About two dozen tenants rights activists, as well as several Democratic state lawmakers were arrested at a protest on the lack of action so far on reforming New York City’s rent laws. The law is scheduled to expire June 15, and protestors want it to not only be renewed, but include more protections for tenants.
Assemblyman Dick Gottfried, who has been in office for forty years, says he has not been arrested for civil disobedience since the 1990s, but says he feels it’s important to make a point now, as there’s been little movement on changing the rent laws, less than two weeks before they sunset.
“Stronger rent laws are absolutely essential to the future of New York,” said Gottfried. “The governor has got to take a leading role.”
Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte says thousands of residents in her district are getting pushed out of their homes over rising rents. She says Gov. Andrew Cuomo needs to be more of leader.
“Apparently he is not,” said Bichotte, who said she's never been arrested before. “That’s why we are right here in front of his office, getting ready to get arrested, to make a statement.”
Cuomo was not at the Capitol; he was making appearances in the New York City suburbs to promote a property tax cap that is related through legislation to renewing the rent laws.
Cuomo, speaking after an event on Long Island, says he wants to increase the current $2,500 a month threshold that knocks apartments out of the rent stabilized category, so that fewer apartments each year are brought onto the open market, where the rents rise steeply.
“I’m fighting not just to renew the rent laws, but also to improve and expand them,” Cuomo said.
