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Read
Met Council's latest issue of Tenant/Inquilino
(October,
2011)
Click here for back issues. |
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State Lawmakers Extend
Rent-Regulation Laws For Four Years,
Enact Minor Pro-Tenant Reforms
The New York State legislature and
governor have passed legislation to
extend rent-regulation protections
to 2.5 million tenants. For the
first time in 18 years, the laws
were extended without weakening
amendments, and we made incremental
progress on our list of reforms,
thanks to the sustained activism of
the organized tenant movement in New
York City and the downstate suburbs
in recent years.
Find out how the laws changed, and
our analysis:
read here.
NY's
Court of Appeals Reinstates the
"Poor Tax" Rent Increase For
Long-Time Tenants
A disastrous ruling from the NYS
Court of Appeals means that
long-time rent-stabilized tenants
will have to pay the NYC Rent
Guidelines Board's (RGB's) "poor
tax" increases from 2008 and 2009 -
and some will have to pay the
difference if their landlord wasn't
collecting this amount. The ruling
also invites the RGB to pass similar
minimum orders in the future.
Read about the ruling and how it
will affect you on our
RGB poor-tax roundup page,
which includes two articles from the
April 2001 issue of Tenant/Inquilino,
Met Council on Housing's newspaper:
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Help Us Pass A Tenants' Bill
of Rights
Intro 477, the
Tenants Bill of Rights
Law,
is simple: it would require that New
York City landlords post a summary
of tenants’ basic rights in the
lobby of every privately-owned
residential building with at least
three apartments, and that they
provide this same summary to tenants
along with their leases.
Help us end the terrible abuses that
happen when tenants don't know their
rights - the right's we've fought so
hard to win!
Help us pass the Tenants' Bill of Rights
Law!
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End The "Tenant Blacklist"!
For years, New York's housing
courts have been selling the
data of tenants who are taken to
court by their landlords. The
information is used to create
'tenant screening reports',
which are sold to landlords to
evaluate prospective new
tenants. The reports are better
known as the tenant 'blacklist',
because when landlords find out
that a tenant has been in
housing court, no matter the
reason, the tenant is usually
denied the apartment she is
applying for.
Tenants are punished for:
-
legally withholding rent to
get repairs that landlords
refuse to make
-
defending themselves in
eviction cases that are
brought through no fault of
their own
-
defending against frivolous
claims made by their
landlord
-
having a similar name as
another tenant who was in
housing court
Concern about ending up on the
blacklist also causes many
tenants to avoid housing court
at all costs - discouraging many
from exercising their legal
rights.
The Metropolitan Council on
Housing and the National Lawyers
Guild's NYC Housing Committee
are joining forces to bring a
federal civil-rights suit
against the New York State court
system, seeking to block the
sale of Housing Court data that
is used to create these
blacklists. We are seeking
potential plaintiffs for this
case.To see if you
qualify to be a plaintiff,
click here.
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If
you're not already a member of
Met Council on Housing,
visit our membership page
and add your voice to the growing
city-wide movement of
tenants
fighting for change.
Get active in the tenant movement! Sign up for
Met Council's email alerts and get notices of
rallies, hearings and other important events
about tenant rights and affordable housing.
You can also
check out our
tenant
calendar to find out about upcoming lobby
days and events. |
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Hearing rumblings of a
buyout in your
Mitchell-Lama? Check out
A Mitchell-Lama Tenant's
Buyout Handbook for
information on what to do
and how to organize. |
.New RGB or MBR increases more than you
can afford? Two city
programs offer rent freezes
for those who qualify.
The Disability Rent
Increase Exemption Program
gives disabled tenants a
rent freeze. The application is available
at the
Dept
of Finance
website or call 311. See our
DRIE
page for more
info.
The Senior Citizen Rent
Increase Exemption
freezes rents for senior
households who qualify. For
more information, go to
our
Resources for Seniors
page.
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Just
getting started educating
yourself on tenants' rights?
Want to research your
landlord? Need names and
addresses of local housing
groups or government
agencies? Start with our
Fact Sheets
and
Housing Links |
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LISTEN TO MET COUNCIL'S
WEEKLY RADIO SHOW
"Housing Notebook"
Mondays 8 - 9 PM
WBAI 99.5 FM
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Met Council on Housing Free
Walk-In Clinic
The Metropolitan Council on
Housing's free walk-in
clinic offers tenants
assistance with
landlord-tenant disputes.
It takes place on Tuesdays
at 6:30 PM at Cooper Square
Committee, 61 East 4th
Street between 2nd Ave. &
the Bowery. Please
bring all paperwork
associated with your case.
Take the F to Second Ave.,
the 6 to Astor Place, or the
R or N to 8th St.
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