Elections do have consequences and rent control reform in New York may just be one of those. The Democrats took over the State Senate in last fall's election and although they are far from perfect and still part of a broken system, they can still enact some change. Repealing Rockefeller Drug Laws and rent control reform are two aspects. Doing something for tenants and not their landlords is a policy agenda long overdue in New York.
From 1010 WINS:
Under the system established in 1997, landlords are allowed to raise rents and remove controls when the rent has risen to $2,000 a month or more, and the apartment becomes vacant or the tenant's income tops $175,000 a year. Those thresholds haven't changed since.
One of the many Assembly bills would increase the threshold of tenant income to $240,000, and the monthly rent would have to be more than $2,700. The bill would require both thresholds to be met.
"This has to be a priority especially during the economic downturn,'' Silver said. "It's clear that we have an affordable-housing crisis.''
Now landlords are crying foul and that raising limits will be bad for tax receipts and land values, as well as the motivation for new construction. Their arguments fail to acknowledge though that all of those benefits had only gone to the wealthier parts of society. Renters have suffered for decades and the amount of affordable housing has dropped considerably since rent control restrictions were loosened.
We shall see if the Senate has the guts to follow through with this legislation in the same way that Silver is now pushing for it. Sheldon Silver has many faults, but if he can help working people as he claims, then I'll have to give credit where it's due. Of course, it hasn't happened yet, so we'll have to wait and see.
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