We're being honored!

 The Cooper Square Committee is honoring us at its annual holiday party celebration on Wednesday, Dec. 20th at 6:30 PM:

CSC News Upcoming Events Holiday Party and Potluck Celebration Wednesday, December 20, 2023 6:30 PM You're invited to our year-end Holiday Party and Potluck Celebration on Wednesday, December 20th at 6:30 PM. We will be gathering in Unit 3W of 59-61 East 4th Street, a community space we are currently renting and plan to purchase in 2024.  Bring a dish and your dancing shoes and join us for some food, music (including karaoke), games, and socializing with your neighbors and fellow travelers in the housing justice movement.  This is a party, not a meeting! We will be giving an Organizing Excellence Award to the End Apartment Warehousing Coalition. In October 2023, the tenants in this coalition succeeded in winning a major step in the campaign to End Apartment Warehousing: the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal officially closed the “Frankensteining” loophole, one of the only mechanisms left after the Housing Stability & Tenant Protection Act of 2019 that allowed landlords to remove apartments from rent regulation. The practice of Frankensteining – or combining and reconfiguring rent-stabilized apartments – has been destroying thousands of affordable housing units in NYC. Thanks to the great work of our coalition, landlords cannot raise rents on the combined apartments beyond what the two apartments would rent for on their own under the rent laws. We hope you can join us to celebrate this hard-fought win and spend some time with friends and neighbors at Cooper Square as we wrap up the year. Please RSVP to csc@coopersquare.org with what you will be bringing to the potluck! Anti-Frankensteining Bill Call-In Day Wednesday, December 13, 2023 3 to 5 PM Our coalition to end Frankensteining is ramping up the calls to Governor Hochul to sign our bills. From now until December 14, we are asking everyone to call every day. Sign up for a 5 minute time-slot to call Governor Hochul's office to let her know that you support the Anti-Frankensteining Bill waiting on her desk. When it's your designated date and time, call 518-474-8390, press #3, then #1 and use the script below to leave a message. You can also use the Housing Justice for All website to place the call. Here's what to say: "Hi, I’m a New York City resident from [give your zip code], and I urge Governor Hochul to make this a happy holiday for all tenants by signing S2980, S2943, S1684 and S995 now! These bills will keep rent-stabilized apartments available and affordable statewide at honest rents, with known landlords.” Prefer to make your calls with fellow Cooper Square Committee tenants? We're hosting a Zoom Call-in Party on December 13, 2023 from 3 to 5 PM. Drop in and say hi before you call the Governor! Sign Up for a 5-minute Slot

Take 5 minutes to keep housing affordable in NY!

Can you spare 5 minutes to keep housing affordable in NY?

Governor Hochul just has until December 31st to sign  

four bills to end Frankensteining and make it easier to 

keep rent stabilized units available, and affordable at 

honest rents by known landlords.  So there's no time to lose. 

It's easy: 

1. Pick a date and time (starting Dec. 5th) : 

Just click here to choose a time convenient to you.  

(We have 5-minute slots, but the calls usually take under 2 minutes.)   

2. Call!  

Click on this second link (provided by Housing Justice for All) to call.  

Here's what you say when you call: 

Hi. I'm a New York City resident from [your neighborhood], and 

I urge Governor Hochul to make this a happy holiday for all tenants 

by signing S2980, S2943, S1684, and S995 now!  

These bills will keep rent stabilized apartments available and

affordable statewide at honest rents, with known landlords.  Thank you. 

3. Note on the chart who you spoke to and their response. 

It should take you roughly 5 minutes, start-to-finish!

Let's get those bills passed!

 

Our statement on the new DHCR Frankensteining regulations

 Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing Wins

New Regulations That Retain Affordable Housing

for New York City

The new NYS Homes and Community Renewal regulations are a good start, but

state bills need to be signed by Governor Hochul now to make the changes more

comprehensive and permanent

New York, NY — With a lot of hard work, testifying, and campaigning, the Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing, a New York City tenant and advocacy group, has helped win new regulations at the New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) agency to close a loophole in the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA). The new regulations — which take effect November 8 — will enable New York City to retain more of its affordable, rent-regulated housing. We urge Governor Hochul to sign S2980/A6216 to make the changes more comprehensive and permanent.

Through that loophole in the HSTPA, owners have been able to set a new, market-rate first rent on rent-stabilized homes by combining adjacent, formerly affordable, regulated apartments into single large “Frankensteined” monsters at sky-high rents.

The loophole has encouraged landlords to warehouse vacant rent-regulated apartments —sometimes for years — in the hope of Frankensteining them later when an adjacent apartment becomes empty.

In one building, for example, an empty stabilized apartment (rent: about $850 a month) was combined with an unregulated market-rate apartment directly above it (rent: about $3,000 a month). The result was a duplex apartment advertised on Streeteasy.com for $13,000 per month and the removal of yet another affordable apartment from New York City’s housing stock.

The practice of Frankensteining — combining separate, adjacent apartments into one single larger apartment — has made an untold number of affordable apartments unavailable throughout the city.

Frankensteining has converted almost entire buildings in stable, affordable communities into extremely high-rent buildings, often with a rotating cast of tenants who cannot afford to stay long term.

