A package of legislation that would strengthen housing laws in favor of tenants was introduced in the State Assembly last week. Though it has the support of several Bronx Assembly members, including Jeff Dinowitz, the bill will likely face an uphill battle in the now Republican-controlled State Senate.

The bill, introduced by Brooklyn Assemblyman Vito Lopez, would renew a number of rent and eviction laws that expire this year. More importantly to tenant advocates, the legislation would repeal vacancy decontrol — the provision that lets landlords enact massive rent hikes at stabilized apartments once tenants vacate them, essentially deregulating rents across the city’s housing market.

Similar legislation has successfully passed in the Assembly in years past, but has failed to get approval in the Senate. “This year the Republicans are back in control, which is really bad,” said Michael McKee, who runs the tenant advocacy group Tenants PAC and the Real Rent Reform Campaign. “The Republicans are owned by the real estate lobby.”

McKee said he and other housing leaders are hoping that the Assembly will put political pressure on the Republican-controlled Senate to get the bills through. “It’s a horse trade,” he said. “Basically, the Assembly’s saying to the Senate: ‘If you want x, we want y.’”

Lopez’s housing bill could come up for a vote in the Assembly in the next two weeks, McKee said.