New York City and State law should strive to ensure that all New Yorkers are able to live without being unduly burdened by the cost of living - affordable rent is a key part of this goal. The New York State legislature will have to renew the State’s rent regulation laws by June 2019, when the current laws are due to expire. This is an opportunity to restructure rent regulations in order to preserve and potentially expand the State’s supply of rent regulated apartments.

This platform largely aligns with the Housing Justice for All campaign currently being led by the Upstate Downstate Housing Alliance. New Kings Democrats is not formally a member of this coalition. 

To learn more about rent regulations, read this January 2019 NKD blog post. 

1. Amend the current laws to allow any county in New York State to opt in to rent stabilization in the event of a local housing emergency (S5040/A7046). 
2. Pass new legislation to protect tenants of smaller buildings from unjustified eviction (S2892/A5030).
3. Amend the current laws to end vacancy decontrol. The current law incentivizes landlords to find ways to increase rents in order to reach the statutory limit at which they can be deregulated (S2591/A1198).
4. Make preferential rents permanent. Current law enables landlords to impose large year over year increases in a tenant’s rent, which can force long-term tenants from their home (S2845/A4349).
5. Eliminate the vacancy bonus. Current laws allow landlords to increase the maximum allowable rent on a unit by 20% every time it is vacated. This incentivizes landlords to push out long-term tenants (S185/A2351).
6. Amend the current laws to disallow permanent rent hikes associated with major capital improvements to the building or individual apartment increases associated with single-unit upgrades (S3693/A6322 and S3770/A6465).
7. Align allowable rent increases for rent controlled apartments with rent stabilized apartments (S299A/A167).
8. Adequately fund the entity charged with enforcing rent laws. Currently, the Department of Homes and Community Renewal inadequately enforces rent laws, allowing landlords to act illegally without consequence.

COVID-19 Policy Response
NKD supports the Cancel Rent bill to provide immediate relief to tenants and homeowners impacted by a loss of employment due to COVID-19. (S8125A/A10224)

Adopted May 2019. Last Updated spring 2020.