Public Employee Press

Union presses for improvements in governor’s proposed housing budget

Calling for New York State lawmakers to implement better solutions to the affordable housing crisis plaguing the Big Apple, Local 1359 President Ralph Carbone testified Feb. 6 in Albany before the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committees on housing issues in the state’s 2007-08 executive budget.

“The budget can be improved in a number of ways,” said Carbone, who represents 400 members who administer the rent regulatory system in the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal.

Restorations needed
The 2007-08 budget has seriously improved over those former Gov. George Pataki had presented, said Carbone, who testified on behalf of his members and DC 37. Carbone, a member of the DC 37 Housing Committee, said that the $10 million in proposed cuts from the Low Income Housing Trust Fund should be restored and used to support affordable housing initiatives.

Carbone suggested that the LIHTF be funded from a dedicated source, such as part of the state real estate transfer taxes, title transfer and document recording fees. He testified that these funds should be used to create additional affordable housing.

He stated that maintenance on some 20,000 units of public housing was so insufficient that only additional funds would keep it habitable.

Additionally, Carbone called for restoring $200,000 to the General Funds for the state’s Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, which protects children who live in apartments where lead paint exists.

He argued that the state should strengthen the Office of Rent Admin- istration’s enforcement, compliance and inspectorial capacities so it can protect tenants from landlords who harass tenants and fail to provide them with adequate heat, hot water and repairs.

The Legislature should place under rent stabilization any Mitchell-Lama developments that decide to opt out of the program, Carbone said. Last year, 28 Mitchell-Lama developments, or about 20,000 apartments, opted out of the program. Carbone also called for repeals of high-rent deregulation and the Urstadt Law, to give home rule to the city of New York.