Public Employee Press

Residency battle heats up

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts and a broad array of city labor leaders stood on the steps of City Hall Oct. 30 demanding that the City Council pass Intro. 452, the bill that would lift the obsolete residency requirements that affect 45,000 union members.

“Changing the residency rule is a matter of fairness and choice,” Roberts said at the news conference. “Why should our members be treated differently from 240,000 other city workers? With housing costs continuing to rise, the residency requirement poses a hardship for members in search of affordable housing. They deserve the same right to look for affordable housing in a larger area that other city workers have.”

The Oct. 30 news conference was part of the aggressive lobbying, education and mail campaign that DC 37 has launched to pass the bill, which has languished in the City Council for more than a year. The mayor agreed in DC 37’s 2006 contract to support expanding the residency requirement beyond city limits to include six nearby New York State counties. “Now the City Council needs to make it happen,” Roberts said.

The mayor and a majority of City Council members agree that the residency restrictions are obsolete. But some City Council members have blocked the bill that would allow DC 37 members to live in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange counties. The local lawmakers say lifting the requirement would lead to an exodus of residents — and voters.

“Fairness to our members would not lead to an influx of people from elsewhere taking city jobs or a mass flight of city workers to the suburbs,” Roberts explained. The facts show that when residency is lifted there is minimal impact.

Intro. 452 would give DC 37 members what the city’s Police Officers, Teachers and Sanitation Workers have long had — the freedom to choose where they live and raise their families without the threat of termination.

Standing with Roberts at the news conference were the leaders of the New York State AFL-CIO, the New York City Central Labor Council, the Communications Workers, the Organization of Staff Analysts, the Lieutenants Benevolent Association, the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists.

“When people are concerned about where they will live, they can’t focus on job productivity,” said Randi Weingarten, chair of the Municipal Labor Committee and president of the United Federation of Teachers.

Living in the Big Apple, one of the most expensive cities in the world, takes a huge bite out of members’ paychecks. DC 37 members earn on average just $31,000 a year. Roberts said the residency bill offers a viable option for members squeezed by high rents, poor housing conditions and homelessness. More than 300 city workers have been living in city shelters, and 15,000 DC 37 members live in the city’s decaying public housing projects.

Additionally, experts note, New York lawmakers ignored the city’s housing shortage, failed to develop major housing initiatives for the city’s working families and middle class, and allowed deregulation to eliminate thousands of rent-controlled apartments over the last three decades. Today there is little to no housing left that is affordable for city workers.

“We want the City Council to focus on the severity of the problems caused by the current residency rule,” said Roberts. “It is an impediment to workers trying to do a job, serve the people of New York City and find affordable housing for themselves and their families. City workers have a right to fairness and choice. Anything less is an injustice. The Council should remedy that by passing Intro. 452.”