Again — Good Cause will not help one tenant who is behind on their rent. It will not help one tenant who can’t afford their rent. It will only exacerbate our housing shortage and force rent prices upward!
‘Under New York’s new rules, regardless of how much money Eccles spends to get an apartment ready for tenants, he can’t add more than $89.29 to the monthly rent. “The lowball estimate on renovating one of my two-bedrooms,” he said, “was $88,000.”’
The Emergency Rental Assistance Program was in no way a "bailout" for property owners. It provided rent assistance for tenants in need. In most cases, it didn't cover all the arrears of struggling renters. Suggesting it was a bailout for owners is disingenuous.
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How bad is rent-stabilized housing in New York?
Taking new ORA and recent NYC Rent Guidelines Board data together, we can see:
Median rent is $1,536 for all registered rent-stabilized apartments.
Over 400,000 rent-stabilized apartments have rents of $1,500 or less
More…
NYC housing market right now:
✅ Bidding wars
✅ Signing leases sight unseen
✅ Record breaking rents
With over 20,000 empty units stuck in housing purgatory?
NYCHA announced that it would cost $78 billion to adequately renovate and upgrade their housing stock, which calculates out to more than $400,000 per apartment.
Follow
@NyVacant
where we’ll be posting one of the over 42,000 vacant rent-stabilized units everyday!
1BR in Harlem
Current rent: $737
Est. Renovation Cost: $85,000
New rent: $820
Est. 30-year loss: $148,720
NEW: The Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP) is proposing a property tax break for existing affordable housing as part of its comprehensive property tax reform.
Release:
Report:
For rent-stabilized apartments in NYC, fuel costs went up almost 20% from 2022-2023, but rents stayed largely the same.
It is the same story with power, water, property taxes, insurance, labor, materials, and more.
It’s not sustainable.
CHIP is also proposing a long-term solution:
A new property tax class for rent-stabilized buildings, which would allow lawmakers to more effectively craft tax policy to reflect the unique financial situation of rent-stabilized properties.
NEW: The Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP) is proposing a property tax break for existing affordable housing as part of its comprehensive property tax reform.
Release:
Report:
Two-thirds of rent-stabilized buildings are at risk of selling for less than their last sales price and nearly two-thirds have lost market value since 2018.
Many rent-stabilized owners have been forced to operate at a deficit due to new regulation in the past few years.
This…
In the latest edition of Housing with Skye,
@SkyeStats
speaks with
@PiSanchezNYC
about the need for more housing, more vouchers and focusing on solutions to NYC’s housing crisis. Watch:
@galeabrewer
@CMCarlinaRivera
Rent-stabilized building owners already register vacant units when they file RPIE reports. The NYC Dept. of Finance should have a list of all vacant units.
How much does it cost to renovate a small two-bedroom apartment in NYC?
Visit + Instagram and Tik Tok for more explainer videos and tours of some of the 20,000 empty units in NYC we want back on the market.
“A better way than Housing Court: N.Y. should try using an eviction diversion program”
Housing Court in New York City is failing renters and housing providers. It’s time for something better.
–
@JayMart222
for the
@NYDNOpinion
Have questions about housing? We know you do because you’re in our comments and DMs!
That is why we are partnering with
@SkyeStats
on a new series
#housingwithskye
running each Sunday.
If you have ideas for collaboration or episode ideas drop a comment below!
“The weekly program, already into its second episode, has tackled subjects like the city’s housing crisis, the expired 421-a tax incentive for building affordable housing and the record-low vacancy rate for habitable apartment units.”
(via
@RalphOrtega
/…
With housing continuing to be a major priority in the governor’s office and the New York Legislature,
@CapitalTonight
turned to the Community Housing Improvement Program:
New York has over $2,000,000,000 in unpaid rent.
There are tens of thousands of renters in need of assistance.
Thousands of property owners are struggling to pay their property taxes and mortgages.
We must look at housing holistically.
A must-read, harrowing story that has become all-too-common.
“What I saw was nothing close to what I could have imagined. What the apartment had been turned into was sickening.”
Thank you to
@suzannahcav
,
@erik_engquist
and
@trdny
for your coverage.
Landlord
@GilbertKennisha
’s tenants stopped paying rent, flooded her apartment with dog urine and were arrested for assaulting her. But two years into her nightmare, they’re still not evicted.
Good Cause will not help one tenant who is behind on their rent. It will not help one tenant who can’t afford their rent. It will only exacerbate our housing shortage and force rent prices upward.
The Local Regulated Housing Restoration Adjustment as one of the bills to watch this legislative session.
LRHRA could align well with the governor’s push to increase housing supply.
The bill would quickly get vacant units renovated and back on the market at rent levels…
We launched a new Twitter account yesterday --
@NyVacant
Today we are in Harlem looking at a unit that would lose nearly $150,000 over 30 years because of bad NYC housing laws.
Read more about this new effort here:
CHIP estimates that at least 40,000 units with an average renovation cost of $80,000 would be renovated and available for rent in 12 months. This would create at least $3.2 billion in economic activity.
New York Community Bank is going over its real estate loans one by one. What it has found so far paints a less than pretty picture of how rent-stabilized properties are faring.
We need to be honest about the cost of providing affordable housing in New York.
@NYCHA
needs $78 BILLION over the next 20 years to renovate and maintain their housing stock.
That’s over $400,000 per unit.
So what about rent-stabilized apartments?
“Lawmakers need to pass reforms that allow apartments to get the necessary renovations, upgraded to the current building codes, and be put back on the market at voucher payment standards.”
Here’s a 2BR apartment in LIC for $1,185 a month … with a balcony!
Thousands of rent-stabilized units in NYC like this are empty due to high renovation and operating costs.
We need to get these apartments back into the hands of New Yorkers that need them.
Watch:
The Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Manhattan Chambers of Commerce endorsed a bill to get tens of thousands of empty apartments back on the market. Support is growing:
Lots of articles of late are saying things like "rent control remains rare due to landlord opposition."
This is very misleading. Sure, landlords oppose it. But who cares?
More importantly: SCIENCE opposes rent control. And history, too.
Here are better sources to cite:
Rent-stabilized building owners are required by law to "open their books". They file RPIEs each year that detail all of their income and expenses. It is unfortunate that some perpetuate this lie at the
#RGB
hearings.
NYC argues that rent-stabilized property owners have seen tremendous net operating income growth since 1990 in a recent court filing. This is a disingenuous argument put forth by the Rent Guidelines Board each year.
The math is clear.
Renovations cost more than $100,000 in small apartments.
NYCHA spends more than double that amount to renovate similarly sized apartments.
The city's Rent Guidelines Board capped rent increases at 3 percent per year for new leases at rent-stabilized buildings. Meanwhile, owners' operating costs have risen by 8 percent. via
@reason
Our
@jaymart222
was on
@InsideCityHall
with
@errollouis
and a small property manager to discuss our vacancy plan, and the challenges of being a small property manager in NYC. Here is the link and some highlights (🧵)
Draining out the city: Without our middle class, what is NYC?
“A system that relied on city-enforced rent stabilization to keep apartments affordable ignored that this approach would balloon all other rents and skew incentives.”
(
@NYDailyNews
)
Over the past two years we have shot video of more than 100 empty rent-stabilized apartments in New York City.
Many of them appear to be in good condition. They look like they could be rented back out with a new coat of paint.
But they can’t. And here’s why.
This apartment…
“NYC is in Trouble” —
@adamrobertsnyc
for
@amNewYork
“CHIP believes that it is not too late to fix what has been broken … another year of inaction will make things worse. We need to start solving these difficult problems in 2024.”