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QUEENS WEEKLY, JUNE 9, 2019
Inside the proposed nine-bill rent reform package
Of the nine bills
that would end vacancy
decontrol and the
vacancy bonus and
address a number of
other loopholes that leave
tenants vulnerable to bad
landlords, one stands out
among as a particularly
wide-reaching and
controversial: Bushwick
Senator Julia Salazar’s
good cause eviction bill.
Framed as an
amendment to the property
laws governing eviction,
the bill would give tenants
recourse from being
driven out of their home by
excessive rent hikes. The
amendment would make
it illegal for a landlord to
force a tenant out based
on an “unconscionable”
rent increase – defined 150
percent of the inflation
rate or a 3.3 percent
increase, based on New
York’s average inflation
over the past 19 years. To
evict a tenant, a landlord
would need to prove
nuisance, illegal activity
and a breach of the lease.
“And so a tenant could
say to a landlord who
doesn’t want to renew
their lease, ‘Nope, that’s
not enough. You’ve got
File photo: Mark Hallum/QNS
to demonstrate why I’m
not entitled to remain in
this apartment in court,'”
said Sateesh Nori, the
attorney-in-charge of the
Queens Civil Office of The
Legal Aid Society.
Nori, who has spent
all of his 18-year career
in housing court, said
that the new legislation
would play out in court
in the same way that rent
regulation law do.
“That’s a higher
standard. And so for many
landlords who were just
speculating or want to
charge a little bit higher
rent, but something that’s
unaffordable to most
people, they might think
twice because their cost of
entry into housing court
is a little bit higher,”
he said.
At a recent town
hall on the legislation
in Ridgewood, Senator
Michael Gianaris pointed
out that the measure is
encountering the most
resistance because it’s the
only one of the nine that
would provide protection
to people who are not rentregulated.
he thinks it scares the
real estate industry for
this reason.
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The clock is running
down on the nine-bill
“universal rent control”
package in the state
Legislature, where there
is a push to vote before
New York’s rent control
laws expire on June 15.
It looks like the
progressive legislators
propelling the legislation
have secured the support
needed to pass all nine bills
in the now Democratically
controlled senate.
“Following a long
discussion within
the Senate Majority
Conference, it is clear that
we have support for all nine
priority housing bills,”
Democrat Senate Majority
Leader Andrea Stewart-
Cousins said Tuesday in
a statement. Meanwhile,
the fact that Assembly
Speaker Carl Heastie has
not made a corresponding
announcement indicates
uncertainty in the other
chamber.
He said that
The bill’s greater
uncertainty in the
assembly than in the senate
is reflected among Queens
legislators. Only two out
of seven Queens senators
have not co-sponsored
the legislation, while
seven out of 18 Queens
Assembly members have
not supported it.
In addition to extending
protections to tenants who
are not rent-regulated,
the law also would form
an expansion of rent
regulation. Another major
component of the bill is
that it would widen rentstabilization
rules that
only apply to buildings
with six or more units to
apply to buildings with
four or more.
This would be
especially important for
Queens where there is
a higher concentration
of small houses than
in Brooklyn, the Bronx
or Manhattan.
Read more at QNS.com.
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