New York Attorney General Letitia James is launching a program to fund fair housing testers across the state. The program will use undercover testers to determine if fair housing laws are being followed in New York. The program will include responding to complaints about housing bias, advocating...
On Sept. 5, the city began enforcing Local Law 18 rules that require licenses for short-term rental hosts, banned whole-home rentals, and limited guests to two per reservation. Local Law 18 also requires registration requests to be denied for buildings on a prohibited buildings list. To be...
A state Supreme Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by Airbnb against New York City over what Airbnb called “extreme and oppressive” restrictions and a “de facto ban” on listings of less than 30 days [Airbnb, Inc v. NYC Mayor’s Office of Special Enf’t...
The City Council recently voted 42-8 to override Mayor Adams’s recent veto of four bills intended to expand eligibility for city-issued rental vouchers. The bills, which initially passed in May, will eliminate several existing qualifications to access City Family Homelessness and Eviction...
Increase would pay for stormwater resilience and infrastructure upgrades.
The NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently proposed increasing the city’s water and sewer rates by 4.42 percent to the NYC Water Board. Water Board rates are based on the...
According to City Council stats, there were 111,509 lead paint violations in the city between January 2018 and March 2023. As of March 2023, 45 percent of all lead-related court cases are concentrated in the Bronx. Brooklyn ranked second for cases. The City Council recently held an oversight...
Mayor Adams recently announced an initiative that will invest $10 million to repair stabilized units that are empty, and turn them over to tenants with rental assistance vouchers. The pilot program is called “Unlocking Doors,” and the city will provide up to $25,000 for needed...
Mayor Eric Adams and NYC Corporation Counsel Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix recently announced the filing of two lawsuits against Alma Realty Corp. and Empire Management America Corp. for the failure to fix thousands of code violations that created dangerous living conditions for tenants. The lawsuits...
There has been renewed interest to cap or limit broker fees paid by prospective tenants after some high-profile instances of brokers asking for thousands of dollars in fees in exchange for highly coveted apartments have made the news. In one case, a renter paid a broker fee of $19,500 for a rent...
Shortly before the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Ida, which resulted in 11 people drowned in basement apartments during the storm, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released a report called “Bringing Basement Apartments into the Light.” The report proposes a path to legalize...
