Rent Reforms Top De Blasio's Albany To-Do List

NEW YORK — Like many New Yorkers at the start of a new month, Mayor Bill de Blasio has rent on his mind. The Democratic mayor said reforming New York State's soon-to-expire rent laws is his top priority in Albany as the state Legislature's session draws to a close.

"The number one reform we need to protect affordability in New York City is to fix these rent laws," de Blasio told reporters Monday in Albany, where he traveled to meet with top state lawmakers.

"We’re done a lot in New York City — the most aggressive and largest affordable housing program in decades," he added. "But we cannot go farther unless the rent laws of the state are fixed."

The prospect of changing the state's rent regulations — which affect hundreds of thousands of apartments in the city — is looming large with fewer than three weeks before the state Assembly and Senate adjourn for the year. The current regulations are set to expire June 15, just days before the last scheduled legislative session on June 19.

Since Democrats won control of both the state Senate and Assembly in November, progressive activists and Democratic lawmakers have been pushing for reforms that would strengthen tenant protections and make it harder for landlords to hike prices in rent-stabilized buildings.

De Blasio said he favors ending the so-called vacancy bonus and vacancy decontrol provisions, which allow landlords to raise rents as much as 20 percent when a new tenant moves in and hike them to market rates when prices reach a certain threshold.

He also wants to bolster protections for tenants who pay preferential rents — prices below the maximum that a landlord can legally charge — and reform the laws around renovations to apartments and buildings.

"If we were able to get that set of reforms, I think we would be in a night and day situation," the mayor said. "I think it would be a huge step forward for fairness and affordability in New York City."

De Blasio's agenda differs in some ways from that of the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance, a coalition of rent-reform advocates that is pushing a slate of nine bills to expand tenant rights and protections.

The alliance wants to bring an end to rent hikes that landlords impose after making renovations known as major capital improvements and individual apartment improvements. Current law allows landlords to pass on the costs of those repairs — which are often made after years of neglect — on to tenants forever, advocates argue.

But de Blasio took a more measured stance, saying tenants should pay for their share of the work until it's paid off. He suggested a balance should be struck between the needs of tenants and small landlords, who say they need rent increases to keep their buildings in good shape.

"We don’t want our building owners to stop investing in their buildings. We want them to keep making sure they’re a great place for people to live," de Blasio said. "But I’m sick of seeing tenants gouged, which is what the current laws allowed for many years."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has also reportedly said rent reforms are among his top priorities for the end of the legislative session. But it remains to be seen what changes will actually be made.

The top two lawmakers, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, expressed support for the "principles" of the nine pro-tenant bills in a joint statement last week but did not offer more specifics.

"Now that both legislative houses have concluded our hearings on New York’s rent laws, the Senate and Assembly majorities agree that in 2019 we will enact the strongest rent package ever – one that protects tenants and makes New York more affordable for all its residents," Heastie and Stewart-Cousins said in the statement on Thursday.