Housing
Internet resources for what you need to know on NYC Housing
Favorite Sites For Beginners

The Topic
Housing refers to all dwellings in NYC - from luxury condos with views of the Park to battered in-rem apartments in the South Bronx - and the laws and policy disputes that they produce.
The Context
The percentage of vacant and available housing stock in NYC has never exceeded 4.01%. This extraordinary housing scarcity makes for the highest rents in the US. Unlike citizens of most big American cities, where slightly over half of units are owner-occupied, more than two-thirds of New Yorkers are renters. And - bucking the national trend again - more than two-thirds of New York apartments are rent-regulated in some way. The housing crunch shows no sign of easing up, as new construction is impeded by the highest building costs in the nation. Of the little new construction that does occur in NYC, the vast majority takes advantage of some government subsidy or exemption. Also to note: the city within a city that is New York's 170,000 units of public housing - by far the largest amount of public housing anywhere in America.
The Reporter
Amanda Bell has written for City Limits, New York's urban affairs news magazine, on a variety of topics. She is currently studying history at Yale University.

by Amanda Bell

In The News:

(apr '00) The New York State Banking Board is drafting new regulations aimed at protecting limited-income and inexperienced homeowners from predatory lenders. The regulations would prohibit practices such as balloon payments, excessive or bogus fees, and charging interest more than eight points above the rate set by the US Treasury. The proposed regulations came after state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer found that mortgage lender Delta Funding had defrauded hundreds of New Yorkers, many of them retirees. Seventy advocacy groups, including AARP and the New York Public Interest Research Group, have criticized the new rules, pointing out that they are not as strict as those in a similar predatory-lender law recently passed in North Carolina.

Tenants breathed a small sigh of relief March 20 when the City Council extended New York City's rent guidelines for another three years with no new concessions to landlords. This year's renewal was unusually quiet and virtually uncontested, possibly as a prelude to Speaker Vallone's expected run for mayor. One new item in the regulations: landlords who raise rent for a new tenant past the $2000 luxury-decontrol mark must notify tenants of the apartment's previous rent and explain in writing the renovations or other changes that justify the increase.

A jury awarded a Harlem family $6.6 million in a lead-poisoning case brought against the NYC Housing Authority. The family's 14-year-old son, who doctors say currently has the mental age of an eight-year-old, was first diagnosed with lead poisoning at age three. The Health Department found lead around the windows of the Jackie Robinson Houses apartment, where the family still lives, even though the 1973 houses were built after lead paint was outlawed. NYCHA says the small amounts of lead could not have caused the boy's condition, and plans to appeal.

Amanda Sounds Off:

Happily, rent guidelines are safe for another three years and the new requirement for landlords who attain luxury decontrol has been added. But a pending bill that promises to give relief to poor renters should also be passed, to provide additional aid to the City's poorest tenants. Council members Stephen DiBrienza, (D-Brooklyn), Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan), Eva Moskowitz, (D-Manhattan), and Bill Perkins, (D-Manhattan) have proposed a bill to the city council that would eliminate the "poor tax" surcharge of about $15 that landlords can charge tenants in under-$500 apartments. This amount doesn't seem like much, but it adds up to about $180 a year - money low-income people could spend on a new coat or medical bills rather than on an arbitrary dollop of frosting for their landlords.

The Council has also proposed a resolution calling on the state to end vacancy decontrol, the automatic 18% rent increase landlords can make every time a tenant moves out. Since its passage in 1997 as a condolence prize to a landlord group that had attempted to eradicate rent regulation entirely, 18% vacancy decontrol has created a tense situation in which all landlords have a perpetual incentive to hope even good tenants will leave, especially in cases where the vacated apartment's rent could reach $2000. In 1997, the $2000 mark became the luxury decontrol cut-off point after which apartments became completely decontrolled. Anecdotal evidence suggests the new rules have prompted some landlords to harass tenants in hopes they'll move out. Council members feel that it is too attractive and too easy to drive up rents, posing yet another threat to affordable City housing. Both forms of decontrol should be repealed to abolish these negative incentives.


