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renter protections
Targeting 'Bad Landlords,' Mamdani Invites New Yorkers to Testify at 'Rental Ripoff' Hearings
“What tenants share at these hearings won’t lead to empty promises," said the mayor. "Their testimony will guide our work and help shape the policies we advance to build a city New Yorkers can afford to call their home.”
Feb 10, 2026
After delivering on his promise of universal childcare for New York families, launching a process to ramp up construction of affordable housing, and personally seeing to snow removal after a major storm and the repair of a road hazard that's long plagued cyclists, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday made strides toward fulfilling another campaign pledge: cracking down on "bad landlords."
The effort will involve active participation from residents across the city, whom Mamdani invited to testify at "Rental Ripoff" hearings set to begin later this month in the five boroughs.
“You can’t fight for tenants without listening to them first. That’s why we’re launching Rental Ripoff Hearings in all five boroughs—bringing together renters to speak directly about what they’re facing, from hidden fees to broken tiles and unresponsive landlords,” Mamdani, a democratic socialist, said in a statement.
On social media, Mamdani said the hearings will give New Yorkers "a chance to tell the city EXACTLY what your landlord’s been getting away with" and will help his government to enact "real policy changes."
People who testify will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with officials from City Hall, "including commissioners from the city’s housing and consumer protection agencies, to help shape future policy," according to the BK Reader.
The city website urges residents to testify about challenges including "getting issues in their homes addressed" and "rental junk fees," like fees for certain amenities, pets, services, and rental payment systems.
The dates of the hearings were announced five weeks after Mamdani signed Executive Order 08, which stipulates that city agencies will publish a report 90 days after the final hearing—scheduled for April 7 in Staten Island—with recommendations for policy changes and action plans.
Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association (NYAA), which represents apartment building owners and property managers, quickly denounced the planned hearings as "show trials" and "a distraction."
Burgos claimed the NYAA believes that "renters with complaints should have their voices heard," but suggested landlords have little ability to respond to complaints because "thousands of buildings are being defunded by the government through overtaxation, nonsensical rent laws, and failing city agencies.”
Mamdani has argued that "the problems tenants deal with every day need to become real problems for landlords, too" and has called for the doubling of fines for hazardous housing violations.
“What tenants share at these hearings won’t lead to empty promises," said Mamdani on Tuesday. "Their testimony will guide our work and help shape the policies we advance to build a city New Yorkers can afford to call their home.”
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Zohran Won by Running for the Tenant Majority
This election was a fight between tenants versus landlords, and we have won the first battle. We still need to organize to win the general, and beyond that, tenant-focused policies.
Jul 02, 2025
New York City is a tenant town. But for decades, in City Hall and in Albany, the real estate industry has used their vast power—manifested through money, networks, and control over major influential universities and civic institutions—to run New York. Politicians regularly see property owners as more deserving constituents—a condition that is downstream from how they are elected in the first place.
Traditional campaign consultants on both sides of the aisle train their candidates to believe that homeowners vote and that tenants—comparatively more transient—have less of a stake in our communities and neighborhoods. This creates a vicious feedback loop: If tenants are more transient, it is because of public policy that doesn’t believe in our right to housing stability. If we do not vote, it is because no one is giving us anything to vote for. If public policy doesn’t favor tenants, it is because lawmakers are accustomed to delivering for the interest groups that they believe elected them.
For too long, a vocal minority coalition of property owners, landlords, and real estate developers have used their vast wealth to buy our elections and control New York City. This is not only bad for tenants, it is a threat to our democracy. They then use this power to marginalize tenants further—blocking tenant protections and writing in new ways to raise our rents.
We need people in City Hall who know that we—not the real estate industry, not the landlords—put them there.
Historically, national tenant voter turnout is lower than property owner turnout, but in New York, a majority tenant city, that isn’t the case. Because we are breaking the cycle.
