New York Housing Conference recently wrote in strong opposition to S6352-C/A6772-A – a rent reset bill that would undermine the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act’s (HSTPA) provisions to prevent excessive rent hikes in rent stabilized apartments at vacancy.
NYHC recognizes the HSTPA limitations on major capital improvements (MCIs) and individual apartment improvements (IAIs) are inadequate to recoup the cost of improvements through rent increases, especially in 100% rent stabilized buildings. However, the rent reset bill goes too far in the
other direction in allowing enormous rent increases, which would undermine affordability for
thousands of renters. The bill would create a new, “local regulated housing restoration
adjustment” that allows owners to reset the rent after renovating vacant units that were
occupied by the same tenant for 10 or more years up to the section 8 voucher payment standard.
NYHC believes this standard is far too broad. For a two-bedroom, the payment standard can be as
high as $3,027 compared to the $1,500 median for rent stabilized units – more than a 100%
increase. Rent stabilized tenants cannot afford such drastic rent increases and the potential to charge such high rents creates a new incentive for bad actors to pursue frivolous eviction cases against long term tenants.
While NYHC recognizes the limits on recouping investment in apartment upgrades and capital
improvement are insufficient in HTSPA, we oppose this bill which would profoundly destabilize
affordability for rent stabilized tenants. Read the full letter here.