Mayor de Blasio vowed to create new protections for tenants in his sixth annual State of the City address, a sweeping speech focused on the difficulty of city living. During the speech he announced the creation of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. De Blasio created...
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr., recently proposed pairing new rent restrictions with a tax-break for property owners. The plan is intended to end the threat of sudden, significant rent increases in regulated apartments where tenants currently enjoy preferential rents and compensate...
The NYU Furman Center recently released a policy brief on New York City’s Universal Access to Counsel (UAC) program, which guarantees legal representation for income-eligible tenants facing eviction in Housing Court. In 2017, New York City enacted the first legislation in the country...
State Senator Brian Kavanagh has been appointed chair of the Senate’s Committee on Housing, Construction and Community Development. This means he will be an influential voice as the Senate, under Democratic control for the first time in nearly a decade, makes a big push for stronger tenant...
The Democrats seized control of the New York State Senate with the recent election by winning eight Republican-held seats. With the victory, Democrats have a decisive majority in the state Senate. Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins is expected to become the Senate majority leader, making her the...
According to a new report from Localize.city, more than half of the new units expected to open by 2020 are concentrated in just 10 neighborhoods. All but one in the Lower East Side are in Queens or Brooklyn. In all, New York is expected to get 31,000 new units by 2020. The wave continues to...
Mayor de Blasio recently announced that Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia will be named Senior Advisor for Citywide Lead Prevention to coordinate citywide efforts to reduce childhood lead exposure to zero. Since 2005, there has been a nearly 90 percent decrease in the number of New York...
New York City Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings has jurisdiction over the city’s rent regulation policies and practices, as well as the Department of Buildings (DOB) and Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). The committee met on Oct. 16 to consider...
The de Blasio Administration recently announced the implementation of the Certification of No Harassment (CONH) Pilot Program, established by a new law that requires buildings that meet certain criteria to certify that no tenant harassment has taken place before being granted construction...
In April of 2016, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed three bills that were designed to help the city collect $1.6 billion in outstanding fines for everything from building code infractions to tickets from the sanitation department. But the latest figures indicate that the value of the city’s...
The DOB recently issued 43 violations and $285,375 in penalties against landlords for illegal transient use of 11 different buildings. Although the city has long prohibited renting out apartments as hotels, the rise of vacation rental sites such as Airbnb and Homeaway.com have driven a...
The de Blasio administration recently released the Mayor’s Management Report (MMR) for Fiscal Year 2018, an analysis of city agencies’ performance from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018. The MMR presents more than 1,700 metrics from 45 city agencies that measure the city’s...
