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Mayor de Blasio recently announced Requests for Proposals for the private management of 21 public housing projects. Through the public-private partnerships and HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) intends to bring comprehensive repairs to 62,000 apartments. RAD is a tool that lets public housing authorities permanently preserve public housing developments as affordable homes and make necessary repairs. All 62,000 apartments will be converted to Section 8 funding and remain permanently for low-income tenants.
In a recent decision, the Appellate Division found that owners cannot claim ignorance if inspectors find that tenants used online sites to rent out their units for short-term stays. The court affirmed fines for the illegal conversion of residential units into hotel rooms.
HPD recently announced the release of the “Speculation Watch List,” a new tool to track rent-regulated properties that may have been purchased by predatory investors and identify properties for enhanced tenant support. The city is making this information available so that tenants and tenant advocates can see another indication of where tenant harassment may occur. The list was announced as part of the Predatory Equity bill, which was signed into law earlier this year.
According to research recently published by the Regional Plan Association (RPA), a handful of landlords is responsible for a disproportionate amount of the city’s poor housing and eviction cases. RPA labels these landlords as “bad landlords” and defines them as having: (1) a building with more than 10 housing-code violations; (2) at least two eviction cases in housing court between 2013 and mid-2015; and (3) eviction proceedings involving 30 percent of their units.
Construction spending will reach $61.5 billion in 2018, a new record high for the city, according to the Construction Outlook 2018–2020 report produced by the New York Building Congress (NYBC) and the New York Building Foundation. The report states this spending reflects a 25 percent increase from last year. However, construction spending is expected to dip to $59.3 billion in 2019 and $56.4 billion in 2020.
HPD recently reminded tenants, owners, and landlords of the temperature requirements for all apartments as New York’s “heat season” begins. The 2018-2019 “heat season” begins on Monday, Oct. 1 and continues through Friday, May 31.
Councilmember Ritchie Torres introduced a new bill to stop owners from falsely claiming on applications for building permits that their properties have no rent-regulated units. According to a report recently released by the Housing Rights Initiative and the Department of Investigation, the city approved more than 10,000 false permit applications in the past two and a half years.
The NYC City Council recently held hearings on a package of bills aimed at reducing lead poisoning in children. “I believe it is a failure and a tragedy that children are still affected in a devastating way, potentially for the rest of their lives," said Speaker Corey Johnson at a hearing. He is leading the effort to pass the 25 bills aimed at protecting children from lead exposure, which can cause lifelong learning difficulties and high blood pressure in adults and impaired kidney function.
Two Queens lawmakers, State Senator Mike Gianaris and Assemblyman Brian Barnwell, recently introduced a bill in their respective chambers that would repeal the Major Capital Improvements (MCI) program and instead provide building owners with tax credits to offset the costs of upgrades. The MCI program, which was implemented in the 1970s, currently allows owners of rent-stabilized or rent-controlled apartments to pass on the cost of building improvements to tenants by raising the rent.
According to an investigation spearheaded by the nonprofit Housing Rights Initiative (HRI), attorney Michael Cohen, known for being President Trump’s longtime personal lawyer and fixer, allegedly engaged in tenant harassment and falsified paperwork in order to quickly turn a profit on three rent-stabilized buildings he owned in Manhattan.
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