
of New York (REBNY) was referred to a new ad-hoc
coalition, Taxpayers for an Affordable New York. The
group — which includes “property owners of all sizes
across the fi ve boroughs” — released a statement saying
that, if these rent reforms are approved, it would
only backfi re on tenants and advocates.
“Responsible rent reforms protect tenants and owners,”
the statement said. “If these proposals pass, owners
of hundreds of thousands of units won’t be able
to afford to invest in maintaining and improving their
buildings.”
The coalition noted that 71 percent of rent-regulated
buildings are older, pre-1947, and so need more maintenance,
while the Manhattan tenants are white, plus
appear to be doing O.K. for themselves.
According to a 2017 survey by the city’s Department
of Housing Preservation and Development, on
the Upper West Side, rent-stabilized households are
57 percent white with an average household income
of $129,791. Upper East Side rent-stabilized households
are 80 percent white with an average household
income of $113,726. Chelsea/Clinton rent-stabilized
households are 47 percent white with an average household
income of $114,677. Meanwhile, Greenwich Village/
Financial District rent-stabilized households are
79 percent white with an average household income
of $209,912.
For his part, state Senator Brad Hoylman is raring to
approve the rent-regulation bills. His district stretches
from the Upper West Side, through Midtown, Hell’s
Kitchen, Chelsea and the Village to Stuyvesant Town,
the East Village and the Lower East Side.
“As a senator who represents tenants living in more
than 50,000 rent-regulated apartments, I can assure
you that passing rent-law reform is my top priority in
these remaining two months of the legislative session,”
he said. “This package of rent-law reform bills will fi -
nally correct the decades of injustice served to tenants
at the hands of the landlord lobby and their sycophants
in Albany.”
Assemblymember Harvey Epstein — whose district
covers the Lower East Side, East Village, Stuyvesant
Town and up to the United Nations — also foresees big
gains on rent laws.
“I think it’s going to be a good year for tenants,” he
said. “The question is how much can we improve the
lives of tenants around the state.”
As for re-regulating apartments, Epstein said the
reason the Assembly bill — as opposed to what advocates
want — would only go back only six years and
not to 1994, is because that’s what New York State
contracts law allows.
“I think it’s legal,” he said or re-regulation.
Cuomo supports ending vacancy decontrol, Epstein
said. But whether the governor backs re-regulating
units is an issue, and also how far back retroactively he
would support doing that, he added.
For his part, McKee, of TenantsPAC, will be doing
his utmost to make sure the rent package passes. He’ll
be posted in the state capital listening, lobbying — and
not budging.
“I’m going to be here every session day until the
end,” he vowed.
6 May 16, 2019 CNW Schneps Media