Norwood News

The New York State Assembly passed a package of bills last week aimed at preserving affordable housing and expanding tenants’ rights, including a repeal of vacancy decontrol, the top priority for New York City affordable housing advocates.

The fate of the bills now rests with the State Senate, and particularly with newly elected State Senator Pedro Espada, Jr. (Bronx, 33rd District), chair of the Senate’s Housing Committee. Espada has expressed support for many of the bills’ provisions but has yet to sign on to a new bill repealing vacancy decontrol, the first of the package to reach the Senate.

Michelle O’Brien of Housing Here and Now, an alliance of affordable housing and tenants’ rights groups, called the repeal of vacancy decontrol “the single most important thing the State Legislature could do in 2009 for affordable housing.”

Vacancy decontrol affects all apartments subject to rent regulation, the largest affordable housing program in New York. Tenants in rent-regulated apartments have more rights, and landlords are subject to strict limits on the amount and frequency of rent increases. Vacancy decontrol, passed by the legislature in 1997, allows landlords to withdraw apartments from rent regulation once the monthly rent reaches $2,000. Landlords can then charge market rate, which is usually much higher. The Assembly bill would end vacancy decontrol and “recapture” units which have left the system, reinstating limits on rent increases and expanding tenant protections.

Housing advocates argue that vacancy decontrol makes bad behavior profitable for landlords. 

“As well as the loss of affordable apartments, [vacancy decontrol] gives landlords an incentive to reach that decontrol threshold through tenant harassment, inflated apartment improvements and illegal rent increases,” said O’Brien.

Similar bills have passed the Assembly before, but died in the Republican controlled Senate. But the new Democratic majority in the State Senate, the first in 40 years, means it now has a chance. Bronx Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said the new Democratic majority campaigned on housing reform, and has a responsibility to pass the bills.

“We’ve been hoping for years that Democrats would take the Senate, and this was one of the main reasons why,” Dinowitz said.

In an interview last month with the Norwood News, Espada called the creation of affordable housing his top priority, and expressed particular support for the repeal of vacancy decontrol. But he has not taken a position on the current bill.

Although it is early yet, 22 of the 32 Democrats and one Republican have already signed on as co-sponsors. O’Brien said that activists hope Espada will throw his weight behind the bill, pointing out that he has 76,000 rent-regulated tenants in his district, more than all but two other districts in the city. Espada didn’t return calls requesting comment.

Joseph Ferdinand, a housing advocate with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition, said he met with a very non-committal Espada two weeks ago in Albany with several other local activists.

“He was double-talking us to death,” Ferdinand said. “Whenever we brought [vacancy decontrol] up, he would change the subject.”
Espada did commit to continued dialogue with the Coalition, Ferdinand said.