Things began to change in 2018, when a group of eight Working Families Party-backed Democrats and one democratic socialist lawmaker were elected to the state legislature. During their campaigns, they refused real estate donations, emboldened by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) similar pledge and victory just months before. With the support and organizing of tenants, the New York State lawmakers immediately passed the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, a landmark shift against pro-landlord policymaking in Albany.
And now tenants are at the heart of another shakeup. Campaigning on affordability and a promise to freeze the rent for four years, Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani (D-36) decisively beat the establishment-picked Andrew Cuomo, winning the Democratic mayoral primary by 12 points.
At every turn, Zohran was Cuomo’s foil. While Cuomo was every landlord’s favorite candidate, Zohran ran aggressively for the tenant majority, putting rental costs front and center in his campaign’s message. Cuomo accepted millions from the real estate industry. In return, he promised to raise the rent, to expand valuable tax exemptions, and to dismantle the very tenant protection laws he signed into law just six years ago.
Zohran, on the other hand, promised to hold slumlords accountable, build truly affordable homes, and freeze the rent. Again and again, in video after video, interview and campaign appearances across the city the message was relentless: Zohran will stand up to your landlord and fight alongside you. He will use the vast tools of the New York City government to deliver higher quality and more affordable housing. If your landlord doesn’t make repairs, we’ll fix it ourselves and fine them. If they don’t pay, we’ll collect the debt.
Initial analysis show that he crushed his opponent in places like Washington Heights and the South Bronx—places that are both super majority tenant neighborhoods—traditionally thought of as moderate and Democratic establishment strongholds.
This is not surprising for those of us who have worked with Zohran for years. As an assemblymember, he was a dogged advocate for Good Cause Eviction protections, defended rent stabilization against real estate industry attacks, and got arrested in civil disobedience actions protesting rent increases and evictions alongside tenant organizers. He has advocated for non-market-controlled housing for years. Zohran announced his mayoral campaign with tenants’ rights organizations like New York Communities for Change and CAAAV Voice.
And as Zohran laid the foundation for the path to Gracie Mansion, the tenant movement launched a new 501c4 political vehicle—the New York State Tenant Bloc (the organization of which I am the director.) The timeline is not a coincidence: We launched with an explicit goal of building a 250,000-strong tenant voting bloc and using our collective voices and votes to elect a tenant majority mayor.
Collectively, tenants’ rights organizations delivered Zohran tens of thousands of votes. While we were a small part of his overall gargantuan volunteer operation, we were proud to mobilize over 715 volunteers to take action in support of his campaign, week after week. Over 20,000 people vowed to vote in favor of Zohran’s core campaign pledge to Freeze the Rent—and by hosting forums, mobilizing in huge numbers to rent board hearings, and elevating our campaign on social media and the press, we reached countless more tenant voters.
While we are proud of Zohran’s record, we didn’t volunteer in droves for him because of his history. We did it because we know that if we want universal rent stabilization and public investments in social housing that is truly affordable for every New Yorker, we need people in City Hall who know that we—not the real estate industry, not the landlords—put them there.
Now, as the organized tenant movement is on the cusp of having a rent stabilized tenant in City Hall, we must organize more forcefully, in greater numbers, than ever before. We need a mayor and a movement.
The machine that tried to elect Andrew Cuomo is bruised, but it is not broken. The real estate industry is now on the offensive, campaigning aggressively in the press and spending big in the general election. They are threatening lawsuits and engaging in a capital strike: refusing to maintain our homes under so-far unsubstantiated claims they cannot afford to. To deliver on a rent freeze, the mayor will have to call their bluff. And doing so will require strong tenant movement organizing at every level—our buildings, our neighborhoods, our city, our state—to make it possible.
This election was a fight between tenants versus landlords, and we have won the first battle. We still need to organize to win the general, and beyond that, tenant-focused policies. We are determined to turn the rent freeze electoral majority into a permanent political powerhouse. Through this voting bloc, tenants will shape budgets and legislation. We will determine the electoral fate of lawmakers, especially those who stand in the way of policies that deliver truly affordable housing, and yes, frozen rents.
