Housing Notebook

• Topics of interest to tenants generally, and specifically social housing and a recent victory won by tenants at Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village -

SOCIAL HOUSING FOR NY; STUY TOWN TENANTS VICTORIOUS

New solutions are needed for the housing crisis in New York and across the nation. Scott Sommer talked with NYS Senator Cordell Cleare about legislation introduced in Albany to bring Social Housing to New York. We also heard from the victorious Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village tenants - and their lawyer - who beat back the world's largest landlord to save their rent stabilization protections.

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

• New York State Senator Cordell Cleare -
• From the Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village struggle: Tim Collins, Esq., from Collins Dobkin & Miller; Anne Greenberg and Susan Steinberg, tenants -

• 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) March 5 & 19, April 2; Uptown (CUNY in the Heights, 5030 Broadway) March 12 & 26. Arrive by 6 PM! For more information, click here.

• Rally to stop deregulation in Brooklyn: Saturday March 9, at noon at 285 Eastern Parkway.

• Not mentioned on air, but useful:

• 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.