Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Housing Committee Chair Keith L.T. Wright today announced the approval of a comprehensive package of legislation to strengthen rent regulation laws and improve access to affordable housing for more New Yorkers.

"The Assembly Majority remains committed to strengthening rent regulations for tenants in New York," said Silver. "Too many New Yorkers are being priced out of their homes by rising rents. In fact, just yesterday, we saw the Rent Guidelines Board approve the largest increase for regulated tenants since the financial crisis hit. With the measures approved by the Assembly we will enhance rent protections and preserve quality affordable housing to stabilize our working class neighborhoods."

The package includes a bill (A.5473/Wright) that would help to stem the displacement crisis in New York City and preserve the affordable housing stock available to working families and moderate-income residents. It would protect tenants with preferential rent agreements from exorbitant rent increases when the lease is renewed.

"With the 2013 legislative session coming to a close, I am very pleased with the progress that our conference has made in the fight to preserve affordable housing, increase tenant protection, and expand rent regulations," said Wright. "The Assembly has shown their commitment to these types of issues time and time again, and with the recent passage of each of these pieces of legislation, we continue to make strides. As Chair of the Housing Committee and a resident of the same rent-stabilized apartment that I grew up in, I am committed to helping regular New Yorkers find their way through the current housing crisis. While this is the end of my first year as Chairman, I look forward to advancing legislation of this caliber in sessions to come."

Repealing Vacancy Decontrol Laws

Several studies demonstrate that over 300,000 rent-stabilized apartments have been removed from regulation in New York City and the surrounding metro area. To preserve and restore much-needed affordable housing units to help working families remain in their neighborhoods, legislation approved by the Assembly would:

• repeal vacancy decontrol laws that permit landlords to remove apartments from regulation by charging rent at or above $2,000 per month (A.1585/Rosenthal);
• cap the amount a landlord could increase rent on a vacated apartment from 20 percent to 7.5 percent (A.5178/Wright);
• extend eviction and rent protection to those tenants living in former federal project-based section 8 buildings, even if the building had been constructed after 1974 (A.5828/Wright); and
• limit a building owner's ability to recover a rent-regulated apartment for personal use (A.5177/Wright).

Preserving Affordable Housing

As a means to incentivize landlords to make improvements on their properties and safeguard tenants from unreasonable rent increases, legislation included in the package of bills would:

• require rent surcharges authorized for major capital improvements (MCI) to cease when the cost of the improvement has been recovered (A.5373/O'Donnell); and
• reduce a landlord's MCI rent increase by the total amount of tax abatement benefits received under the J-51 program to prevent unnecessary rent increases (A.5827/Wright).

Maggie Russell-Ciardi Executive Director of the New York State Tenants and Neighbors Coalition said, "Speaker Silver, Housing Chair Wright, and the bill sponsors have demonstrated a strong understanding of the problems New York's low-and moderate income-tenants are facing, and a willingness to take action to address those issues. We commend the Assembly for its commitment to advancing a dialogue about how we can keep New York diverse and affordable and for the passage of these bills. We look now to the Senate to follow the Assembly's lead."

Initiatives to further protect tenants would:

• extend the length of time a landlord must own the rental property before it is eligible for an alternative hardship rent adjustment from three years to six years (A.2181/Kavanagh);
• require the New York City Council to confirm the mayor's appointees to the New York City Rent Guidelines Board and expand the experience required for an individual to be appointed (A.104/Kavanagh);
• prevent a rent guidelines board from adjusting rent in the absence of legislative authorization (A.991/Rosenthal); and
• require an owner of a rent-regulated unit to comply with an order issued more than four years prior to an overcharge complaint and require a complaint of fraud to be reviewed by the Division of Housing and Community Renewal regardless of whether the fraud began more than four years prior to the complaint (A.748/Rosenthal).