What happens in New York matters for the rest of the country: Our tenant majority was once seen as a unique blip in a country that is overall defined by homeownership. But fewer and fewer people can afford to own their own home, and being a tenant is increasingly the norm. Nearly every major city in the country is majority tenant. Many are unable to afford the rents, live in slum conditions, and are forced to move from apartment to apartment as landlords price us out. And just like in New York, politicians who work for property owners but claim to represent tenants are a dangerous threat to democracy.
Unable to afford basic essentials like housing and groceries, voters are turning to the far-right (which is offering a fascistic solution based on deportation and fear), or they are dropping out of politics altogether and simply not voting.
To stop the spread of fascism, leaders running for local and state office must follow Zohran’s path to victory. Run for the tenant majority. Give us something to vote for, and we’ll go to the polls. Our democracy depends on it.
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Renters in Philly Say: ‘Fighting Together We Are Stronger!’
The Philadelphia renters are part of a growing tenants’ rights movement, with advocacy that centers on the government support provided to irresponsible corporate landlords.
Jun 08, 2024
Tyrone Jones had good reasons for pulling on a bright gold Renters United Philadelphia t-shirt and delivering a petition to the corporate headquarters of Odin Properties last week. Jones is a tenant of Odin’s, one of the largest property owners in Philadelphia and the landlord for 10,000 rental units across multiple states, and he has been living through difficult conditions.
Jones uses a wheelchair, and only one of the four entrances to his building is accessible. Even at that entrance, the ramp is so narrow that he can barely fit through. The lock to the door to the building is hard to reach from the chair, the double doors of the elevator nearly impossible to navigate.
Leaks coming through Jones’ ceiling went unrepaired so long that the ceiling caved in. Now, mold has developed. The closest exit from his apartment has steep stairs Jones cannot descend. “God forbid if there is a fire on the side where the ramp is,” Jones says. “I couldn’t get out of this building at all.” A short video of Jones showing his building and apartment has been posted online by Renters United Philadelphia here.
Among the other renters joining Jones at Odin headquarters was Lori Peterson. Also an Odin renter, Peterson explains that the rodent problem in her apartment is so bad that bugs crawl on her while she sleeps. Cockroaches drop into any pot or pan of food while she is cooking. “They say they do pest control regularly, but they don’t,” she says. The front door to Peterson’s building has a hole where the doorknob should be, she too has leaks in her apartment, and she recently found a dead mouse on top of a dress in her closet.
The petition the Odin renters delivered was signed by over 450 people and states in part, “In neighborhoods across Philadelphia, particularly in Black working-class areas, Odin Properties has allowed its buildings to fall into disrepair... These unsafe living conditions are a direct assault on our dignity and well-being, exacerbating the housing crisis and fueling displacement.”
The petition calls for the problems to be fixed by July 17, along with a freeze on rent and evictions during the repair period and rent rebates for those who lived through poor conditions. The renters also call on the City of Philadelphia to inspect all of Odin rental properties and severely penalize all landlords whose properties violate housing codes.
The tenants point out that Odin is receiving generous government subsidies, with the Philadelphia Housing Authority paying the rent for many of the Odin units that are in the worst condition. The City of Philadelphia has even promoted its partnership with Odin, which receives reimbursement from low-income housing vouchers. “We are asking the city to light a fire under Odin’s behind, to be honest with you,” Peterson says.
Odin Property did not respond to a request for comment.
The Philadelphia renters are part of a growing tenants’ rights movement, which includes strong tenant union presence in places like Louisville, Kansas City, and Connecticut. Much of the advocacy centers on the government support provided to corporate landlords like Odin through direct subsidies or federal housing loan support .
On the way home from delivering the petition, Peterson received a call from Odin staff, asking for a meeting. Management was waiting for Jones at his building, asking to look at his apartment problems. No repairs have happened yet, so the renters have a plan to escalate the confrontation on July 18 if their demands are not met.
