Public Employee Press

Housing advocates step up fight for rent control

With the state's rent regulations coming up for renewal on June 15, housing activists and union members are gearing up for an aggressive campaign to repeal vacancy decontrol.

Activists from the Metropolitan Council on Housing, the Alliance for Tenant Power, the Legal Aid Society, the state Division of Homes and Community Renewal joined DC 37 on April 8 for a rent stabilization seminar hosted by the union's Municipal Employees Legal Services (MELS).

The last time the rent regulations came up for renewal was in 2011.

"We have to strengthen the rent regulations to keep housing affordable," said Delsenia Glover, from the Alliance for Tenant Power. "The landlords will be fighting to make sure the regulations are as weak as possible so they can increase the rents."

The main bill the activists are focusing on is S1176, which would repeal vacancy decontrol. With vacancy decontrol, landlords can remove apartments from rent regulations when rents go over $2,500. Landlords then jack up the rent even more and tenants lose any eviction protections. That process has already resulted in over 300,000 apartments being deregulated, according to Glover.

"It is do or die this year," said Glover, about the battle against deregulation

Bill Whalen, supervising attorney of the MELS Housing Unit, encouraged members to reach out to MELS if they have a problem with a landlord or if they have to go to Housing Court.

"When landlords go to Housing Court, 99 percent of the time they are represented by a lawyer," Whalen said. So members should make sure they are represented by MELS in Housing Court, he said.

DC 37 will join housing activists on June 9 and travel to Albany to lobby state Assembly members in support of stronger rent regulations.

So far, 36 members of the Assembly have signed on to support S1176. "We need more than that," said Krystal Monplaisir, political analyst, from the union's Political Action Dept.

To RSVP for the June 9 bus trip to Albany contact the Political Action and Legislation Dept. at 212-815-1550. The department also has a list of all of the Albany legislators that need to be called and encouraged to support S1176.