Housing Notebook

• Topics of general interest to tenants, plus the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) and expansion in eligibility for the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption/Disability Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE/DRIE) -

CITY COUNCIL TO INVEST IN TENANTS!

The City Council is poised to vote on two significant peices of housing-related legislation, the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA), and an expansion in eligibility for the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption/Disability Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE/DRIE). Scott Sommer spoke with Councilmember Sandy Nurse and advocates in support of these initiatives.

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

• Sandy Nurse, City Councilmember for District 37; Arielle Hersh, Policy and New Projects Director, Urban Homesteading Assistance Board (UHAB); Jackie Peters, board member of Tenants and Neighbors and Co - chair of the Mitchell

• Met Council hotline: 212-979-0611: M & W 1:30-8 PM, F 1:30-5 PM; 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, @wbai.org, @scottmsommer (also on threads & bluesky); wbai.org – live stream, find archive, join radio station there or go to buddy.wbai.org to become a WBAI buddy or make a one-time donation - be sure to scroll down to choose Housing Notebook as the show you want to support! Or call 833-922-4692 - leave a message with your phone number if no one picks up, and they'll call you back. Or mail a check made out to WBAI-Pacifica to WBAI Radio, 388 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn NY 11217 - and please put "Housing Notebook" on the memo line. 

• Walk-in clinics have resumed. Tuesday October 20: 76 Trinity Place, Manhattan; arrive by 6:30 PM to be seen. For all other Met Council events, including trainings for hotline volunteers, workshops, court outreach, chapter meetings, and meetings about basic rights, check upcoming events. 

• To contact your Council Member and Speaker Julie Menin to urge them to vote yes on COPA, click here. 

• New rent guidelines: for leases starting 10/1/26 in New York City, for all rent-stabilized housing: 0 percent for a 1-year lease, 0 percent for a 2-year lease - more detailed information is here. Westchester: 3.5% for 1 year, 4.5% for 2 years; Nassau county: 1.5% for 1 year, 2.5% for 2 years; Rockland county: 5% for 1 year, 6% for 2 years; Kingston: no new guidelines yet.

• Not mentioned on air this week, but useful: Heat and hot water: From October 1 through May 31, from 6am to 10pm, when the outside temperature is below 55 degrees the inside temperature must be 68 degrees; from 10pm to 6am, the inside temperature must be at least 62 degrees. Hot water must be 120 degrees at the tap at all times. Call 311 to report problems with heat and hot water.