“I have at least a little hope,” Jones says. “When we are fighting together, we are stronger.”
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Largest US Corporate Landlords Reap Huge Profits Amid Double-Digit Rent Hikes
"These companies fueling the housing affordability crisis are among many corporations across industries that have shamelessly profiteered."
Apr 17, 2023
Three months after the Biden administration unveiled a nonbinding "Blueprint for Renters Bill of Rights" that was applauded by corporate landlords for doing little to rein in unfair rent increases and evictions, a new report by government watchdog Accountable.US showed on Monday that those same property owners reaped enormous profits in 2022 as they demanded more of their tenants' incomes in rent and excessive fees.
The group found that the six biggest property management companies in the United States—Starwood Property Trust, Mid-America Apartment Communities (MAA), Invitation Homes, AvalonBay Communities Inc., AMH, and Tricon Residential—brought in $4.3 billion in net income last year, over $1.3 billion more than in 2021.
That financial windfall came as the companies were raising rent prices and engaging in what Accountable.US called "abusive tactics" to evict people, in some cases after they had applied for rental assistance.
Starwood Property Trust increased rent by 30% or more at some of its thousands of properties in 2022 and saw its net income skyrocket by 115% to more than $1 billion—$591 million of which it spent on dividend payments to shareholders.
AMH and Tricon Residential credited their "pricing power" and "strong rent growth" for helping them secure $310 million and nearly $780 million in net income last year, respectively. The former company recorded a 47% increase while the latter's income grew by 70%.
MAA also reported that "higher fee income" and "continued growth in average rent per unit" were behind the ballooning of its net income, which grew by nearly 19% to more than $654 million.
"This is egregious," said tenants' rights organizer René Christian Moya of the report's findings.
Four of the companies included in the Accountable.US report are members of the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), which celebrated the omission of national rent control measures in the renter protections that President Joe Biden proposed in January while also claiming the proposal's recommended regulations would be too "onerous" on landlords and would "discourage much-needed investments in housing supply."
Part of the companies' financial windfall was driven not by rent increases but by fees the landlords have piled on top of rent, including late fees, and extra charges for "smart locks," pets, and using online systems to pay rent.
"Corporate landlords 'squeeze more revenues from portfolios' by charging a range of 'ancillary' fees, resulting in 'fee revenue vastly outpacing rental growth,'" said Accountable.US.
Invitation Homes is one landlord that's been accused in the past of "fee-stacking" by tenants who filed a class-action lawsuit in 2018—all while providing tenants with homes where they face "leaky pipes, vermin, toxic mold, nonfunctioning appliances and monthslong waits for repairs," according to the report.
The record profits, dividend spending, and poor service of the six companies, said Accountable.US—in addition to shelter costs rising by a "striking" 8.6% overall in the consumer price index last month—demonstrates that "aggressive interest rate hikes" imposed by the Federal Reserve "have done little to deter profiteering from corporate landlords."
The group called on Congress to work with the Biden administration to "stabilize runaway housing costs," for example by passing legislation proposed by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) last month which would invest $200 billion in affordable housing, or a bill introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) to end rent-gouging by coporate landlords.
"The nation's largest landlords have shown their burdensome rent hikes are based on greed, not need, after reporting billions of dollars in higher profits over the last year," said Liz Zelnick, director of Accountable.US' Economic Security and Corporate Power program. "These companies fueling the housing affordability crisis are among many corporations across industries that have shamelessly profiteered, undeterred by the Fed's repeated interest rate hikes."
"Higher interest rates have not curbed inflation sufficiently and have done nothing to combat corporate greed," Zelnick added, "and instead are causing severe economic consequences for everyday Americans, from lower wages to lost jobs."
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Corporate Media Failing to Report Shortcomings of Biden Rental Plan
Corporate lobbyists flexed their power, got the White House to fold, and are publicly warning Biden not to test them again.
