Res. No. 692-A Title Resolution calling upon the New York State Senate to pass, and the Governor to approve, A.2716-A, in relation to extending state rent regulation and eviction protection laws and repealing high-rent vacancy decontrol. Body By the Speaker (Council Member Miller) and Council Members Katz, Quinn, Addabbo, Avella, Baez, Brewer, Clarke, Comrie, Davis, DeBlasio, Gennaro, Gerson, Jackson, Koppell, Liu, Lopez, Martinez, Monserrate, Nelson, Perkins, Reed, Reyna, Rivera, Sanders, Vann, Weprin, Moskowitz, The Public Advocate (Ms. Gotbaum) and Boyland Whereas, New York City continues to face a housing crisis, with the 2002 Housing and Vacancy Survey revealing a vacancy rate of only 2.94 percent; and Whereas, New York City's housing stock is predominantly renter-occupied; and Whereas, According to the 2002 Housing and Vacancy Survey, there are 2,084,769 occupied and vacant available rental units in New York City, and of those units, approximately 67 percent are rent-stabilized, rent-controlled, or otherwise regulated; and Whereas, Rent regulation both protects current tenants from being subjected to unaffordable rents and arbitrary eviction as well as ensures continued affordability for new tenants; and Whereas, State rent regulation and eviction protection laws will expire on June 15, 2003 unless renewed by the New York State Legislature and the Governor; and Whereas, High-rent vacancy decontrol, under which units that rent for $2000 or more per month before or after the units become vacant, allows landlords to remove apartments permanently from the other protections offered by the state rent and eviction regulation programs; and Whereas, It has been estimated by the New York State Tenants and Neighbors Information Service that over the last decade, over 99,000 units in New York City have been removed from rent regulation through high-rent vacancy decontrol; and Whereas, A.2716-A would extend existing rent regulation laws from June 15, 2003 to June 15, 2008, eliminate high-rent vacancy decontrol, extend rent and eviction protections to former Mitchell-Lama developments occupied on or after January 1, 1974 and provide rent and eviction protections to tenants living in former federal Section 8 housing developments; and Whereas, A.2716-A would also reduce the statutory vacancy bonus allowed to landlords after an apartment is vacated from 20 percent to 10 percent and allows only one such increase in a given year; and Whereas, A.2716-A would end abuses in the rent stabilization system that allows landlords to evict tenants where the landlord claims he or she wants the unit for himself, herself or a family member, and would provide the same protections that now apply against such abuses to rent-controlled tenants in the City and outside of the City, as well as to rent-stabilized tenants outside the City; and Whereas, The New York State Assembly passed A.2716-A on February 3, 2003; now, therefore be it Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls upon the New York State Senate to pass, and the Governor to approve, A.2716-A, in relation to extending state rent regulation and eviction protection laws and repealing high-rent vacancy decontrol. LS # 2039 SJM 2/21/2003 |10
13|