In the Reform Regulation Act of
1997, the Pataki Administration elected to attempt to destroy rent
regulation and the remedial effect of that act has gone a long way
towards that objective.
It is time the pendulum swings
back. It is necessary for the pendulum to swing back. As we go forward
on the path of gentrification, New York City will not be able to house
its most vulnerable citizens. Gentrification and luxury housing now
being the rule there is no housing for the working class in this City.
The Bloomberg administration’s
attempt at affordable housing is a joke were its consequences not so
serious. The New York University Furman Study of 2006 clearly shows
that we need housing for those that earn less than $25,000, which is our
working class and working class poor. Mayor Bloomberg’s affordable
housing in no way reaches that issue.
We, in this City, face a crisis in
housing in these terms. We live today in the same comparable
circumstances as we did when we realized that the Rockefeller Law of
1970/1971 had to be adjusted. This was the reason that the Republican
Wilson Administration passed the EPTA of 1974.
The only difference between those
times and today is that the housing stock that housed the vulnerable
tenants is now 33 years older and stands in a more substantially
deteriorating condition since this feature of housing except for some
nominal insignificant growth, for the most part, has not been replaced
in the City.
It is time that the government
recognize a simple proposition to the effect that land in the City of
New York is a rare and most expensive commodity. Consequently, housing
of this nature can no longer be controlled by private wealth. To the
extent that shelter is a prominent fundamental right, it is time for the
government to step in to do the following. First, the government must
foster a program of repair of our existing housing stock so as to the
minimum hold status quo in existing housing to check deterioration.
Then the government has to regulate a building program reflective of our
need for new housing in which the ordinary workman can live.
In practical terms, I am suggesting
the following: (1) a recapture of all housing in co-op and condo in
which the purchaser no longer lives; (2) it is time that the City and
the State recognize that in New York City the wealthy rent convenience
apartments which are not their primary residency. To the extent that
such apartments are rented here in the City of New York, it is time to
impose a substantial tax upon such apartments in order to devolve a fund
to utilize to build housing for the working man, which will be rented
out at reasonable rates; (3) to the extent that landlords will be
allowed to recapture apartments for their own personal use evictions,
regulations must circumscribe such conduct to absolute need. Further, a
landlord in that position ought to pay a tax to the City which would
also enhance the fund described above.
Under our laws today, there are many
landlords who fail to register apartments and make a business out of
their self-deregulating of these apartments for the purpose of renting
apartments to corporations and to bed & breakfasts for tourists. This
must now be stopped. It is an abuse of our regulatory system, yet it
goes on because the government looks the other way. It is time for the
government through its various agencies to investigate this travesty on
our housing and if a landlord is caught in the act here, it should be
treated as a Class E felony.
Finally, I say to the Mayor and
Governor that it is time to review all rent regulatory housing and that
with expectation that such a review would take in excess of a year it
would be prudent to impose a two-year moratorium on rent increases in
all regulatory housing pending such examination.
I ask the Governor and the Mayor to
take a look at these suggestions with an eye towards legislation and
amendment of our existing law to reflect these needs now.
Respectfully yours,
Robert A. Katz
