TESTIMONY
Adam Edwards Rivera, Law Graduate in Housing Rights Unit at Legal Services NYC, on the Importance of Rent Stabilization in Tackling NYC's Housing Crisis
1:54:10
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161 sec
Adam Edwards Rivera testifies on the significance of rent stabilization laws amid New York City's housing emergency, emphasizing their role in protecting vulnerable tenants.
- Rivera shares data from the New York City Housing And Vacancy Survey, highlighting a historic low rental vacancy rate in NYC.
- He provides a case study where rent stabilization laws enabled a client facing eviction to retain her apartment, underlying the laws' protective impact.
- Rivera notes that rent stabilization covers almost half of NYC's rental housing stock, including families living below the poverty line.
- He warns that relinquishing rent stabilization protections could lead to a surge in evictions and homelessness, further straining NYC's housing crisis.
Adam Edwards Rivera
1:54:10
Good afternoon.
1:54:11
I am Adam Edwards with Vera, a law graduate with the housing rights unit at the Queen's Legal Services Program of Legal Services NYC.
1:54:18
I thank the committee for the opportunity to testify today about rents stabilization as it relates to addressing the ongoing housing emergency in New York City.
1:54:27
Annually, LSNYC provides legal assistance to thousands of low income New first facing eviction and seeking to enforce NYC housing standards in their homes.
1:54:37
As has been said already today, on February 8 2024, the New York City Housing And Vacancy Survey published their semiannual report, which indicated the rental vacancy rate in the city had reached its lowest point since 1968.
1:54:48
According to the report, only 1.4 percent of rentable units in New York City were vacant between January June of last year.
1:54:56
This points to a dire housing crisis in New York City, which is perhaps as bad as it's been since the rent stabilization laws of 1969 came into effect.
1:55:06
To share a case of mine, I had a client who lived in a rent stabilized apartment and faced eviction based on her apparent non op non payment of rent.
1:55:15
My client had been withholding her rent because she was unsure if she should be paying because of 2 separate eviction proceedings against her.
1:55:22
She came to me worried that she would be unable to stay in her home, sure that her landlord would refuse to offer her a renewal.
1:55:29
However, by virtue of the rent stabilization law, her lease was renewed.
1:55:33
Our representation resulted in our client's multiple eviction proceedings being discontinued.
1:55:38
The landlord receiving rent and our client returning to their apartment with Elise.
1:55:42
If our client had instead been in a market rate apartment, it is likely that the end result of the case would have been an elderly disabled woman facing a gut wrenching up people of her life into the impossible NYC housing market.
1:55:54
Many of our clients are low income family, living in month to month tendencies.
1:55:58
In many of these cases, our clients are shocked to discover that their diligent monthly payments are rendered meaningless with a single 90 day notice.
1:56:06
Which announces the termination of what are sometimes decades of stable family life in a single unit.
1:56:13
The rent stabilization law protects tenants almost a million rentals in New York City or about half the city's rental housing stock, 1 5th of those apartments house families living below the poverty line.
1:56:23
In recent years, approximately 175,000 households in range stabilized housing were unable to afford even a $25 in increase in their monthly rent.
1:56:34
Given the extreme income vulnerability of many rent stabilized tenants, it stands to reason that if their rent stability protections were to lapse, The city would be faced with an unprecedented deluge of evictions, homelessness, and another heavy burden added to a city already in a housing crisis.
1:56:50
Thank you.
