Help renters, not landlords, pols are told

ALBANY — Tenants’ rights groups and other advocates are turning up the heat on the state’s elected leaders, demanding they take swift action to strengthen rent laws.

Some 60 progressive groups are sending a letter to Gov. Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx) and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers), calling on them to reject the powerful real estate lobby and stand up for renters.

“We’ll get right to the point: The landlord lobby and real estate industry have wielded too much power in state government for way too long. You should take action to change that,” the groups, which include Citizen Action of New York, CASA New Settlement and a host of other organizations from across the city and state, wrote.

Advocates want elected officials in Albany to eliminate loopholes that make it easier for landlords to raise rents on tenants and to expand rent regulations like those in place in the city to places upstate such as Rochester and Buffalo, where low-income tenants are often at the mercy of their landlords.

“The reality is that every tenant who rents their home should have some basic set of rights to stay in their apartment,” said Cea Weaver, a leader with the Housing Justice for All campaign, told the Daily News. “More and more of the state is renting, and public policy has not caught up to that reality.”

Also on the table is ending the so-called vacancy bonus, which lets landlords raise an apartment’s rent as much as 20% when a tenant leaves.

Cuomo, Heastie and Stewart-Cousins have all said protecting tenants will be the priority as state regulations governing rent in the city and Yonkers are set to expire at the end of June.

“There’s 20-something years worth of history with rent regulations that I think has to be spoken about and talked about and fixed,” Heastie said Tuesday. “It’s going to be a huge, major focus of ours.”

Advocates fear the influence of the real estate lobby will hamper any efforts at real reform.