NY Daily News: Sen. Espaillat local elected officials and clergy rally for stronger rent laws at Harlem Church

Scores of tenants unite in new push for stronger rent regulation laws

BY Erin Durkin and Kenneth Lovett
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Monday, June 6th 2011, 4:00 AM

Hundreds of tenants, clergy and politicians rallied in Harlem Sunday to push for stronger rent regulation laws.

The rules that keep rents in check for 2.5 million New Yorkers are set to expire June 15 unless Albany pols strike a deal to renew them.

"People like me would not be able to live there," said Delsenia Glover, president of the Lenox Terrace Association of Concerned Tenants. "Harlem would not be Harlem anymore."

"Now that [Gov. Cuomo] has an early budget, and now that he has ethics reform and an agreement on a property tax cap, rent... has got to be done, and it's got to be done this week," said state Sen. Adriano Espaillat (D-Washington Heights), who sponsored a bill to extend the rules and tighten them.

"If the laws don't get strengthened, the landlords have all the power. ... It would just really rip apart communities," said Anderson File-Aime, 44,an organizer for the Real Rent Reform Campaign.

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