PEP, April 2008: Battle for housing and jobs

Fighting to save jobs and preserve the city’s dwindling stock of affordable housing, DC 37 activists and public housing residents bused to Albany March 18 and pressed lawmakers to accelerate a $50 million payment to the New York City Housing Authority — a move that could save 500 jobs.

Earlier, on March 4, unionists and housing advocates lobbied Albany about the Real Rent Reform campaign to repeal vacancy decontrol and the Urstadt law, protect Mitchell-Lama housing and provide a $300 tax credit for city apartment renters.

As members in 11 DC 37 locals face layoffs in the Housing Authority, the union urged legislators to pay the cash-strapped agency a $50 million shelter allowance now, rather than later. The allowance pays NYCHA the same rent rate for welfare recipients as private landlords get, but is currently scheduled to be phased in over four years. Accelerating the allowance would avert the looming layoffs.

As PEP went to press, DC 37 was negotiating with NYCHA management to protect members’ jobs. “Some employees on the layoff list have more than 20 years of service,” said Local 957 President Walthene Primus. “Even one name on a layoff list is one too many, and we are fighting to save these jobs.”

“NYCHA hires private consultants to do work our members have historically done more efficiently and cheaper,” said Local 375 President Claude Fort. “They should get rid of the high-priced consultants before even thinking about firing employees.”

At the Albany demonstration March 18, DC 37 joined the Tenants and Neighbors advocacy group in the call to restore millions of dollars in state and federal public housing funds that were cut a decade ago. Jacob Azeke, a DC 37 retiree at the demonstration said, “The government has spent $500 billion on a senseless war. That money could have been used to pay for jobs and housing.”

Real rent reform
DC 37 housing activists lobbied for the Real Rent Reform package of four bills:

S.1673/A.4069, sponsored by Sen. Liz Krueger and Assembly member Vito Lopez, would repeal the reviled Urstadt law and restore control over local rent and eviction laws to the City Council and the mayor.
S.5149/A.7761, sponsored by Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly member James Brennan, would repeal the vacancy decontrol law that allows landlords to push rents to $2,000 a month and convert units to market-rate luxury housing, leaving new tenants without legal protections from future rent increases. The bill would also cap the number of apartments that become deregulated each year. Last year the city and Rockland, Nassau and Westchester counties lost 200,000 apartments to vacancy decontrol.
S.5284/A.7811, sponsored by Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly member Gary Pretlow, would make any Mitchell-Lama unit rent-stabilized, regardless of the year it was built or occupied, curbing the anti-tenant effects of the growing problem of Mitchell-Lama developers opting out.
S.3961/A.6849, sponsored by Sen. Diane Savino, a former officer of Local 371, and Assembly member Keith Wright, is based on an initiative that City Council Speaker Christine Quinn launched for a $300 tax refund for New York City apartment renters.

The bill would also protect tenants who leave government-subsidized programs from huge rent increases.

While legislation to shore up affordable housing in the Big Apple has passed overwhelmingly in the Assembly, for the last eight years the Republican-dominated state Senate has killed the bills.

Still, DC 37 is hopeful that in the current session Albany will save jobs by accelerating NYCHA’s $50 million shelter allowance and protect affordable housing by passing the four Real Rent Reform bills.

— Diane S. Williams