Talk about affordable housing in New York City is only as good as the commitment to reforming housing laws. And that commitment has to come from City Hall.
For years, housing advocates have put a host of reforms on the table, and with good reason. The number of affordable and rent stabilized units coming off the rolls is staggering—the loss is estimated at tens of thousands on a yearly basis. In a city of 8.3 million people, the scale of this loss vastly outpaces the efforts of the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development to create units for low-and- moderate-income families in need of them.
Much of this vulnerability is triggered by state laws. Because of what’s known as vacancy decontrol, for example, some landlords race to reach a $2,000 rent threshold that allows them to permanently convert vacant rent stabilized apartments into market rate units.
New York City Comptroller and Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Thompson would advocate for repealing vacancy decontrol. He would also push the state legislature to repeal the Urstadt law, critical to giving the city—not the state— home rule over rent control.
These are two of several needed reforms. Yet, even though new housing policies would be in the interest of the vast majority of New York families, the incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg has had little to say on fundamental reforms that would address the vulnerability of tenants.
In the face of displacement pressure, Bloomberg has also had little to say on which New Yorkers have been leaving the city during his tenure and why, or how many families are doubled up to cover the costs of housing. That silence threatens to leave the city chasing its tail when it comes to housing.
