Lawmakers’ Agreements & Disagreements On Affordable Housing – And What That Means For Tenants

While the state legislators who members of the Flatbush Tenant Coalition visited in Albany on Tuesday were generally supportive of strengthening rent laws, not all of them agreed with the entire list of policies for which the FTC and other members of the Alliance for Tenant Power are advocating, painting a murky picture as to what will happen when lawmakers do finally cast their votes on the rent regulation laws that will expire in June.

The 60 or so members of the FTC broke into smaller groups to visit with the lawmakers, and I tagged along with those who spoke to state Sen. Kevin Parker, who represents such areas as Ditmas Park and other parts of Flatbush, and Assemblyman William Colton, whose district covers part of Southern Brooklyn, allowing me to see first-hand the differences of opinion that exist among Democratic legislators, both of whom have a significant number of constituents living in rent-regulated apartments. According to data from the Community Service Society, a Manhattan-based research and policy analysis group, Parker has 41,916 rent regulated apartments in his district, and Colton has 13,373.

Both Parker and Colton agreed that there must be stronger rent laws and protection for tenants, though the two varied as to what that entails. While Parker did not agree with all of the FTC’s legislative priorities, particularly with ending the controversial 421-a tax abatement program for developers, Colton did support each of the tenants’ policy points (which range from fighting displacement to protecting people from spikes in rent – and all of which you can see spelled out here).

“People are really struggling right now,” said Parker, who stressed the work on the rent regulation laws will really begin after lawmakers pass a budget, which they must do before April 1. “… Landlords are letting buildings go so they can get people out and put (apartments) on the market at market rate.”

While Parker agreed with many of the policy points brought up by FTC members, he did disagree that the 421-a tax exemption program, which gives developers tax breaks, should go by the wayside – which is not a popular opinion among tenants’ rights advocates.

“You’ll never get rid of it,” Parker said. “There’s not the political will.”

Colton, meanwhile, disagreed.

“421-a is a rip-off – it gives landlords all kinds of subsidies,” said Colton, who, prior to being elected, worked as an attorney advocating for tenants.

“I personally would eliminate it,” Colton continued in regards to 421-a. “That’s the position I would take. Any time you amend it, the landlords find a way to get around it.”

While Parker and Colton do not see eye to eye on 421-a (and many of the lawmakers neighbors spoke to were divided on this issue), the two agreed that, in general, tenants’ rights need to be strengthened.

“When laws come up for renewal, we need to not only renew them but strengthen them,” said Colton, who’s sponsoring legislation that FTC members and other tenants are pushing for. Colton’s bill, A04741, would repeal the deregulation of rent regulated apartments. Tenants rights advocates have argued that having the possibility of deregulating apartments puts current tenants at risk for harassment by landlords and fraudulent deregulation. This bill would make it so rent regulated apartments would remain rent regulated, no matter the rent charged or the income of the families living in the apartment.

The newly-elected Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, whose district includes Ditmas Park, also threw her support behind repealing the deregulation of rent regulated apartments. While there was originally a bit of confusion around whether or not Bichotte was in support of this, with some FTC members believing she had said she would vote against it, we spoke today to Ryan Merola, a spokesman for Bichotte, who said the assemblywoman “is going to vote in favor of the bill.”

Merola said, however, that the lawmaker does not expect it to pass both the Assembly and the Senate – something which a number of other legislators echoed.

“She’s thinking about what we do when this bill doesn’t pass – because it’s not expected to,” Merola said. “She said we need to spend time and find a political, pragmatic solution if the bill doesn’t pass.”

On the legislation front, Parker is also pushing a bill to better support tenants, S3990.

“This is going to help with tenant harassment,” Parker said.

The bill would permit the city to force a landlord to make repairs if that landlord has not addressed conditions following three or more complaints from tenants or on behalf of tenants within 120 days. If the landlord does not complete the necessary repairs, the city will be permitted to place a lien on the property equal to the cost of repairs or improvements.

If repairs required tenants to relocate, Parker’s bill would force the landlord to find comparable housing for tenants nearby “at a comparable or lower rate and assume relocation costs.” If the rent was higher, the landlord would be responsible for making up the difference between the current rent and the rent at the relocated site.

While the legislators with whom FTC members spoke were passionate about tenants’ rights, a number of them voiced doubts that much progress would be made on that front because of resistance from other elected officials.

“A lot of the Republicans don’t care, and they’re in the pocket of the real estate lobby,” Parker said in regards to lawmakers supporting sweeping rent regulation reform.

Parker also echoed doubts that others have voiced about Governor Andrew Cuomo’s commitment to affordable housing reform, saying that Cuomo is not any stronger on rent regulation than past governors.

And, while Borough President Eric Adams hasn’t specifically called out Cuomo for not discussing the upcoming rent regulation vote, he has called on the governor to make affordable housing a priority.

“We can’t allow him to be in the shadows on this,” Adams said at a previous gathering at Bar Chord in Ditmas Park. “…We must demand the governor get in this fight.”

The governor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.