BY COREY JOHNSON | New York City is at a crossroads. With change happening all around us, the decisions we make today will affect New Yorkers for generations to come. Are we going to be a city of luxury housing, with part-time residents from around the globe, where only the very wealthy need apply? Or, are we going to remain a city of families, permanent residents who send their children to our public schools, volunteer at neighborhood events and contribute to the fabric of New York? This is an urgent discussion — and it requires immediate action.
At the City Council we are directly confronting the issue of affordability, with a goal of preserving and creating hundreds of thousands of affordable housing units, many in Council District 3. And over the past several months, I am proud to have introduced multiple pieces of legislation that stand up against Big Real Estate and stand up for everyday New Yorkers.
Every three years, New York City must declare a housing shortage emergency, which allows our rent-stabilization laws to be extended. I am the prime sponsor of this legislation in 2015, which was passed last month by the City Council and signed by Mayor de Blasio on March 30. Vacancy rates are at roughly 3.5 percent, a housing shortage that constitutes a threat to the citizens of New York City, and creates a special hardship to individuals and families who do not happen to be wealthy. This bill extends rent stabilization for another three years beginning on April 1, 2015. Now Albany must do its part. I and many others will be traveling to Albany this session to demand that our rent laws be strengthened.
In February I introduced legislation calling for reforms at the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB), the nine-member body that determines how much landlords can raise the rent on rent-stabilized tenants. Every year since its inception, the RGB has raised rents, even when landlord expenses stayed flat. One reason for this is that the method currently used for determining these rent adjustments is faulty; the process favors the real estate interests and it must be replaced. In short, the data shows that the RGB typically overestimates landlords’ expenses by as much as one-third! The method also doesn’t take landlords’ profits into account. The reforms proposed, if adopted, would give tenants a fighting chance against the real estate industry. In June, the guidelines board votes again and I hope you will join us in advocating not for just a rent freeze, but for a rent rollback — a rent reduction for rent-stabilized tenants.
If you’re like me, you’re shocked by the fact that it is perfectly legal for a luxury housing developer to hoist a sign saying that affordable housing tenants are not welcome to enter a gym, pool or green space in their own building. This is discrimination, plain and simple, and it is inconsistent with our values. Soon, I believe, it will be inconsistent with the law. In March I introduced legislation that would bar developers from discriminating against affordable housing tenants in the use of building amenities. Following instances in which rent-stabilized tenants were prohibited from accessing gyms, play rooms, pools and other amenities in their own buildings, my legislation would require developers and building managers to provide equal access to such facilities. It’s the right thing to do.
Pressing forward, the Council will continue to use every tool at our disposal to preserve affordability, including passing legislation that would establish the right to counsel for tenants who are taken to Housing Court by their landlord. I will continue to leverage the land-use decisions that cross my desk to create more affordable housing, while also fighting to preserve the hard-won contextual zoning districts that protect the character of our neighborhoods.
As your councilmember, I am here to help. You can contact my district office at 212-564-7757 between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Mondays to Fridays. Please visit my newly launched website, coreyjohnson.nyc, for information on my other legislative initiatives and for real-time updates from my office.
Corey Johnson is city councilmember, District 3 (West Village, Hudson Square, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen).
