Dueling Protests Collide Outside Brooklyn Rent Reform Hearing

CROWN HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN —A column of tenants rights advocates marched through a booing crowd of building workers in the streets of Crown Heights Wednesday, hours before a New York state Senate hearing on rent reform was slated to take place.

The opposing protests collided outside Medgar Evers College, where New Yorkers from across the state gathered to testify about a nine-bill rent reform package proposed by lawmakers to strengthen tenant rights and make it more difficult for landlords to evict low-income residents.

Tenants advocates came to support legislation that would eliminate Major Capital Improvement — a provision that allows landlords to raise rents after completing capital projects — which they argue is manipulated to displace low-income residents from rent stabilized homes.

Beverly Newsome, tenant president of the nearby Ebbets Field Houses, one of the largest rent stabilized developments in New York City, said landlords used an MCI to upgrade elevators that continued to break down.

"They're manipulating us," she said.

But dozens of building workers came out in support of MCIs, which they argue create jobs across the state and prevent New York City homes from falling into disrepair.

Brooklyn state Senator Zellnor Myrie, a co-sponsor of a rent reform package progressives hope to pass in June, watched over the debate that erupted on the steps of Medgar Evers.

The protesters remained peaceful and even tried to debate the issue, but eventually were drawn inside the college for the seven-hour hearing where about 50 New Yorkers were slated to testify on the state of affordable housing in New York.

The hearing, chaired by Manhattan state Senator Brian Kavanaugh, comes one month before New York's rent reform laws are slated to expire in June.

Kavanaugh told Ebbetts Field residents before the hearing began that he and his fellow representatives would fight for rent reform.

"This fight is the big fight," he said.

Patch editors Noah Manskar and Sydney Pereira contributed to this report.