The Real Y2K Crisis
City’s Rent-Stabilization Laws Expire March 31;
Vallone, Giuliani Ominously Silent As Tenants Organize to Save Protections
by Jenny Laurie

While active tenants around the city have been attending meetings and writing letters about the renewal of the rent laws in the City Council next March, City Hall has been silent on the issue.

In September, some were saying that Council Speaker Peter Vallone was going to personally introduce a bill that would renew the city’s rent-stabilization laws, which expire on March 31. (Usually these bills are done through members of the Housing Committee, rather than the Speaker himself.) There was speculation that Vallone would introduce a bill as early as Sept. 29, in response to the calls his office had received from worried (and organized) tenants. But nothing official has been done. According to Council staff, a renewal bill has not been drafted yet. March of 2000 may seem far off to some, but in reality, the time is short. The organizing efforts to prevent the Council from weakening the laws—as it did in 1994—have been going on for several months. Tenants have attended meetings in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens to discuss strategies, and have gone home to write letters and make phone calls. While this pressure has been felt at City Hall, tenants have few clues to what Vallone will do.

As Speaker of the Council, Vallone holds enormous power over the members’ votes. Votes in the Council are tightly controlled by Vallone and his staff, and one way the speaker keeps his control is by keeping his members in the dark about controversial issues until close to the vote. Very rarely do Democrats in the Council vote against Vallone.

Occasionally, on neighborhood issues, Vallone loses the votes of those Councilmembers directly affected, such as the votes over building a filtration plant in Van Cortlandt Park, allowing developers to build skyscrapers in the low-rise area of Clinton, and the development of the Kennedy Airport rail link. As a matter of principle, the Republicans in the Council usually vote as a bloc against the Democrats’ bills, especially on social issues.

This pattern is often broken when the rent laws and tenants’ rights are the subject of legislation. Last July, 15 members of the Council voted against Vallone and his lead-paint bill (“the landlord-protection act”), an almost unheard-of number. The real-estate industry really wanted the bill, and Vallone, who has received a lot of money and assistance from it for his impending mayoral campaign, gave in. The Speaker worked closely with Mayor Giuliani on getting the bill passed, and all the Republicans in the Council voted for it.

Tenants can expect the same kind of fractures in the Council over the renewal of the rent laws. This is why we have been working in districts across the city to put pressure on their members to vote the right way. Stanley Michels, Councilmember from northern Manhattan, has proposed strengthening tenants’ rights when the laws are renewed. (The state Urstadt Law prevents the Council from strengthening the laws in a way that would reregulate housing that the state had deregulated—such as apartments renting for over $2,000 per month.) Michels has said that he would like to introduce a bill that would both renew the rent-stabilization law and tighten the rules used by landlords for decontrolling apartments renting for over $2,000 per month. His proposal is to require landlords to report the methods they used for decontrolling apartments, and require landlords to give the new tenant that information.

He is also looking into the possibility of getting some relief to rent-controlled tenants by changing the process through which their rents are increased. New York City’s rent-control law is a permanent law; all it needs to remain in effect is for the Council to pass a resolution once every three years declaring that a housing emergency still exists. Michels is investigating the possibility of asking the Council to pass a separate law which would allow the city Rent Guidelines Board to set annual rent increases for rent-controlled tenants (under current rules, these tenants pay 7.5% increases every year, which is far above the 2% a year for rent-stabilized tenants.)

For now, tenant advocates can get little real information about work behind the scenes in Peter Vallone’s office. However, if tenants keep up the pressure on their Councilmembers, and on Vallone, the Council will have to respond.