Housing Notebook

• Topics of interest to tenants in general, including Met Council's Albany visit February 17 and recent positive developments in Kansas City -

GETTING ACTIVE IN ALBANY

Scott Sommer talked with Met Council Executive Director Darius Gordon about Met Council's Caucus Weekend trip to Albany on February 17. Plus other developments in Albany and nationally, and new legislation passed in Kansas City.

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

• Darius Gordnon, Executive Director, Metropolitan Council on Housing -

• Met Council hotline: 212-979-0611, M & W 1:30-8 PM, F 1:30-5 PM; www.metcouncilonhousing.org, thetenant.org; info@metcouncilonhousing.org; Facebook & Instagram: search for Met Council on Housing; email: housingnotebook@wbai.org – no housing problems please! X: @met_council, @scottmsommer, @wbai.org; wbai.org – live stream, find archive, join radio station there or call 212-209-2950 or go to give2wbai.org – become a WBAI buddy in the name of Housing Notebook!

• Met Council's uptown and downtown walk-in clinics in Manhattan are happening on Tuesdays, 6-8 pm: Downtown (Trinity Commons, 107 Greenwich St) February 20; Uptown (CUNY in the Heights, 5030 Broadway) February 27 (canceled February 13). Arrive by 6 PM! For more information, click here.

• Saturday, February 17 - Head up to Albany to play Bird Dog Bingo - confront our elected officials where they are, in Albany. The bus seat is free and Met Council will provide lunch. For more information, call the hotline (212-979-0611). If going on your own, meet at the McDonalds in the concourse in the Empare State Building at 11am.

• Heat & hot water: Heat season begins October 1, and through May 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. Go to portal.311.nyc.gov or 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, to get a heat sheet, click here.

• New rent guidelines for leases beginning between 10/1/23 & 9/30/24: in NYC, for apartments & lofts 3% for a 1-year lease, 2.75% for the 1st year of a 2-year lease & for the 2nd year, 3.25% of the amount lawfully charged in the first year, excluding any increases other than the first-year guideline increase; no increase for SROs, rooming houses, & hotels. Nassau County: ZERO and ZERO for 1- & 2-year leases for the Village of Hempstead, 1% & 2% for the rest of the county; Westchester county: 1% for 1 year, 2% for 2 years; Rockland County: 0.0% for 1 year, 0.50% for 2 years; Kingston: ZERO and ZERO for 1- & 2-year leases.