A Crucial Step towards Making Housing More Affordable for New Yorkers
President Joe Biden’s plan to limit rent increases to 5% for apartments owned by corporate landlords could help many New Yorkers struggling with high rent. The plan aims to stop big rent hikes by threatening to take away federal tax breaks from landlords who don’t comply. With New York City rents being 147% higher than the national average this plan is seen as a crucial step to make housing more affordable. Cea Weaver from Housing Justice For All mentioned that while some New Yorkers already have strong protections and the rent cap would be especially helpful in upstate New York where many apartments are not regulated.
(photo: Bloomberg)
$325 Million Allocated for Construction and Tenant Protections
The plan, which needs approval from Congress also includes $325 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for building affordable homes across the country. Syracuse will get $50 million from this program to build 1,400 affordable units helping the 31,000 households in Onondaga County that spend more than a third of their income on housing. This federal plan supports New York’s new good cause eviction protections which have been adopted by several cities since they became law in May.
These local protections give tenants the right to renew their leases unless landlords have a good reason not to prevent large rent increases in rent-stabilized apartments. While some people think these protections shouldn’t be optional and the cities that have adopted them have seen positive results. For example, tenants in these cities are protected from almost 9% rent increases. Cities like Rochester and some in the Hudson Valley are considering adopting these protections showing a growing effort to protect tenants’ rights and ensure stable housing in New York State, according to the report of Public News Service.