Amanda's Favorite Sites For Beginners:

  • City Limits - Investigative reporting about housing and other issues facing New York's low-income communities for 22 years. Archives available to 1996.
  • Cockroach Control Manual - Scientists at the University of Nebraska have written a do-it-yourself guide to cockroach control. The guide's helpful chapters cover techniques such as cutting off roach food supplies, interrupting their life cycles at delicate stages, and even contain helpful species photos to help you figure out just what part of the world your little uninvited guests came from.
  • The Cooperator - Free online magazine for co-op and condo dwellers. Articles on current news affecting co-ops and condos, such as utilities deregulation or indictments of corrupt management companies, change monthly. Includes helpful Q&A sections in which tenant questions are answered by lawyers and accountants, and a reference library of detailed advice on topics such as building finance or selling your unit.
  • Department of Housing Preservation and Development - Straight from the horse's mouth. Info for tenants and landlords, about neighborhood development and tax incentive and abatement programs. Learn how to get on the waiting lists for affordable low- and middle-income housing (for further info on this matter see the Mitchell-Lama page).
  • HomeNet - National online real estate resource that can be narrowed to cover only New York. Includes advice on buying, selling, and renovating your house or condo. Especially useful are the buy or rent and mortgage calculators provided free by Countrywide.
  • Public Housing Spotlight - A project of former and current employees of the Housing Authority, dishes up both proven and rumored dirt on NYCHA. Copies of Spotlight are considered contraband in NYCHA's offices. For the flip side, check out the Housing Authority site.
  • The Rent Guidelines Board - Comprehensive apartment-hunting guide for beginners or old hands. Great links to research and data on NYC housing, including the 1996 Housing and Vacancy Survey.
  • Tenant Net - A comprehensive online resource for tenants. Info on tenants' rights, tips on organizing, and updates on goings-on at Housing Court, the City Council, and the Rent Guidelines Board.


Other Recommendations:

  • The Open Housing Center - OHC gives legal help to tenants who believe they've been discriminated against because of their race, gender, family status, or other characteristics that ought to be irrelevant to the renting process. The site provides a guide to tenants' rights under anti-discrimination laws, a history of the Center's past victories, and contact information.
  • Out of Reach: The Gap Between Housing Costs and Income of Poor People in the United States - Read the National Low-Income Housing Coalition's new report online.
  • NYU Law School Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy - A detailed summary of the NYU Law School Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy's report "Reducing the Cost of New Housing Construction in New York City." Also features links to other research and the Center's programs and events.
  • Homelessness: Programs and the People They Serve - HUD and the Urban Institute's new survey of homeless people and the service providers who work with them every day provides an intimate portrait of homelessness across America. Those surveyed revealed that more than 40% of homeless people work at least part time, 39% struggle with mental illness, and about a third of the homeless are now or were once child runaways. Only 8% are panhandlers.
  • Mr. Landlord - The Internet Resource for Landlords and Landladies. This comprehensive site offers a wealth of resources and free advice on do-it-yourself rental property management. Visitors can find help with setting up a webpage for their own rental ads or locating sample rent agreement forms. Its services also include a Q&A interactive discussion among fellow landlords; tax, mortgage and rent calculators; and a free weekly e-newsletter on management techniques.
  • Renting With Pets - This site published by the Humane Society of the United States shows how landlords can improve their business by allowing tenants to keep pets. HSUS suggests sensible rules that landlords can impose on pet-owning tenants, and offers a draft of a pet addendum for an existing rental agreement. The site also has advice for pet-owning would-be renters, including tips on preparing references and a resume for a pet.
  • Realty Times - This archive of free articles from the Realty Times, a realtors' professional publication, offers advice on issues of concern to apartment dwellers. Articles cover many legal concerns such as how to rent with roommates and tenants' rights to minor repairs, plus simple ideas on interior dicor or what to do if neighbors are noisy. The main page, http://realtimes.com, contains links on other residential real estate topics of interest to consumers, including mortgages and "The Truth About Condo Living."

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