Press Release: Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins Announce Affordable Housing Legislative Process

Renews & Strengthens Rent Control Legislation

Yonkers, NY - Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, the Senate Democratic Conference Leader,  joined members of the Senate Democratic Conference to unveil an affordable housing package to better ensure fair housing practices throughout New York State.

“The Democratic Conference has been at the forefront of efforts to ensure all New Yorkers are able to have access to affordable housing options in the communities they call home,” Democratic Conference Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said. “New York has always been a State where people from all walks of life can set down roots and build strong, stable, and diverse communities and that fact has helped make New York the Empire State. My Senate Democratic colleagues and I will keep up the fight to renew and strengthen rent control protections and increase affordable housing options for all New Yorkers.”

The Senate Democratic Conference proposals include renewing and strengthening rent control legislation for another two years through the Tenant Protection Act of 2015, as well as repealing initiatives that harm tenants such as vacancy decontrol and the vacancy bonus. The Senate Democrats also called for caps on rent increases allowed for individual and multi-apartment capital improvements.  

The package of affordable housing legislation includes bills that will:

• Repeal provisions of State and City statutes that remove apartments from rent stabilization when they are vacated and could be rented for monthly rents of $2,500 or more. The bill also re-regulates units deregulated due to vacancy since 1993 to their December 31, 2014 rates. 
• Repeal provisions permitting rent increases of 20% or more upon vacancy of a rent stabilized dwelling unit. 
• Standardize the rental adjustment a landlord may impose for the total cost of an individual apartment improvement, reduce the increase allowed to 1/84th of the costs and require DHCR to issue a schedule of reasonable costs for repairs so that landlords can't fraudulently attempt to deregulate an apartment through improvements that may not have been made or for inflated claims of costs incurred. 
• Provide that major capital improvements (MCI) be calculated as a rent surcharge and will not become part of the base legal regulated rent by which rent increases are calculated; requires the amount be separately designated and billed as such; prevents landlords from receiving a financial windfall from MCI funded by the New York State Energy and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

Rent-controlled apartments are located within the following communities in the 35th State Senate District represented by Senator Stewart-Cousins:

• Ardsley
• Dobbs Ferry
• Greenburgh
• Hastings
• Irvington
• New Rochelle
• Tarrytown
• White Plains
• Yonkers

Senator Stewart-Cousins concluded, “Now is the time to stand up for middle class and low wage New Yorkers who risk being pushed out of their homes by rent deregulation and expiring protections. I urge my colleagues in State government to stand with the Senate Democratic Conference to ensure fair housing for every New Yorker.”