New York City, NY: Mayor Eric Adams of New York City has renewed the rent stabilization law for an additional three years, in response to landlords’ unsuccessful Supreme Court challenge.
Adams signed the bill on Tuesday that extends the rent stabilization law of the city until April 1, 2027, and declares the city to be in a “housing emergency” while requesting that the state government fund broader efforts to construct more housing.
Adams stated in remarks on Tuesday, “Our rent stabilization laws are crucial to the security of working-class New Yorkers who reside in rent-stabilized housing.” “With a historic-low 1.4% vacancy rate, our administration again calls on our colleagues in Albany to say ‘yes’ to more affordable housing, and to help us deliver more housing for the city and our state.”
The extension of the rent control law, according to New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, will “ensure rent regulation protections can continue unimpeded” in the Big Apple.
Trump To Face Asset Seizure If He Fails To Comply; Trump Tower In New York City Among Many At Risk
“Our city is facing a housing emergency with a dire shortage of available homes that impacts all New Yorkers,” she stated in her opening remarks. “We all must remain focused on pursuing the many necessary solutions to confront the housing crisis that makes our city less affordable to all New Yorkers.”
Established in 1969, the rent stabilization law of the municipality imposes limitations on yearly rent hikes for particular apartments. The mayor appoints a nine-member governing body to determine such increases. Approximately one million apartments in the city are impacted by it, which has withstood scores of legal challenges over the course of several decades.
Critics have compared the rent control system to “welfare for the wealthy” and claimed that the expensive housing regulatory system costs New York City millions of dollars annually in potential revenue.
Rent control legislation is a vital safety net, according to its proponents, in a city with some of the highest rents in the country and a dearth of affordable housing that is a factor in the migration of residents out of the state.
Man Assaults Locals Especially Women, But Never Faced Jail For Offences In New York City
A 2019 legislative amendment strengthened safeguards against rental eviction and repealed a provision that had enabled landowners to circumvent rent control restrictions.
The update to the law, according to landlords, “supersized” the rent restrictions, transferring additional costs to private property owners and impeding their ability to evict problematic tenants.
They filed a lawsuit to halt the modifications, but it was dismissed by a U.S. District Court judge, and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that decision. Prior state and federal court decisions that rejected challenges to New York City’s rent control law were acknowledged by the panel of judges.
The petition filed by the plaintiffs, which consist of multiple property owners from New York City, asserts that the rent control law is in violation of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. This provision prohibits the “unjust compensation taking of private property for public use.” The petition was submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court; however, the justices declined to hear the legal challenge.
Adolfo Carrión Jr., the housing commissioner of New York City, said in a statement, “Declaring a housing emergency and extending rent stabilization for an additional three years is a necessary step to protect some of the most vulnerable renters from unaffordable rent increases, but it does not solve this crisis.”