Feb 05, 2023
Last month, the Biden administration unveiled a slate of new agency-level actions it claimed would “protect renters and promote rental affordability.” The announcement followed nearly a year of public pressure from Congressional Democrats and the tenant-led Homes Guarantee campaign to get President Biden to crack down on rent-gouging and unjust evictions. In late January, the campaign sent the White House a list of 11 essential policy directives to include in its tenant protection plan.
Unfortunately, the White House’s final action slate was a far cry from what tenants — millions of whom are only one missed paycheck or life emergency away from eviction — had been asking for. In a press statement, Homes Guarantee campaign director Tara Raghuveer said the White House Plan falls short “of using the full power of the administration to regulate rent and address market consolidation by corporate landlords.” The plan consists largely of voluntary, incremental measures that do almost nothing to help tenants today. Almost all of the campaign’s essential demands are missing from the White House plan, including any material rent regulations or efforts to integrate good cause eviction protections into existing federal housing programs.
In lieu of these measures, the Biden plan includes something called the “Resident-Centered Housing Challenge”, a set of nonbinding voluntary pledges from real estate industry groups to “improve the quality of life for renters.” Among the Challenge’s participants are the National Association of Realtors (NAR), National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), and National Apartment Association (NAA), all groups who (as I’ve previously written in this newsletter) represent corporate landlords whose anticompetitive practices have fuelled the rental housing crisis. These groups spent much of the last year lobbying the White House to ignore tenants’ demands for robust rent regulations and tenant protections. Their efforts ultimately succeeded, with the final Biden plan failing to include the bare minimum that tenants had asked for.
If the White House thought they would be rewarded by the industry for caving to its demands, they were sorely mistaken. NAR and NMHC immediately issued crocodile tear-laden press statements arguing the Biden plan contained “duplicative and onerous regulations” that would “drive housing providers out of the market” (as if private developers are doing a great job solving the crisis on their own currently!). NAA, saying the quiet part out loud, boasted in a press release that their lobbying efforts had “helped avert an executive order advanced by renters advocates and members of Congress, which would have imposed immediate policy changes.” That’s right, they openly bragged about keeping life terrible for tenants through sheer force of Washington muscle.
Journalism should be about holding the powerful accountable, not reprinting their talking points.
Taken together, the real estate industry’s public statements and behind-the-scenes lobbying paint a clear picture of what’s really going on here: corporate lobbyists flexed their power, got the White House to fold, and are publicly warning Biden not to test them again.
Unfortunately, instead of exposing this underlying dynamic or pushing back on the real estate industry’s lies, many media outlets are instead quoting industry press statements without fact-checking their claims or properly reporting on their lobbying work. CNN and Yahoo! News both quoted press statements from NAA President Bob Pinnegar and NAR President Kenny Parcell (not that one) claiming the White House’s plan would increase housing costs for renters and was inferior to supply-focused policy alternatives. Forbes and Marketwatch likewise quoted NMHC’s press release trashing rent control as a “failed policy” and praising the group’s members as “competitive [and] resident centered.”
None of these outlets compared the industry’s “sky is falling” assertions about Biden’s policies (or federal housing regulations in general) to independent economic analyses to assess whether their claims had any merit.
Worse, none of the outlets listed above mentioned these groups’ functions as lobbying fronts for rent-gouging private equity landlords. NAR, for example, was described by CNN and Yahoo! News as merely a “real estate industry representative group,” with no mention of the fact that it was 2022’s biggest lobbying spender in the entire country, includingand spent millions to kill the Build Back Better Act’s sorely-needed investments in public housing supply. Marketwatch characterized NMHC as an “industry group” while Forbes referred to it merely as a “private housing actor.” Neither outlet mentioned that NMHC’s “competitive [and] resident-centered” members are among the nation’s biggest corporate landlords and pandemic evictors, or that NMHC has previously lobbied for lucrative corporate tax loopholes and against the CDC’s eviction moratorium.
