New York City rent law exposes tenants to ‘slum situations,’ former Sen. Al D’Amato warns
New York State lawmakers recently agreed on historic affordable housing legislation to protect millions of New York City dwellers. However, a former lawmaker believes the landmark deal would demolish the state’s housing supply.
“Right here in New York City they passed a rent control law which is going to create the abandonment of apartments because now if somebody wants to repair, the owner, wants to fix up the building, he can only get 2 percent for the money he invests in the improvement—there’s not going to be any improvements and what you’re going to do is create slum situations and you’re going to have people losing housing instead of gaining it,” Former Sen. Al D’Amato told FOX Business’ Stuart Varney on Friday.
The agreement was signed into law by New York City Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week just days before the previous rules were set to expire. The law places new limits on how much a landlord can increase rent in units covered by the regulations and also ends their ability to remove a unit from rent stabilization based on a tenant’s income.
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In D’Amato’s opinion, the decision moves the state more to the left.
“Essentially this last election wiped out the last vestige of some control. That was the Republicans who would come along with the Democrats, a number of Democrats together to form a coalition. That coalition doesn’t exist. The Democrats control the Senate and the assembly by large margins. And it’s not just that they are Democrats, but you have a left wing that doesn’t think. Because if they were thinking about protecting renters, they wouldn’t have passed this law which makes it impossible for investors to invest in good housing,” he explained.