A Very Big Deal: Cuomo Comes Out for Strengthening Rent Regs

In a move sure to give landlords and brokers serious agita, Governor Cuomo has come out in favor of strengthening existing rent regulations for New York City’s approximately 1 million stabilized apartments. David Freedlander over at PolitickerNY has all the initial details:

Leaning on his time as HUD secretary during the Clinton administration, Cuomo called affordable housing “the building block of strong communities and a strong economy.”

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Says the gov:

In New York, more than 1 million people are protected by New York’s rent regulation program.

However, this program is set to expire June 15, less than 5 weeks from now.

That would be a crisis for our state.

In fact, what we need to extend and strengthen our rent regulation laws, and we need to do it now.

Since 1994, over 238,000 apartments have been removed from rent regulation leaving middle class New Yorkers with fewer affordable options.

And by current standards it is estimated that over 130,000 more apartments could be lost to decontrol in the next few years.

More here, including a video. And our previous coverage of the rent-regs wars here.

tacitelli@observer.com :: @tacitelli