

On the heals of a new report from the Community Service Society (below) Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is arguing it is time again to revisit the oft-touchy topic of rent control. "If we do not act quickly to extend our rent laws, millions of working New Yorkers could lose their homes," Silver said at the foot of City Hall yesterday. "Merely continuing the current laws is not enough. We must close the loopholes identified in this report that cost our neighborhoods thousands of affordable homes each year and which threaten to turn New York into a city without a middle-class."

According to the report (below), fittingly enough called "The New Housing Emergency," there are roughly 1,021,000 rent regulated households in New York City, representing the largest source of housing for middle and low income New Yorkers. The median income for rent regulated tenants in New York City is $38,000.

Unfortunately (or not, depending on who you ask) more than 10,000 of those rent-regulated apartments are removed from the city's affordable housing rolls every year. In 2009, landlords reported that 13,500 apartments were removed from rent protections through vacancy decontrol and other loopholes in the rent laws "but because reporting is voluntary, the actual number is likely higher."

As far as Silver is concerned though, time is of the essence here: The city's current rent regulations expire in June. There is currently a bill in the Assembly that addresses many of these issues but with the April 1 deadline for the state budget looming Governor Cuomo and Republican Senate leader Dean Skelos are a little preoccupied.

To help them keep focused, Silver is threatening to tie the housing bill in with Republican priorities like extending a tax break for developers.