Biyernes, Hunyo 20, 2014

NYC could lose more than 2,000 rent-regulated apartments

The city of New York could lose more than 2,000 rent-regulated apartments, many of these in Hispanic neighborhoods, according to a report from Councilman Dan Garodnick (D-Manhattan).

The councilman, who represents the Upper East Side, Stuyvesant Town, warns of predatory and "illegal" practices that are turning to such landlords to charge much higher rents.

According to the report, released two weeks after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced its plan to create 200,000 units of affordable housing, many landlords and investors to buy buildings acquiring exorbitant bank loans that can not sustain. These online purchase debt anticipating that can generate profits by increasing the cost of each car in their buildings.

This practice is known as "predatory equity" (predatory capital) and, according to Councilman Garodnick, home resort to it in order to get money out, to deregulate apartments that are home to people with low or moderate incomes.

"In June came a new owner who is now trying to evict me and my family," said Angelica Rosado, who lives with her husband and four year old daughter in a building that was before affordable housing in the Bronx. "For three years we have lived here without problems, and now they want us out without reason. This is very unfair. "

Councillor calls for action to the City to stop this practice.

"This is a malicious business model that exists to destroy affordable housing, with the intent to harass, defraud and displace residents from their homes," Garodnick said yesterday in a press conference on the steps of City Hall.

The official indicated that the practice is a replica of what happened in 2006 with the sale of Stuyvesant Town buildings in his district. Your buyers, according to the lawmaker indicates, tried to get rid of tenants with regulated rents. The future of the building is still in limbo.

Your report indicates that the majority of buildings, about 70, are located in the South Bronx, Upper Manhattan and Bushwick, Brooklyn, all with large Hispanic population.

In District Councillor Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) focus more of these buildings, so plans to introduce legislation next week to create a list of owners who engage in predatory capital.
"We can not stand by while property speculators and bad home threaten our dwindling supply of affordable housing," Torres said.

The Housing Department (HPD) has already launched the Alternative Enforcement Program program (Alternative Enforcement Program, AEP), which allows the City to cover the costs of repairs for housing code violations in buildings. The agency then sends the bill to the owners.

The problem, Garodnick, is that HPD does not have enough money to take care of all the buildings in question. The staff recommends that the city double its funding for this program. It also recommends that the city buy the buildings in danger of being executed and resell them to "good home".

A spokesman for the Office of Mayor Bill de Blasio said about it, "there are concerns shared by the municipal administration. We have to reverse the loss of affordable housing for the reasons mentioned by the report."

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