Who Has a Right to the City?

Readers: This piece is by Charles Lenchner from the Peace in the Middle East blog. Quotes are from real New Yorkers involved in the struggle for stronger rent laws. If you are in New York consider joining the cause. -Shannon

New York City is unusual when it comes to housing. We have the countries largest stock of rent controlled and rent stabilized apartments, housing millions of residents. A fight is underway right now in the state legislature over the future of laws that regulate housing, with landlords and real estate investors supporting the status quo against tenant organizers and housing advocates demanding stronger rent laws.

What had been a community of people - many of whom were civil servants, is now a non-community of individuals or families renting for a year or two and then leaving as the free market rents are constantly and consistently raised at the end of the one or two year lease term.

While this conflict might look like an "it could only happen in New York" issue, it's really just a sharper version of changes happening across the country. What's at stake is the well being and economic stability of Americans who rent instead of own. With the failure of the housing market and the mortgage lending debacle that sparked the current recession, more attention must be paid to the fate of renters living at the mercy of a failing marketplace.

The new landlord of my building managed to either evict or buy out the desperate old ladies in our building. What was once a close knit "family" is now a building filled with the remaining people who help each other when someone is ill, or in crisis, to a building filled with children, stacked one on top of the other, but who refuse to live in NYU dorms.

The Working Families Party has been collecting stories from average New Yorkers about their rental housing struggles. After reading hundreds of those stories and speaking with dozens of the people behind them, I'm struck that an issue so vital to people's lives isn't generating more coverage.

I am constantly afraid I will lose my apartment because of rent increases.

My landlord too often finds reason to take us to court and hires very fine attorneys so that I am constantly terrified I will be evicted.

Market forces are inflating rent in New York at a rate that far exceeds the rate at which incomes go up. There are many reasons - the insane Wall Street bonus economy, wealthy foreigners and weekenders owning pied-à-terres for vacations, an influx of subsidized students and interns, and housing policies that favored luxury development over reasonably priced housing.

Rent Stabilization in NYC

Rent stabilization is a lifesaver for two groups of people. On the one hand, there are those lucky enough to live in those apartments. Sure, landlords threaten them with eviction, rents continue to rise faster than incomes, and many buildings are poorly maintained. But rent is still somewhat affordable for families living in the city. The rest of us benefit because the stock of currently affordable housing exerts some influence on the rest of the market, keeping rents at least a little lower.

When I took my apartment nobody wanted to live here. But now after we raised our children, worked as a community for better parks and safer streets, they want us out.

I have lived in the same (small, shabby) apartment for 30 of my 60 years. But if the rent rises to the so-called "fair market" level, I will probably have to move out of the neighborhood where I have lived practically all my life.

I've heard it said that housing is just another commodity, and people should be free to charge whatever the market will bear, just as renters are free to move to a less expensive apartment. This logic fails to take into account some fundamental realities. First, the gap between rich and poor has created a disproportionate incentive to meet the housing needs of the wealthy. Wages for working people have stagnated over the past thirty years, even as rents have up faster, after taking inflation into account. Fast rising rents on no-frills apartments are essentially transferring wealth from those who can least afford it into the pockets of those who already have the most.

Very frightening. I am 81 years old living with an adult disabled daughter for whom I am entirely responsible. I cannot afford additional rent increases and pay for medical care, food, etc.

Those paying more than half their income on rent, or forced to move away leave neighborhoods stripped of the essential qualities that made them real communities. It's grossly unfair, considering that these are the same people who helped strengthen many areas blighted at one time by crime and institutionally sanctioned neglect.

The fight for affordable housing is an urgent priority for millions of New Yorkers trying to save what remains of a once proud urban middle class. But it's also a defining feature of what it means to be a city for everyone, not just the rich. Should the people that serve food in our restaurants, teach in our schools, build our infrastructure and take care of the sick have a decent place to live within a reasonable commute? In South Africa, one of the defining features of Apartheid was the daily commute from the black townships to the white cities, where the jobs were.

We had to move to a neighborhood farther out. It has added an hour to my commute.

A gentrified New York, with skyrocketing rents, weak protections for tenants and neighborhoods stripped of long time tenants is perilously close to what we might call economic Apartheid. Tenant organizers and housing advocates are fighting for themselves, for sure, but also for the idea that the diversity that made New York special should be here to stay. Isn't that true for all of our cities?

All of the quotes are from stories submitted by New Yorkers in support for stronger rent laws. Charles Lenchner works for the Working Families Party out of Brooklyn. Go Cyclones!

P.S.: If you've read this far, check out our video contest: Dispatches from Rental Hell. It's all about recording some of the amazing stories from New Yorkers dealing with rent issues, and one luck stiff will take home one month's FREE rent. Could it be you?