Protesters Blast Cuomo Over Deal On Rent Regulations
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Despite a tentative state deal on rent regulations, tenants are still demanding stronger laws.
Rent-regulated tenants and advocates rallied Wednesday outside Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Manhattan office, accusing him of selling out to wealthy developers, WCBS 880's Marla Diamond reported.
They chanted: "What do we want? Stronger rent laws! When do we want them? Now!"
Protesters Blast Cuomo Over Deal On Rent Regulations
"He knows that we're not happy," said Esteban Girón of the Crown Heights Tenant Union. "I just don't think he cares at this point."
The tentative deal among legislative leaders raises the rent threshold at which a vacant apartment can be deregulated from $2,500 a month to $2,700.
Cuomo said it represents the most significant improvement to rent laws in decades.
But the Alliance for Tenant Power estimates a loss of 87,000 affordable units under the proposed deal.
Delsenia Glover with the Alliance for Tenant Power said the governor made promises he didn't keep.
"That he supports repeal of deregulation, that he supports closing the loopholes -- it's all a lie," she said. "He didn't mean any of it. And the tenants are outraged, and he'll get his comeuppance."
Raphael Schweitzer, a rent-regulated tenant in the Bronx, said the state Assembly needs to say no to what he calls a lousy deal.
"People say, 'Oh, extending rent regulations is great,'" Schweitzer said. "Well, the current rent laws have gotten us where we are, where people are on the street homeless because they can't afford to live in New York City."
