Housing Notebook

• Information and issues of interest to tenants, including the new housing team of Mayor Eric Adams - will they make good on the mayor's promise to solve the affordability crisis?

ADAMS NAMES HOUSING TEAM

Mayor Adams has finally announced his housing team. There are some familiar names; Scott Sommer discussed who they are and more about them with Michael McKee of TenantsPAC - along with more tenant related news, including the need for Build Back Better to resolve public housing problems; HONDA (Housing Our Neighbors with Dignity Act), the NY state budget, which now includes Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act & Right to Counsel upstate & Long Island; the continuing struggle to enact the Good Cause Eviction bill; local political developments, inluding redistricting, which is imminent

Housing Notebook is a production of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, New York's oldest tenant union.

• Michael McKee, treasurer of TenantsPAC -

• Met Council hotline: 212-979-0611, M & W 1:30-8 PM, Tu 5:30-8 PM, F 1:30-5 PM (no walk-in clinics during pandemic); www.metcouncilonhousing.org, thetenant.org; info@metcouncilonhousing.org; Facebook & Instagram: search for Met Council on Housing; email: housingnotebook@wbai.org – no housing problems please! Twitter: @met_council, @scottmsommer, @wbai.org; wbai.org – live stream, find archive, join radio station there or call 212-209-2950 – donate to the Tower Fundbecome a WBAI buddy in the name of Housing Notebook!

• Tuesday February 1 starting at 11 AM meet at Foley Square to protest the end of the eviction moratorium and failure of NY State to make good on rental assistance. To RSVP & for more information, click here.

• Heat & hot water: 10/1 – 5/31: From 6 am to 10 pm: If the outside temperature falls below 55 degrees, the inside temperature must be at least 68 degrees everywhere in your apartment. From 10 pm to 6 am in NYC: the inside temperature must be at least 62 degrees everywhere in your apartment regardless of the outside temperature. Hot water at a minimum 120 degrees at the tap must be provided 24 hours a day, year round. Call 311 to report lack of heat &/or hot water; outside NYC call dept. of health or buildings. Call hotline (212-979-0611) for help with organizing, get a heat sheet at metcouncilonhousing.org (bit.ly/heathotwater).

• Not mentioned on air but useful: Rent guidelines for leases beginning between 10/1/21 & 9/30/22: in NYC for apartments & lofts: for a 1-year lease, 0% in the first 6 months & 1.5% in the following 6 months; for a 2-year lease, 2.5%. No increase for SROs, rooming houses, & hotels. Rockland County: 0.5% for a 1-year lease, 0.75% for a 2-year lease. Westchester County: 0.5% for a 1-year lease, 1% for a 2-year lease. Nassau County: 1% for a 1-year lease, 2% for a 2-year lease.