Rent regulation: New York’s largest and most affordable housing program
The system of rent control and rent stabilization is a vital and effective response to the long-term housing crisis in New York City and the suburban counties of Nassau, Westchester, and Rockland. Although the rent laws cannot end the crisis, they significantly mitigate its effects for millions of New Yorkers.
The New York State Tenants & Neighbors Information Service has released a study documenting the importance of the laws.
The study reveals that the rent laws together protect an affordable housing stock of 1,098,840 units in New York City . This is many times greater than the total number of public housing and subsidized housing units in the city.
The study also demonstrates that these regulated units are much more affordable than similar unregulated rental units in almost all areas of the city.
In the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, regulated rents are substantially lower than unregulated rents in comparable buildings, those with six or more units. In Staten Island there are not enough unregulated units in buildings with six or more units to report.
Citywide, unregulated rents are 70 percent higher than regulated rents. The median regulated rent is $640, while the median unregulated rent in comparable buildings is $1,090. Unfortunately there are no comparable data to support an analysis of the importance of rent regulation in the suburbs, but the experience of tenants indicates an equally if not more difficult market facing low- and middle-income renters.
The Tenants & Neighbors study also documents the effect that high-rent vacancy decontrol has had on the city’s affordable housing supply. Since 1993, a total of 99,000 rent-controlled and rent-stabilized apartments were deregulated through high-rent vacancy decontrol, plus 69,000 deregulated through conversion of buildings to cooperatives and condominiums. And the rate of decontrol is accelerating. In 2002 alone, 15,000 apartments were lost due to high-rent vacancy decontrol and 5,000 due to conversion.
The enormous difference between regulated and unregulated rents indicates that in most cases, the deregulated apartments are priced out of the reach of people with incomes similar to those of the previous tenants. The study also demonstrates that high-rent vacancy decontrol is affecting every borough of New York City. 42.5 percent of the deregulated apartments are located outside Manhattan.
Rent regulation is a vitally necessary policy, but vacancy decontrol threatens its effectiveness. Vacancy decontrol under existing law is already causing hardship, and its continuation will cause more hardship to many people in the future. Indeed, the increasing rate of decontrol threatens the continued existence of rent regulation.
The system of rent control and rent stabilization is a vital and effective response to the long-term housing crisis in New York City and the suburban counties of Nassau, Westchester, and Rockland. Although the rent laws cannot end the crisis, they significantly mitigate its effects for millions of New Yorkers.
Rent regulated apartments are the largest source of affordable housing in the New York State. There are over one million rent controlled and rent stabilized units in New York City, and the suburban counties of Westchester, Nassau and Rockland. Rent regulation has three major purposes: (1) restrict rent increases, (2) provide eviction protections and (3) set guidelines for housing conditions and how landlords must maintain their buildings
While there are exceptions to these rules, your apartment is most likely rent controlled if you building contains 3+ units, was built before 1947 and you or your family moved in before July 1971. Your apartment is most likely rent stabilized if your building contains 6+ units and (a) was built between 1947 and 1973 or (b) was built before 1947 and you moved in after 1971 and the rent was below $2,000 when you moved in.
Increases for rent controlled apartments are determined by 2 figures: the Maximum Base Rent (MBR) and Maximum Collectible Rent (MCR). The MBR is a maximum ceiling for rents and is computed for each apartment every two years. The MCR is the amount an owner can actually collect and is typically no more than 7.5% per year. In order to qualify for the MCR increase, landlords must meet certain conditions like removing any violations in the building. Increases for rent stabilized apartments are determined annually by the NYC Rent Guidelines Board (RGB), whose members are appointed by the mayor. For leases commencing on or after October 1, 2006 and before September 30, 2007, the guidelines are: 4.25% for a one-year leases and 7.25% for a two-year lease renewal. Tenants & Neighbors organizes tenants to attend and testify at both the MBR hearings bi-annually and the RGB hearings annually, please contact us to get involved.
Rent controlled tenants typically have only one old, original lease or no lease at all—they are considered statutory tenants. Rent stabilized tenants have the right to renew their lease for either a one or two-year period under the same conditions as their original lease. Owners must offer renewal leases between 150-90 days prior to the expiration of the current lease, or offer a reason for not renewing the lease. If you don’t receive a renewal lease within this period, send a letter to the landlord, certified, return receipt requested, reminding him/her of this requirement. If you still don’t receive a renewal lease, file an “Owner’s Failure to Renew Lease” complaint with the state housing agency, DHCR
High-rent vacancy decontrol allows a landlord to remove an apartment from rent regulation upon vacancy when the legal rent is $2,000 or more. High-income decontrol allows owners to apply to DHCR to deregulate an apartment when (a) the combined income of a household is $175,000 or more for each of the previous two calendar years and (b) the legal rent for the apartment is $2,000 or more per month. In the past decade we have lost nearly 200,000 apartments to high-rent and high-income decontrol.
The Urstadt law, enacted in 1971, took away the right of the New York City Council and Mayor to make the rent regulation laws more protective of tenants. This is called local control, or home rule. This means that upstate legislators, whose districts do not include a single rent regulated apartment, have complete control over our rent laws. These lawmakers also receive millions of dollars in campaign cash from NYC landlords. Because of this law it has become impossible for tenants to get pro-tenant legislation passed in Albany.
