Residents of 63 Tiffany Place, politicians, and members of the Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens community gathered to push for passage of the “Good Cause Eviction” in the state legislature.
“Long gone will be the days of landlords doubling and tripling people’s rents just because… said John Leyva, a long-time resident.
Leyva is all too familiar with the issue, as 63 Tiffany Place is a 70-unit building that provides affordable housing, but the building’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit regulatory agreement will expire in 2025. There are fears that the landlord will hike up rent dramatically forcing tenants out. There was a fear that this was going to happen last year, but Leyva’s advocacy group #Save63Tiffany deferred it.
The Community Service Society chose #Save63Tiffany as the launch of their Good Cause campaign for 2024.
“The #Save63Tiffany rally came about as an attempt to save our homes,” said Leyva. “For years we were trying to get the landlord’s attention and we were being ignored so we felt the only way we get him to respond was to bring attention to our situation through the press. Our first rally and press conference last year was very successful to that end. We finally got him to acknowledge us and hire this very distinguished law firm to engage with us. It’s important to note that this current ‘Good Cause: Right to Remain Rally’ was not targeting our landlord. We held this rally and press conference to lobby for the Good Cause Eviction Bill.
“The day after the rally a neighbor from the area came to me and said that her friend was facing a similar situation. She said her neighbor was paying $4000 a month and now the landlord is asking rent of $8000 for a renewal. She offered to pay $6000 and he said no because he can get $8000 from someone else and he isn’t budging. How can New Yorkers continue to live like this?”
Joy Foster, a resident at 63 Tiffany Place believes that there needs to be a change in the way people think about housing, saying “I had a conversation with someone, who was a first-generation American about raising the minimum wage. His thought process was ‘Someone has to do those $9 an hour jobs in order for everything else to work.’ That’s not true and that same thinking needs to apply to housing. You don’t have to have homelessness in order for someone to have a house.”
There was a large showing of local politicians, including former council member and current comptroller Brad Lander. Local assembly member Jo Anne Simon was also at the rally.
“It doesn’t help the housing crisis for us to evict tenants who are regularly paying their rent because someone buys a building and decides they can get twice as much,” Simon. “That is not fair, it’s not right, it’s not humane. It also makes the housing crisis worse.
“One of the things we often hear is we need to raise rent to repair our buildings but what we have often found with market-rate tenants is that they’re not getting improvements, they just have to pay more.”
Simon and Lander both emphasized that building new affordable homes alone will not solve the housing crisis. It is also important to make sure that tenants are not forced out of their homes because of doubling rent.
“We are fighting for this bill, for tenants all over New York City and all over New York State,” said New York State Senator Julia Salazar, who introduced the Good Cause Eviction Bill. “It wouldn’t be sufficient to just fight to protect the tenants in this building on this block. We know that unfortunately, this situation is not unique. There are far too many tenants in unregulated housing who live in fear daily and annually that they will have an enormous rent increase.
In 2019, the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act was passed but the Good Cause bill was left out.
The bill is currently in the Judiciary Committee but it remains to be seen if it will pass. The bill has more than 20 sponsors including New York State Senators Brian Kavanagh and Andrew Gounardes. Though neither was at the rally, Gounardes’ district director, Carlos Calzadilla was in attendance and spoke.
“We’re in budget season,” Calzadilla said. “We’re in session and the budget and laws are really a reflection of the morality of our society.”
All of the speakers acknowledged that while progress has been made, there is still a long way to go and Leyva gave advice to other tenants who are in the same situation as those at 63 Tiffany.
“Our advice would be, fight, fight, fight!” Leyva said. “Don’t lose hope, get involved in the housing justice movement, join coalitions, line up allies, get the word out, make some noise, and don’t stop, don’t ever stop, and if/when you win, continue to fight for others.
One Comment
Great article showcasing the need for changes needed in housing laws in NYC and even more so in the entire country. I believe housing is a human right issue that need to be addressed immediately by all stakeholders to grow NYC and the country at large economically. However, the solution should not focus solely on VERY FEW UNSCRUPULOUS LANDLORD. Tenants have responsibilities too. So is the court system and the laws in NYC that allow UNSCRUPULOUS TENANTS, supported by weak politicians to trample over landlord’s right. There need to be an EQUILIBRIUM. Enacting laws that is fair to both landlords and tenants will be a good starting point. Investor are not encouraged to invest heavily in housing, if its going to take them ONE YEAR PLUS to evict a non-paying tenant. Irresponsible tenants are not required by the court to post bond, or come to court with rent. The renters have become PONDS/SOCCER-BALL being played by the politician, and legal aides communities for their own personal gains. Very few actually care about finding TRUE solution to the housing issue. You know why? Because solving the housing issue diminishes their CLOUT/POWER with the renters, which makes up a VERY HIGH VOTING BLOCK in any election.