SCRIE and DRIE Reform

Tenants & Neighbors has long been an advocate for the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) and Disability Rent Increase Exemption (DRIE) rental assistance programs, which have kept thousands of New Yorkers in their homes since 1974. However, there is an urgent need to expand and update the program to keep up with our communities’ changing needs. Currently, these programs freeze the rents of seniors and disabled tenants in rent-regulated apartments who make less than $50,000 annually.

Seniors & disabled New Yorkers are struggling with skyrocketing rents. Many live on fixed incomes, and rent increases force them to choose between food, medicine, and housing. Expanding SCRIE and DRIE will stabilize housing and reduce homelessness. Seniors and disabled tenants are among the most vulnerable to displacement. Keeping them in their homes reduces shelter costs, hospital visits, and strain on social services.

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The income cap ($50,000) excludes many low-income seniors and disabled tenants who still cannot afford rising rents. This amount was set in 2014. If the cap had matched a cost-of-living adjustment over the last decade, the cap would now be around $70,000. Tenants are losing eligibility when they receive modest increases in income.

  • We support S1457A (Kavanagh), which would increase the maximum income threshold for eligibility to $67,000 and index it to inflation thereafter. 

SCRIE and DRIE programs are underutilized by eligible tenants. Language and education barriers, the complex application and renewal process, and a general lack of awareness prevent many eligible tenants from receiving benefits. We also receive many cases of tenants who reach out to us once they are in dire situations, faced with rent that they cannot pay or are already in Housing Court for an eviction

  • We support S561 (Krueger), which requires notice to be sent to eligible tenants regarding the rent increase exemption for SCRIE and DRIE programs. 

For many tenants who are enrolled in the SCRIE and DRIE programs, their rents are frozen at an unsustainable amount with no option to address unaffordability. For example, a tenant receives $1,000 per month in Social Security income and their rent is frozen through SCRIE at $800. This senior is highly rent-burdened and has little leftover income to pay for groceries and medical expenses. Many tenants enrolled in the program are in similar extremely dire situations. 

  • We support S2451A (Kavanagh), which permits localities to opt to reduce renters’ payments toward rent to one-third of household income for SCRIE/DRIE
  • We support S2534 (Sanders), which sets SCRIE/DRIE rent to the original date of eligibility with an eligible look-back period of up to two years.

The rigidity of the SCRIE and DRIE programs means that families with disabled children, and tenants whose income fluctuates are not able to take advantage of essential benefits they need to keep their homes. 

  • We support S3563 (Cleare), which includes the parent or guardian of a person with a disability in the definition of head of household for the disability rent increase program.
  • We support S4252 (Parker), which provides for a continuation of senior citizen rent increase exemption benefits after a period of ineligibility.

Additionally, we support two further reforms to the program:

  1. Medicare premium payments are subtracted from monthly Social Security checks, but those premiums are counted as income for SCRIE. Medicare premiums should be excluded from income so that more seniors can qualify for SCRIE.
  2. We believe Veteran’s Disability and Workers’ Compensation benefits should be excluded as countable income for SCRIE and DRIE. People who were injured, whether by serving our country or on the job, should not be refused life-changing rental benefits because their benefits place them slightly over the income threshold. This reform would also mirror Medicare policy.