Housing News
Albany Update from the New York State Tenants & Neighbors Coalition
On August 3, the Senate finally put two bills on the Real Rent Reform’s legislative agenda to a vote, one that would reform a loophole around preferential rent and another that would reform the system for calculating individual apartment improvement increases. Unfortunately, Democrats Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, Craig Johnson and Brian Foley of Long Island, and Darrel Aubertine, William Stachowski, and David Valesky, who represent regions upstate, voted against both tenant bills. Pedro Espada of the Bronx voted no on the preferential rent reform bill but yes on the individual apartment improvement reform bill. Both bills were ultimately laid aside, much to the discouragement of the tenants who had traveled to Albany that day in the hopes of celebrating the passage of pro-tenant legislation.
Then, Governor Paterson shocked the tenant movement by vetoing A10689/ S7613, a bill the New York State Tenants & Neighbors Coalition had strongly supported, which would have prevented landlords in New York State from discriminating against tenants on the basis of their lawful source of income. Because of his decision to veto this bill, in parts of the state other that New York City, where source of income discrimination has been illegal since 2008, landlords can still refuse to rent apartments to tenants who have Section 8 vouchers.
The Senate will go back into session in late September, so we are currently working on evaluating our campaign efforts thus far and planning our strategy for the fall. If you want to get involved, please contact Mary at 212-608-4320 ext. 316 or mtek@tandn.org.
Federal Preservation Bill Clears Major Hurdle
One of Tenants & Neighbors’ federal legislative priorities has taken an important step forward. On Tuesday, July 27th, the Housing Preservation and Tenant Protection Act of 2010 (H.R. 4868), which is intended to preserve HUD-subsidized housing and enhance protections for tenants in HUD-subsidized buildings, went through “mark-up” in the House Financial Services Committee. During the mark-up, most of Tenants & Neighbors’ priorities within the bill remained intact. The bill, which was originally introduced in March by Representative Barney Frank, can now move to the floor of the House, although it is unclear whether that will happen during this Congressional session. Meanwhile, Tenants & Neighbors is working alongside the National Alliance of HUD Tenants and many other allies to get a companion bill introduced in the Senate. For more information on this legislation, contact Emily Goldstein at egoldstein@tandn.org.
