Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing / Coalición Contra el Amacenamiento de Apartamentos
From Assembly Member Emily Gallagher's Twitter account (text and photos) :
The Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing is joining forces with the Stand for Tenant Safety. That group effectively got passed 13 New York City Council bills on construction as harassment, including creating the office of Tenant Advocate at the NYC Department of Buildings.
We'll work together to help pass Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal's bill. A.5988, and a City Council bill to protect tenants living near warehoused units.
Join us!
Letter emailed to Chairman David Reiss, to tenant members Sheila Garcia and Adán Soltren and to public member of the RGB Arpit Gupta, Christina DeRose, Alex Schwartz, and Christian González-Rivera:
We are writing on behalf of the Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing.
As you may know, in 2019 CHIP said landlords were warehousing some 70,000 vacant rent stabilized apartments. The number has surged since then. In Park West Village, for example, out of 864 rent stabilized apartments, there are over 100 apartments being warehoused for times ranging between months to over five years. So it is likely that the total number of rent stabilized apartments that landlords are refusing to offer for rent is closer to 100,00 city-wide.
First, that will skew any income data on which the RGB relies.
Second, landlords who are holding apartments vacant self-evidently do not need any rent increase. If they actually needed more income for a fair return on their investment, they would rent out those apartments.
In addition, landlords are more than making up for any deficit with extremely high rents. In Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village, Blackstone is now charging astronomical rents for regulated units held vacant for months that will make up for any lost income during the pandemic. In Central Park Gardens, a former Mitchell-Lama on the Upper West Side, Stellar Management is asking $9,875 for one unregulated unit and over $6,400 for another.
Our coalition therefore urges that you consider the warehousing of rent stabilized units with the other data and vote against any rent increase.
Thank you.
Sue Susman, Stellar Tenants for Affordable Housing,
president, Central Park Gardens Tenants’ Association
Patricia Loftman, president, Park West Village Tenant Association
Anne Greenberg, vice president, Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association
Denisse Miramon, St. Nick’s Alliance
The Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP), an association of owners of rent stabilized buildings, is offering to rent out vacant apartments if the state will roll back some of the protections of the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act.
EXCERPT:
Fixing this problem would actually not cost the government anything. It would also not raise the rent one cent on any existing tenants. [Emphasis added.] The government just needs to let the property owners set a new first rent on the unit that will allow them to justify the renovation costs needed to fix up the apartment. Doing this would create an instant boom in housing supply in all neighborhoods of the city. It would also create a lot of jobs. CHIP estimates that recapturing these units could create $1.5 billion to $2 billion in economic activity over the next nine months.
Affordable housing shouldn't be solely for those who already have it - although that affordability must be protected. Those 70,000 vacant rent-stabilized units should be put back on the market for those who need them.
In addition, CHIP can't legitimately complain that it's not worth their while to rent out vacant apartments. Landlords not making a fair return on investment can always open their books to DHCR and ask for a hardship increase. They don't do it because they are making more than a 5% profit. If it's not worth it for them to be landlords at their current rate of return, they're free to stop being landlords.
Meanwhile, holding 70,000 vacant rent-stabilized apartments off the market to pressure Albany seems awfully close to hostage-taking - especially with many lower-income people whose vouchers would cover the rents.
The New York City Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) will soon be voting on whether to increase rents for rent stabilized and rent controlled tenants when they renew leases. The determination is supposed to be based on data: ensuring landlords get a reasonable return on their investment and that tenants can afford to pay the rents.
But one bit of landlord data is skewed since some landlords are getting a lower return on their investment voluntarily. They are refusing to rent out at least 70,000 rent stabilized apartments and possibly more than 100,000. That's 10% of all rent-regulated units!
There are a few reasons for warehousing, including
Landlords who warehouse apartments can't then claim they're losing money. (That's like the old example of the Yiddish word "chutzpah" : a man kills his parents and then asks the court for leniency because he's an orphan.)
The RGB's next on-line meeting is Tuesday, April 26, 2022 (9:45 AM for landlords, and 1 PM for tenants) and the Preliminary Vote will be on Thursday, May 5th starting at 7 PM.
EMAIL THE RGB: NO RENT INCREASES FOR LANDLORDS WHO WAREHOUSE APARTMENTS. board@nycrgb.org .
There was a great turnout on line for the Town Hall, and participants heard from tenants, tenant advocates, Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, and Council Member Gale Brewer.
On April 14, 2022, Council Member Brewer joined Council Member Carlina Rivera in presenting City Council Intro. 195 to require the registration of long-vacant apartments and better oversight to ensure the safety of neighbors of those units.
The management of 50 West 97th Street refuses to offer for rent 9 vacant rent stabilized apartments. The management is just warehousing them. And that's just one building.
Thanks to Comptroller Mark Levine for responding, and seeking ideas on how to curb the warehousing of affordable apartments - without costin...
