June 21–27, 2019 Brooklyn Paper • www.BrooklynPaper.com • (718) 260-2500 AWP 11
Pols celebrate new rent law
Many praise agreement as ‘historic’ victory for tenants
Photo by Kevin Duggan
State Sen. Julia Salazar led a protest on April 18 urging Albany legislators to
adopt protections for tenants across the state, which they agreed to do last
week.
vember.
The agreement reached
this week contains many
of those proposals, including
the abolishment of provisions
that allowed landlords
to increase rent of rent-stabilized
apartments by up to 20
percent each time they were
vacated or renovated.
The deal also repealed legal
provisions that allowed
building owners to remove
rental units from rent-stabilization
altogether if the
monthly rent increased above
a certain threshold, or if the
tenant earned an annual income
above $200,000. Since
they were first passed in
1994, those provisions led to
the deregulation of more than
300,000 units, according to
the legislature fact sheet on
the agreement.
Throughout the legislative
session — which began
in January — lawmakers
had been scrambling to
reach a new agreement before
the expiration of the current
rent laws. Frustrated with the
temporary nature of rent
law agreements, which expire
every four years, legislators
eliminated the sunset
these laws will remain in effect
until the legislature takes
purposeful action to repeal
or terminate them.
One noteworthy aspect of
the housing advocates’ demands
that was missing from
finalized agreement was the
far-reaching “ good clause ”
provision, which would have
made it substantially more
difficult for landlords to evict
tenants.
The provision — which
had been controversial since
it was first introduced by
Salazar in January — would
have prevented building owners
from excessively increasing
the price of rent during
or between lease terms for
the vast majority of rental
units in the state.
Building owners would
only be allowed to evict tenants,
or deny them renewal of
their lease, for “good cause,”
which includes failure to
pay rent, using the premises
for illegal purposes, or
if the building owner themselves
wanted to occupy the
space.
Even with the absence of
the important provision, local
political leaders celebrated
the agreement as a major victory
State Sen. Zellnor Myrie
(D-Crown Heights) —
who successfully mounted
a progressive primary challenge
against an entrenched
incumbent in last year’s election,
in part by campaigning
heavily on housing rights —
put the agreement in historical
terms.
“This bill is the strongest
package of tenant protections
New York has seen
since World War II,” he said.
“For decades, our communities
have lost hundreds of
thousands of rent regulated
units, but with this legislation,
we are putting power
back in the hands of tenants.
We are taking a historic step
forward in the fight for housing
as a human right.”
Another Brooklyn legislator,
Assemblyman Steven
Cymbrowitz (D-Brighton
Beach), who chairs the
Housing Committee, said the
agreement would allow lower
income people to remain
in the city.
“It reaffirms our commitment
to ensuring that New
York state remains a welcoming
place for everyone who
provision all together in this
agreement — ensuring that
for renters.
wants to live here, not just
the wealthy,” he said.
By Aidan Graham
Brooklyn Paper
Political bigwigs are celebrating
a landmark agreement
to strengthen the state’s
rent laws, which will affect
more than 2.5 million city
dwellers.
The agreement — which
would limit the ability of
landlords to jack up rent,
eliminate the deregulation of
many apartments, and make
the new rent laws permanent
— is a historic victory for
tenants in New York, according
to the leaders of both state
legislative chambers.
“These reforms give New
Yorkers the strongest tenant
protections in history. For too
long, power has been tilted in
favor of landlords and these
measures finally restore equity
and extend protections to
tenants across the state,” Senate
Majority Leader Andrea
Stewart-Cousins and Assembly
Speaker Carl Heastie
said in a joint statement on
June 11.
The agreement — officially
called the Housing
Stability and Tenant Protection
Act — is expected
to pass both chambers and
be signed by the governor before
June 15, when the current
iteration of the rent laws
are set to expire.
The ambitious push came
on the heels of last November’s
election, which saw the
Democratic Party take control
of the state Senate —
a development that the legislative
leaders credit with
their ability to pass the new
agreement.
“None of these historic
new tenant protections would
be possible without the fact
that New York finally has a
united Democratic legislature,”
said Stewart-Cousins
and Heastie.
Following the election,
housing advocates began
pushing lawmakers to enact
nine pieces of legislation,
collectively known as “universal
rent control,” spearheaded
by Sen. Julia Salazar
(D–Bushwick) — who
first won her seat in No-
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