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March 29-April 4, 2019
ALSO COVERING ELMHURST, JACKSON HEIGHTS, LONG ISLAND CITY, MASPETH, MIDDLE VILLAGE, REGO PARK, SUNNYSIDE
Tenants demand tougher rent laws
Apartment dwellers rally in Elmhurst seeking protection from unscrupulous landlords
BY BILL PARRY
A new Quinnipiac poll
released this week shows
more than four in 10 New York
City residents can’t afford to
live here and may be forced to
live elsewhere while tenants
of an Elmhurst building,
facing steep rent hikes,
rallied to demand stronger
tenant protections.
The at-risk residents
protested outside their
rent-stabilized apartment
building at 41-40 Denman St.
and shared their stories of
having a landlord demand
rent increases that put them
in danger of displacement.
With three months left in the
state legislative session, the
protestors demand lawmakers
in Albany to strengthen
the rent laws and expand
protections to tenants across
the state.
“When I first began to
live in 41-10 Denman St., my
monthly rent was $1,150 per
month,” tenant and Make
the Road New York member
Beronica Cedeno said. “Lease
after lease, I noticed that my
monthly rent continued to
shoot up significantly. I panic
daily about what will happen
to my family if we are removed
from my apartment. Rent rates
in this city have spun out of
control and I can’t afford to go
anywhere else.”
The protestors claimed
two pro-landlord loopholes
were at play, the “preferential
rent” loophole and the eviction
bonus that enables landlords to
dramatically increase the rents
in certain rent-regulated units,
putting hundreds of thousands
of rent stabilized tenants at risk
of losing their homes.
“My family and 266,000
families across New York
Residents rally outside their Elmhurst building, calling on lawmakers to strengthen rent laws and close landlord loopholes.
state today are at risk of losing
their apartment due to the
preferential rent loophole,”
tenant and member of Make
the Road New York Herman
Franco said. “It’s a trick. A
landlord allows a tenant to
enter with a lower rent, but
over several years, the rent
increases by hundreds of
dollars, which pushes the
tenant out.”
Before 2003, landlords who
gave tenants preferential rents,
below the legal maximum, had
to continue them as long as a
tenant stayed in the apartment,
with any increases based on
the discounted rate rather
than the legal maximum.
The rule changed in 2003,
after which preferential
rents have skyrocketed, an
indication that landlords are
using preferential rents as a
loophole to take advantage of
a 20 percent eviction bonus,
through which landlords can
increase rents a further 20
percent when a unit is vacated,
which further incentivizes
displacing tenants.
In 2003, there were nearly
100,000 preferential apartment
across New York; but by 2018, that
number jumped to 266,000 units,
which equates to 31 percent of all
rent-stabilized units.
The combination of the
preferential rent loophole and
the eviction bonus leads to a
frequent bait-and-switch by
landlords, who can depress
the rent to attract a tenant,
only to then demand a huge
Courtesy of Make the Road New York
increase to displace the tenant
and raise the rent a further 20
percent for the next tenant.
Ralliers claim it is an endrun
around the rent stabilization
system that puts hundreds of
thousands of New Yorkers at
risk of losing their homes
“In District 13, we have
35,000 unregulated units,”
state Sen. Jessica Ramos said.
“So many of my neighbors
face harassment and unfair
treatment from landlords who
just want to make a profit.”
Vol. 7 No. 13 48 total pages
/QNS.COM
