Planned Legislation Would Boost Rent Regulation Eligibility

Lawmakers are using the commotion over the sale of Starrett City to push new legislation that would make nearly 65,000 apartments eligible for rent regulation.

Democrats in the state Legislature and the City Council yesterday called for the legislation, which would extend rent stabilization rules to all units in the state that opt out of the Mitchell-Lama or Section 8 affordable housing programs.

"We need to make sure that we are in fact holding on to affordable housing stock," state Senator Kevin Parker of Brooklyn, who plans to introduce the bill today, said.

Similar legislation has been introduced in the past; it passed in the Assembly but failed in the Senate. But with the Republican majority in the Senate down to two seats and Governor Spitzer pushing hard to further narrow that majority, the Democratic legislators are hoping they can build off public anxiety over affordable housing and swing a few votes to their side.

The lawmakers have been further emboldened by the $1.3 billion sale of the Starrett City affordable housing mega-complex in Brooklyn.

"You've got a very combustible situation," the director of the advocacy group Working Families, Daniel Cantor, said. "Senate Republicans won't enjoy this bill. On the other hand, they want to keep their majority."

Landlords have recently expressed worry that if Democrats gain control of the Senate in 2008, they would expand rent regulation, a move that would be costly to building owners.

Under current law, units in Mitchell-Lama and Section 8 projects become rent stabilized when owners opt out of the programs only for buildings that were occupied before 1974.

The bill would expand the rent stabilization rules to all units statewide in the two programs, making more than 64,000 additional units in the city eligible for rent regulation.

About a million apartments throughout the city are rent stabilized, with nearly 10,000 falling out of regulation in 2005, according to the New York City Rent Guidelines Board.

Stabilized apartments for which the rent is more than $2,000 a month generally fall out of regulation when they become vacant.

Tenant groups have been pushing for such legislation for years, though landlord advocates have denounced a "stick" approach to addressing affordability issues, favoring incentives to remain in programs.