Housing Advocates Say Real Estate Group Is Blocking Rent Reforms

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — Affordable housing advocates rallied in front of the Midtown Manhattan offices of one of New York's largest real estate lobbies calling on the group to stop a "misleading" ad campaign attempting to block a package of rent reforms being considered by state lawmakers.

Organizers from groups such as the Upstate-Downstate Housing Alliance, Woodside on the Move and New York Communities for Change accused the Real Estate Board of New York of spreading lies in an attempt to defeat bills that would strengthen the rights of rent-stabilized tenants.

The tenant advocates also called on state lawmakers to prioritize the rights of tenants over real estate industry and go forward with eliminating rent increases such as those for major capital improvements, individual apartment improvements and vacancy allowances and to pass laws that would establish "universal rent control" in the state.

"We are fighting for the right to stay in our communities, for the right to stay in our city," Avan Contreras, an organizer for Woodside on the Move, said Thursday.

Darryl Randall, 49, said his building organized a tenant association when his landlord applied for a major capital improvement rent increase last year. The Bed-Stuy resident said he's been living in the same Marcy Avenue building for 22 years and saw its condition deteriorate over the years.

"Our building has so many issues that we have been asking to get addressed for years. We are angry that he let the building fall into disrepair and didn't make repairs for years and years in order to justify increasing our rents massively as soon as our neighborhood started to gentrify," Randall said Thursday.

Standing in front of the Real Estate Board of New York's offices in the General Electric Building on Lexington Avenue and East 51st Street, housing advocates framed the attempts at rent reform as a fight between millionaires and working class New Yorkers.

Public Advocate Jumanee Williams stopped by the protest and said he was on the way to another event when he learned that "all my friends would be here." Williams said that the Real Estate Board of New York was one of the most "disingenuous and deceptive" groups he has ever negotiated with — citing negotiations for the Construction Safety Act — and called on the organization to "come to the table as honest brokers" with housing advocates to develop rent reforms that won't "break the backs" of tenants.

"There's a way to have a discussion so that [REBNY] members can have businesses that are successful while making sure that people have safe, real income-targeted affordable housing and protections," Williams said.

The Real Estate Board of New York announced opposition to eliminating the major capital improvements program in February. The group's president, John H. Banks said in a statement that the proposal will "in no way addresses the affordable housing crisis or offers a path forward for creating new housing units for New York City residents."

The group also stated that operating costs of owning and maintaining rent-stabilized apartments have risen at higher rates than rent-stabilized rents and that landlords commit $10 billion in "improving New York's housing stock" each year.

"We support responsible rent reforms that will protect tenants and property owners alike. Like tenant advocates, we would like to see a plan out of Albany that will meaningfully address the City’s affordability crisis and spur the creation of additional affordable units for New Yorkers who desperately need them. The current proposals we’ve seen take us in the wrong direction," a REBNY spokesperson said in a statement Thursday.