Marketwatch likewise referred to NAA as another “industry group,” while CNN and Forbes both described it as a “network of over 95,000 members owning and operating more than 11.6 million apartment homes globally” – a definition taken straight from the group’s own website. Despite quoting NAA’s press statement, it seems none of these outlets read the whole thing: NAA’s open admission in its press statement to killing an executive order on rent-gouging is nowhere to be found in the CNN, Forbes, or Marketwatch coverage.
The media’s deference to industry is nothing new. Last October, I wrote for this newsletter about how the mainstream press often presents real estate lobbying groups as neutral “experts” when reporting on the housing crisis, and fails to disclose their obvious conflicts of interest. Just a month after I wrote that, NPR’s Jennifer Ludden again proved my point by quoting NMHC spokesman Jim Lapides for a story on rent control — without even once explaining what NMHC is or disclosing who its members are.
Even reporting about the industry’s own lobbying efforts lacks vital context. In a Politico story about industry lobbying published one week before the White House plan’s release, RealPage chief economist Jay Parsons told reporter Katy O’Donnell that federal regulation was unnecessary, as “the balance of power [in the market] has shifted toward renters -- they’re going to have more options, more competitive pricing and better deals.” Nowhere in O’Donnell’s piece does she mention that RealPage is currently being sued by renters for seemingly helping a cartel of corporate landlords artificially inflate rents in violation of federal law.
While it’s not inherently a faux pas to quote industry reacting to policies that could affect them, the problem comes when industry’s claims are taken at their word unquestioningly — especially when the same credulity isn’t extended to tenants. It’s fairly common to see groups like the Homes Guarantee campaign referred to as “activist collectives” and the like by the mainstream press, in such a way as to signal to readers that this group has a political perspective and their views should be taken with a grain of salt. That’s fine, but reporters should also apply the same approach when quoting industry groups who have their own political agendas. Too often, if an industry group has an acronymed, dull-sounding name and dresses its lobbyists up in nice suits and clean haircuts, they’re taken as the serious “adults in the room,” even when what they’re saying is utter nonsense.
For examples of good coverage of Biden’s plan, look to alternative media.“Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman, for example, spoke to Tara Raghuveer and tenant organizer Davita Gatewood about how Biden’s plan actually measured up to tenants’ material needs and prior asks of the administration (during Goodman’s interview, Raghuveer called out the National Apartment Association by name for its gloating press statement and anti-tenant lobbying work). Similarly, The Intercept’s Ken Klippenstein, doing what many mainstream journalists apparently failed to do, actually read the NAA’s full press statement and highlighted the group’s gloating about killing a tenant-backed executive order. Indiana University Law Professor Fran Quigley, writing for Jacobin, likewise cites Raghuveer’s and the housing industry’s reactions as evidence of the weakness of Biden’s plan.
Housing reporters in the mainstream press need to learn from these examples and do a better job of accurately covering the rental housing beat. Organizations like the National Association of Realtors aren’t neutral forums where industry professionals chitchat: they’re lobbying groups which exist to make their members richer, often at the expense of renters. They should be considered just as political as tenant’s advocates, if not more so. Journalism should be about holding the powerful accountable, not reprinting their talking points.
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As Housing Crisis Deepens, Corporate Landlords Applaud 'Weak' Biden Renter Protections
"The Biden administration has apparently decided to assume that corporate landlords are good-faith actors with their tenants' best interests at heart, despite all of the evidence to the contrary, and just plain common sense."
Jan 26, 2023
Economic justice advocates on Thursday said that to determine the strength of the Biden administration's new nonbinding push for renter protections from the federal and state governments and private sector, one needs to look only at the elated response from corporate landlords.
The Revolving Door Project (RDP) pointed to comments from the National Apartment Association (NAA) and the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC), lobbying groups that represents landlords, that followed the White House's unveiling on Wednesday of its "Resident-Centered Housing Challenge" and "Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights."
"What we can say with certainty is NAA's advocacy helped avert an executive order advanced by renters advocates and members of Congress, which would have imposed immediate policy changes," said the NAA in a statement on Thursday.
