RSVP Now To Join The Flatbush Tenant Coalition's Call For Stronger Rent Laws In Albany Next Tuesday, March 3

Next Tuesday, March 3, neighbors and tenants from around our area are joining the Flatbush Tenant Coalition’s mobilization to Albany to call for stronger rent laws.

On March 3, the bus will pick neighbors up at 7:15am sharp in front of the FTC’s office at 1616 Newkirk Avenue – and while any tenant (or tenant ally) is invited, the bus is getting close to full, and the coalition is asking people to RSVP as soon as possible. To RSVP, you can call 718-635-2623 or email ftcoalition@gmail.com.

“This is it — our rent laws must be strengthened before June 15th to make sure long-term families can stay in their homes and the neighborhood, and that we protect our affordable housing,” the FTC wrote.

With rent regulation laws set to sunset in June, they must be renewed by the state legislature and the governor. While there is very little danger that the laws won’t be renewed, numerous elected officials and civic leaders, including Borough President Eric Adams and Councilman Jumaane Williams, have said they could be further diluted to give landlords greater control. Adams has consistently called on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to make affordable housing a priority – specifically by addressing the rent regulation laws.

“We can’t allow [Cuomo] to be in the shadows on this,” Adams said at a recent Flatbush Tenant Coalition fundraiser at Bar Chord. “…We must demand the governor get in this fight.”

In Flatbush, 70 percent of residents live in rent stabilized apartments, according to the FTC.

“But rent stabilization has been gutted over the last few years,” the FTC’s Aga Trojniak said at the same fundraiser. “It’s now a set of loopholes where landlords can dramatically increase rents… What’ we’re seeing in the neighborhood is large corporations buying up apartments in bulk, and they’re waging war on longterm residents.”

This push by landlords to force rent stabilized tenants from their buildings has resulted in the loss of about 3,500 rent regulated apartments in Flatbush between 2008 and 2011, Trojniak said – and, as she and other neighbors pointed out, this landlord harassment has included everything from withholding repairs to taking neighbors to housing court over being one month late in paying rent.

Landlords harassing tenants has become such a prevalent issue that the governor, Mayor Bill de Blasio, and state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman just announced the creation of a Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force, which is tasked with investigating and bringing actions — including criminal charges — against predatory landlords who try to push people, including many of our neighbors who have lived in the area for decades, from their longtime homes.

Tenant harassment complaints in the city’s Housing Courts have nearly doubled since 2011, according to Cuomo’s office, with the governor noting that landlords use a variety of tactics, including “disruptive and dangerous renovation and construction project,” to “force tenants into vacating rent-regulated apartments.”

These unlawful actions by landlords come in response to a booming city real estate market, in which landlords illegally push people from rent regulated apartments to fetch higher rents. Under rent regulation, when a tenant vacates a rent-regulated apartment, the owner can automatically increase rents by 20 percent, and further increase rents by making apartment improvements. If the rent gets higher than $2,500 per month, the apartment automatically exits the rent regulation system and rent can be raised dramatically.