Housing crisis: New York votes to stop soaring rents

New York State passed a law on Friday that is supposed to curb the disappearance of affordable housing and galloping gentrification, a text considered “historic” by many and which testifies to a growing awareness of the housing crisis.

The vote is the culmination of long years of battle between the powerful lobby of property owners and associations defending the right to housing.

The latter finally won their case thanks to the change of majority in the New York State Parliament after the November election: its two chambers, which sit in Albany, are now in the hands of the Democrats, many of whom have been in office. housing crisis a hobbyhorse as the 2020 presidential election approaches.

The text, immediately endorsed by Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo, removes a series of provisions that allowed landlords to bypass the regulation of hundreds of thousands of rents on the occasion of a change of tenant or renovation work.

Since 1994, these provisions have resulted in the disappearance of approximately 300,000 apartments from the regulated rental housing stock (HLM) in New York itself, according to official figures. This pushes modest families to move and fuels the gentrification of the first American metropolis, one of the 10 most expensive cities in the world.

While the figures vary by neighborhood, the average rent for a two-room apartment in New York City rose from $ 1,938 in January 2011 to $ 2,831 in January 2019, according to Rainmaker Insights.

This complex text is expected to directly affect some 2.4 million New Yorkers – out of a total population of about 8.5 million – who live in nearly a million rental apartments still regulated today.

However, it only concerns old dwellings: only buildings constructed before 1974 and comprising six or more dwellings.

Beyond the large urban areas, the most affected, the 74-page text provides protections for all tenants in this state of 20 million inhabitants – up to tenants of mobile homes – in particular to avoid excessive rent increases. strong, abusive evictions or excessive bond demands.

It opens up the possibility of establishing a regulated rent system in all localities, which is not realistic today.

Desperate tenants

“This is a remarkable success that will put an end to displacement, harassment and unfair evictions, and which will help working families to stay in the homes they love”, welcomed the Democratic mayor earlier this week. of New York, Bill de Blasio, presidential candidate 2020, when an agreement had emerged to adopt the text before the summer.

Many pro-law senators pointed out on Friday how many testimonies from desperate tenants they had heard in years, and they cited the growing number of homeless people.

“Every day I talk to people who say, ‘Where am I going to be able to live?’ We can no longer pretend there is no crisis, the lack of affordable housing is a problem everywhere […], not just in New York, ”said Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Democratic Senate Leader.

“If we don’t show our determination on the things that matter to people, no one here will feel like they’ve succeeded,” she added, with great applause.

The property owners fought to the end, arguing that the text would result in a degradation of buildings with regulated rents, which would be caused by the elimination of substantial rent increases allowing them to quickly amortize any renovation.

Market distortion

“The proposed reforms will essentially eliminate the tools that homeowners, investors and lenders depend on to finance renovations, without offering an alternative,” said Kathryn Wylde, president of Partnership for New York City, which brings together many homeowners. .

She raised the specter of a divestment comparable to that which made the sad reputation of the park of HLM managed by the city of New York, known for its rats, its cockroaches or its heating failures.

In fact, critics of the text have pointed out that the new measures could have market distorting effects contrary to the stated objectives.

Beyond a possible deterioration of buildings, no measure is planned to ensure that it is people with modest incomes who benefit from moderate rents, notably lamented Republican Senator George Amedore.

To these criticisms, Senator Stewart-Cousins ​​argued that a commission would assess the effects of the law regularly, “to be sure” that it is having the desired effects.

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