"The NMHC—which does the bidding of the nation's leading corporate landlords—celebrated the omission of national rent control from the White House plan while also objecting to other 'onerous regulations' contained in the release, which it claimed would 'discourage much-needed investments in housing supply,'" said Andrea Beaty, research director for the RDP.
"The Biden administration has apparently decided to assume that corporate landlords are good-faith actors with their tenants' best interests at heart, despite all of the evidence to the contrary, and just plain common sense," added Beaty. "The best the Biden administration offered is industry-approved, nonbinding measures that kick the can down the road."
The lobbying groups' response came as housing justice advocates noted that they have spent roughly a year calling on President Joe Biden to do everything in its power to address housing insecurity and the crisis facing households that are rent-burdened.
As Moody's Analytics reported on Thursday, the average U.S. tenant is now rent-burdened, which is defined as paying 30% or more of a household's income on rent.
"Tenant stories and expertise informed these actions, and tenants will continue to be central to policymaking that concerns their lives."
The firm compared the national median household income—$71,721—with 2022's average rent of $1,794. In 2021 the average renter paid 28.5% of their income on rent, and in 2020 they paid 25.7%.
The latest statistics represent "a symbolic threshold, a milestone," Thomas LaSalvia, director of economic research at Moody's, told The New York Times.
"The rent-to-income ratio continued to climb up because income growth was not able to catch up with the rent growth," Lu Chen, a senior economist at the firm, told the newspaper.
Following months of meetings between tenant groups and administration officials, as well as advocacy by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on behalf of renters, the White House on Wednesday proposed a number of actions the government will take to gather data about the housing crisis and push federal agencies—but not require them—to consider how they can curb rent costs.
The White House said it had secured commitments from the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to "collect information to identify practices that unfairly prevent applicants and tenants from accessing or staying in housing."
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) said it would "launch a new public process to examine proposed actions promoting renter protections and limits on egregious rent increases for future investments," while a workshop by the U.S. Department of Justice will address "anti-competitive information sharing, including in rental markets."
The Biden administration also said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will propose new rules requiring public housing and rental assistance authorities to provide 30 days' notice before terminating a lease due to rent nonpayment.
The White House also released a nonbinding Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights, affirming tenants have the right to clear and fair leases, to organize, and to have access to safe, quality, and affordable housing. Its Resident-Centered Housing Challenge, starting in the spring, will encourage state and local governments to enhance policies that promote fairness in the rental market, urging them to "make their own independent commitments that improve the quality of life for renters."
People's Action, whose Homes Guarantee campaign helped lead efforts to secure renter protections and rent price regulations, said its organizers helped "shape this policy for the better," and said the commitment from the FHFA offers an opportunity for the agency "to create a policy that helps check the power of landlords."
But as the NAA boasted, People's Action told The Washington Post that the policies will not change "tenants' lives materially today."
"Tenant stories and expertise informed these actions, and tenants will continue to be central to policymaking that concerns their lives," said Tara Raghuveer, director of the Homes Guarantee campaign. "The rent is still too damn high. While the White House announcement affirms a role for the federal government in correcting the imbalance of power between landlords and tenants, the president can do much more to provide relief to tenants. We are counting on this administration to continue working with our campaign to make it happen."
Ahead of Biden's proposal, People's Action led 281 national and local tenant organizations in calling on the White House to direct federal agencies to:
- Protect tenants from unfair, unjust, and unaffordable rent hikes, fines, and fees through rent regulation;
- Expand and enforce tenant protections by defining "good cause" eviction; and
- Address the consolidation of the rental market by corporate landlords.
"Rent is a significant economic issue the Biden administration has the opportunity to tackle. They should take it," Raghuveer said. "These actions are the essential components of any meaningful strategy to protect tenants, and they complement other White House priorities to strengthen and grow the American economy, like their work to limit market consolidation and monopoly price-setting power."
