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The de Blasio administration recently announced the new City Fighting Homelessness & Eviction Prevention Supplement (CityFHEPS) program, which will replace the Living in Communities, the Special Exit and Prevention Supplement, and the City Family Eviction Prevention and Exit Plan Supplement programs, creating one unified rental assistance program. The new CityFHEPS program will simplify the rental assistance process, making it easier for New Yorkers in need to get b...

The newly formed Department of Social Services (DSS) Source of Income Discrimination Unit recently filed its first two cases against New York City landlords in New York State Supreme Court for discrimination based on source of income. Part of the mayor’s Turning the Tide plan to address the citywide challenge of homelessness, the DSS Source of Income Discrimination Unit was created in 2017 to combat illegal practices that prevent New Yorkers from securing housing ...

Last May, Enterprise Community Partners and HPD launched their Landlord Ambassadors program by selecting community-based nonprofits to reach out and help owners of small and mid-sized multifamily buildings throughout the city take advantage of HPD’s housing programs. HPD is tasked with fulfilling Mayor de Blasio’s Housing New York: A Five-Borough Ten-Year Plan to create and preserve 200,000 units for New Yorkers at the very lowest incomes to those in the mid...

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Council Members Brad Lander, Rafael Espinal, and Inez Barron recently proposed legislation to establish a three-year demonstration program to facilitate the creation and renovation of apartments in the basements and cellars of certain one- and two-family homes in Brooklyn Community District 5.

More housing units were created in 2017 than in the previous year, according to the recently released Rent Guidelines Board annual housing supply report. There was an 11 percent increase in the number of apartments created, but the vacancy rate is still very low, and 11.5 percent of housing is considered “overcrowded,” meaning there’s more than one person per room. The city’s housing market, per the report, remains “very tight.”

An investigation from City & State NY has found widespread neglect in the thousands of weathered wooden tanks that supply drinking water to millions of New York City residents. After a review of city records, City & State NY found that most building owners still don’t inspect and clean their tanks as the law has required for years, even after revisions to the health and administrative codes that now mandate annual filings.

Councilman Ritchie Torres, Councilman Robert Cornegy, Councilman Mark Levine, and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams recently introduced a bill that would require owners of buildings with the most heat code violations to install heat sensors. If passed, the city would be required every two years to compile a list of the 150 buildings with the most violations of heat codes.

On June 6, New York Apartment Law Insider received the First Place Award for Best Business Newsletter, presented by the Specialized Information Publisher’s Association (SIPA) at its annual conference in Washington, D.C.

The judges based their decision on 2017 issues in which editor Eric Yoo explained:

In its first, preliminary vote of the season, the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) recently set the range of rents it will consider before its final vote setting the new rent guidelines in June. Rent-stabilized tenants could see their rents go up by as little as 0.75 percent to as much as 1.75 percent for a one-year lease. Tenants who sign a two-year lease could be paying anywhere from 1.75 to 3.75 percent more.

HPD recently announced the full rollout of “Aging in Place,” a new preservation program tool that offers apartment modifications to residents living in buildings undergoing city-financed rehabilitation to increase safety and comfort in the home and reduce the risk of falls. HPD administers multiple financing programs to facilitate the physical and financial sustainability and affordability of privately owned multifamily and owner-occupied buildings, and to r...