Estimates from the city and others put the range of warehoused, vacant rent-stabilized apartments in New York City anywhere from 13,000 to 60,000 — with all of those apartments sitting empty during an unprecedented housing crisis. (Unfortunately and shamefully, the city and state don’t maintain accurate data on rent-regulated apartment vacancies.)

Tenant Sue Susman of Stellar Tenants for Affordable Housing said, “These new regulations may make a big difference in my building where the landlord is keeping 13 rent-stabilized apartments off the market — and has already Frankensteined 4 others. So many people need those affordable homes, and most of the vacant apartments need little more than a coat of paint.”

Cooper Square Committee organizer Jodie Leidecker said, “It’s a shame that it’s taken almost five years since the passage of the HSTPA to close this loophole, and countless truly affordable apartments have been permanently lost to high rents. It’s not a case of too little too late, but when we talk about preservation, this was an obvious no-brainer. Most buildings I’ve worked with since the passage of the HSTPA have experienced Frankensteining. We hope these rules help tenants in mostly affordable rent-stabilized apartments feel slightly more protected from predatory real estate interests instead of just being sitting ducks.”

In response to the ongoing advocacy of the Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing and other tenants and tenant groups, New York State’s housing agency proposed these regulations, and they should make a difference. The new regulations, which clarify the 

HSTPA’s intent, say that the new rent of a Frankensteined apartment must be the combined previous legal rents of the apartments - and where a rent stabilized unit is expanded with non-apartment space, the rent will be proportional to the change in the unit’s size (plus any “individual apartment increases” capped at $85 over 15 years and normal Rent Guidelines Board increases). So that $13,000 rent seen above would be more like $5,000, and the apartment would stay rent stabilized.

Moreover, landlords who created those vacancies by harassing tenants out, or by fraud or evasion, may be entitled to no increase at all.

Tenant Edward Ratliff from East 26th Street: “These regulations can potentially really help our city have more affordable, regulated apartments. Unfortunately, the changes come too late for my building, where a large percentage of the affordable apartments have already been lost to Frankensteining.”

By discouraging Frankensteining, the new regulations will preserve existing affordable housing in the midst of the one of the greatest housing shortages New York has ever seen.

We thank the many tenants who worked hard to demand these changes, and we are glad the New York State Homes and Community Renewal enacted these long overdue new regulations.

#####

Good news on Frankensteining regulations!

New Regulations to Keep Frankensteined Apartments Stabilized and Affordable!

With a lot of hard work, testifying, and campaigning, we have helped win new regulations by the New York State Homes and Community Renewal that will enable New York City to retain more of its affordable, rent regulated housing, closing a loophole in the housing law. 

Because of this loophole, owners have erased rent stabilized homes by combining adjacent, formerly affordable apartments into Frankensteined monsters at sky-high rents. It has even encouraged landlords to warehouse vacant rent-regulated apartments - sometimes for years - in the hope of Frankensteining them later.

Great rally today!

 

Top photo by Jodie Leidecker, Cooper Square

A big shout-out to Los Sures, Los Sures Lucha, Cooper Square, TTC, and all the other folks from the Coalition who participated in today's rally in front of Governor Hochul's office.  

Roberto speaking on the right: 

All other photos by Edward Ratliff

Some of the group

                                     Ellen speaking

Sue speaking

                                          Jodie cheering us on!

Thursday, Oct. 12 rally: Urge Gov. to Sign Frankensteining Bill!

Join our Coalition and Housing Justice for All

this Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023 at Noon

at 633 Third Ave.  (40th/41st Streets)

at a 

RALLY TO URGE GOV. :

 SIGN OUR BILLS !

 

and

CALL or EMAIL GOV. HOCHUL

Urge her to sign S.2980/A.6216 to effectively end Frankensteining by keeping combined apartments affordable - 

and to sign 3 other tenant bills as well. 

Watch the video and read the Memo we're delivering to the Governor.

Call Gov. Hochul to reduce Frankensteining

There are 4 tenant bills that  Gov. Hochul needs to sign lickety split.  Check out the video. 

Call Gov. Hochul's office. Click here to do it through your computer, or just dial 518-474-8390. You can email her too. Tell her, 

Tenants need Gov. Hochul to sign S2980, A4047, A6843 and A 3484 to reduce warehousing and Frankensteining, and keep more rent stabilized apartments available

• at honest rents 
• by landlords known to their tenants, and 
• enable more municipalities to decide whether they want the same. 

Please sign these bills as soon as they cross your desk! Thank you. 

and

Join the Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing, Housing Justice for All and other groups at a 

Rally to Urge Gov. Hochul to Sign the Bills!

• S2980/A6216 (Reducing Frankensteining, fraud, and other loopholes to escape rent stabilization - Sen. Kavanagh, Assembly Mem. Rosenthal)
• A4047 (Calculating rent overcharges going forward - AM Dinowitz)
• A6843 (Enforcing vacancy surveys so municipalities can decide whether to join rent stabilization - AM Clark)
• A3484 (Ensuring transparency for limited liability corporations - AM Gallagher and Sen. Hoylman-Sigal)

Wear a Frankenstein costume (or not), and let's urge the Governor to sign those bills when they cross her desk!