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With Rent Laws Set to Expire, New York City Tenants Demand State of Emergency
Jun 13, 2015
Housing advocates urged New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to declare a state of emergency if regulations protecting almost 1 million affordable apartments are allowed to expire. Lawmakers in Albany have only four days to renew the rent laws and tenant rights groups called on Cuomo to accept nothing less from the state legislature than an overhaul of the current rules.
"So many people in my neighborhood have been pushed out and evicted because of these weak rent laws," Flatbush Tenant Coalition member Jean Folkes said during a rally outside City Hall on Thursday. "Brooklyn is becoming more expensive than Manhattan. They are coming to take it away from us. I'm begging Governor Cuomo, 'Do the right thing.'"
New York City Council members who attended the rally said they are willing to take control of the city's rent-regulated apartments if state legislators fail to produce stronger protections for tenants.
"We cannot accept a straight extension," said City Councilman Jumaane Williams, who heads the Committee on Housing and Buildings. Williams promised that any legislation passed by the City Council would "absolutely strengthen the rent laws."
By declaring a state of emergency, Cuomo has the power to suspend the 1971 Urstadt Law, which prohibits the city from passing rent regulations that are stricter than the state's. With the Urstadt Law gone, the city government could impose its own, stronger rent laws.
"We want Cuomo to consider that many people, particularly low- and middle-income people, are going to be subject to displacement and uncertainty if the regulations expire," said Robert Desir, staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society, which has joined the fight to protect tenants. "That's what the rent laws are designed to protect against."
Cuomo warned in April that there would be "chaos in the real estate market" if rent regulations were not renewed. However, he argued that instability in Albany due to the federal corruption charges against former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and former Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos made it unlikely that lawmakers could pass serious reforms.
Cuomo's comments infuriated tenant advocates. They argue that extending the current regulations would be a win for predatory landlords who have exploited loopholes in the existing laws to move hundreds of thousands of apartments out of the city's affordable housing stock.
"At the same time that [Cuomo] claims it will be mayhem if the rent laws expire, he throws cold water on anything getting done in Albany because of the corruption and scandals that have existed in Albany. We find that cowardly," said Jonathan Westin, the executive director of New York Communities for Change.
Tenant activists have been trying for months to get Cuomo to support their campaign. They have staged almost weekly demonstrations directed at the governor. Last week, 55 protesters were arrested alongside almost a dozen city and state politicians for participating in a sit-in outside Cuomo's office in Albany.
Tenant groups and their allies vow to hold Cuomo responsible if rent regulations are not reformed.
"When the governor has wanted to pass things, he has been able to," said Councilman Corey Johnson, who was one of the politicians arrested last week. "We have just a few days for the governor to work with the legislative leaders to strengthen the rent laws. Tinkering around the edges is not good enough."
On Saturday, with just over a week left before the rent laws expire, Cuomo penned an op-ed in the Daily News in which he expressed support for the reforms advocated by tenant rights groups: Repealing laws that allow landlords to hike rents by making renovations or getting tenants to vacate their apartments. Cuomo also said he would like to get rid of vacancy decontrol, which allows property owners to deregulate apartments if they can raise the monthly rent above $2,500.
Protesters at City Hall on Thursday, however, found little comfort in Cuomo's sudden support. "The rent laws expire on Monday. Today is Thursday," said Delsenia Glover, campaign manager for the Alliance for Tenant Power. "We see no movement in Albany. So we think that this is a crisis situation for tenants in New York City. If the rent laws are not renewed, that means over 2 million tenants will just be out there floating."
Earlier Thursday morning, seven protesters were arrested outside Cuomo's Manhattan office. They blocked the entrance to the building, while calling on the governor to pass stronger rent laws.
"This is the mayhem that we're talking about," said Esteban Giron, a member of the Crown Heights Tenant Union about the most recent arrests. "This is the sheer need that people have and the anxiety that comes with not knowing what's going to happen to our apartments on Monday."
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