Tenant Advocates Push Cuomo | de Blasio’s State of the City | Call for Affordable Housing Unites NYC

1. Tenant advocates push the Cuomo administration to release the addresses of rent stabilized buildings. A rent regulation mystery is brewing uptown. The Cuomo administration refuses to share the locations of thousands of deregulated apartments that were returned to the rent stabilization rolls last week, citing privacy rules, and tenant advocates are furious. [New York Daily News – 02/11/14]
2. State boosts tenant rights. The state agency that oversees New York’s rent-regulation system in New York has changed the game, by making the rules more friendly to tenants, both landlords and tenant leaders say. Among the many pro-tenant changes, the new rules will make it easier for many tenants to challenge rent increases made years earlier, despite a state law that sets a strict four-year statute of limitations on such challenges. [Wall Street Journal – 02/10/14]
3. Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce to sell land for luxury housing. The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce’s development arm will sell a narrow, vacant plot of land near 135th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue for $1.2 million to pay for repairs to its troubled portfolio of more than 100 units of affordable housing in Central Harlem. ‘This project is needed to preserve 117 units of affordable housing and 11 units of affordable commercial space,’ said Charles Powell, senior project manager for the Greater Harlem Housing Development Corporation, which is part of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce. [DNA Info – 02/10/14]
4. Progressives take aim at developer. In a possible harbinger of a new political climate facing residential developers in the city under an increasingly activist city government, the new Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, several City Council members and the powerful building workers union 32BJ SEIU will rally outside of the Manhattan offices of residential developer TF Cornerstone Wednesday afternoon demanding changes in the way it treats workers at its buildings. [Crain’s New York Business – 02/12/14]
5. With his first budget, de Blasio hews to familiar campaign themes.  Declaring his commitment to shaping New York City’s budget to accomplish his liberal goals, Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday called for spending millions more on education, public housing, homeless services and paid sick leave for workers. [New York Times – 02/12/14]
6. Shaun Donovan says Bill de Blasio housing plan faces challenges. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said Wednesday that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vision for affordable housing in the city is a “very tall order.” Donovan previously served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. During his tenure, he created a plan to build and preserve 165,000 units of affordable homes in 10 years - the biggest municipal plan of that kind at the time. [Politico – 02/12/14]
7. de Blasio sets deadline for affordable housing plan, but policy details remain vague. After announcing the remaining members of his housing “dream team” last Saturday-with Shola Olatoye heading up NYCHA, Vicki Been at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Gary Rodney as president of the Housing Development Corporation, Carl Weisbrod as City Planning chair and Alicia Glen as deputy mayor for housing and economic development-Mr. de Blasio has finally revealed when we can finally expect some details: May 1st. [New York Observer – 02/11/14]
8. Cuba’s reward for the dutiful: gated housing.  In the splendid neighborhoods of this dilapidated city, old mansions are being upgraded with imported tile. Businessmen go out for sushi and drive home in plush Audis. Now, hoping to keep up, the government is erecting something special for its own: a housing development called Project Granma, featuring hundreds of comfortable apartments in a gated complex set to have its own movie theater and schools. [New York Times – 02/11/14]
9. Bedford-Stuyvesant residents are among the least happy in the city, according to Talking Transition report.  All told, nearly 53,000 New Yorkers weighed in on their well-being and the quality of city services at Talking Transition this November. And across the board one problem united everyone - the lack of affordable housing, a problem they agreed is getting worse. This unprecedented data project reveals that a single concern unites the city,” said Danny Fuchs, Talking Transition project director. [New York Daily News – 02/11/14]
10. How I landed a $38,000 apartment in Brooklyn Heights. Finding an affordable home in New York City can sometimes seem impossible. With apartments in neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy now going for millions, the city seems increasingly inaccessible to middle class folks. We’ve been hearing Mayor de Blasio talk a lot about it since he ran for office on his Tale of Two Cities theme, including on Friday when he appointed an official to solve what he sees as an affordable housing crisis. [WNYC – 02/08/14]