The rally took place outside 256 E. 10th St. between Avenue A and First Avenue, a building owned by Mark Scharfman.
Scharfman, who owns nearly 150 properties, has been on the Public Advocate's Worst Landlord List, coming in at number 44 in 2021 and number 28 in 2020. At No. 256, he has reportedly been taking tenants to court for eviction for withholding rent during a sewage leak.
Residents argued that the harassment and neglect they face today would get worse if landlords regained incentives to push tenants out so that they could raise rent-stabilized rents.
"We are already facing harassment from greedy landlords who refuse to make repairs and then try to evict us when we stand up for ourselves," said 256 tenant Irene Metaxatos. "Albany leaders should reject out of hand any changes to the rent stabilization law that would recreate the system rife with harassment and fraud that drove so many of my neighbors out of the building in the past."
Here's more background via the Cooper Square Committee:
Lawmakers are reportedly considering proposed increases to the cap on how much Individual Apartment Improvements (IAIs) can be passed on to tenants in the form of rent hikes. A chart of how changes to the cap would impact rents is available here.Prior to 2019, IAIs were a driver of skyrocketing rents in rent-stabilized apartments and gave landlords a financial incentive to harass tenants to vacate apartments. Together with other measures like eviction bonuses and Major Capital Improvements, thousands of rent-stabilized units were deregulated.After decades of organizing, the tenant movement dramatically strengthened New York State’s rent stabilization law in 2019, limiting IAIs to a cap of $15,000, which translates to a monthly rent increase of approximately $89 a month.
On Friday, City & State reported that 21 elected officials in NYC wrote a letter "demanding that state leaders not rollback any part of the 2019 rent stabilization laws in any housing deal included as part of the budget."
Signees included city Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and 19 Council members — including nearly every member of the Council's Progressive Caucus.