The Current Housing Reality
Gentrification is rapidly displacing low and moderate income New Yorkers from their homes and communities. Throughout New York, landlords are converting buildings that have been regulated or subsidized for generations into market rate or luxury housing. At the same time, the landlord lobby is persistently and effectively advocating for the expansion of the mechanisms owners use to remove apartment buildings from their affordability programs, and also for weakening of tenant rights. As a result, low and moderate income tenants are being displaced from their homes, the fabric of our communities is unraveling, and New York is losing its diversity.
Recent Victory: Securing Housing
Justice for All
Recent Victory: Securing Housing Justice for All
On June 14, 2019, the Upstate Downstate Housing Alliance won the most sweeping & radical changes to New York State’s rent regulation system in the past 20 years. The slow dismantling of rent regulation which has led to sky-rocketing rents, displacement and gentrification was finally reversed.
The results of the 2019 Rent Law Reforms were the following:
● Numerous loopholes were finally closed including vacancy decontrol, preferential rents and the vacancy bonus.
● While 300,000 homes were deregulated since 1997, none will be taken out of the system again.
● Not only that, but for the first time in decades there was an expansion of renter rights. All 54 municipalities in the state will be able to op-into the system of rent stabilization.
Learn more about the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act here.