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Increase would pay for stormwater resilience and infrastructure upgrades.

The NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently proposed increasing the city’s water and sewer rates by 4.42 percent to the NYC Water Board. Water Board rates are based on the cost of providing utility services and servicing outstanding debts that relate to water and wastewater assets.

According to City Council stats, there were 111,509 lead paint violations in the city between January 2018 and March 2023. As of March 2023, 45 percent of all lead-related court cases are concentrated in the Bronx. Brooklyn ranked second for cases. The City Council recently held an oversight hearing in which five lead poisoning-related bills were reviewed and two new bills were introduced.

Mayor Adams recently announced an initiative that will invest $10 million to repair stabilized units that are empty, and turn them over to tenants with rental assistance vouchers. The pilot program is called “Unlocking Doors,” and the city will provide up to $25,000 for needed repairs at each of 400 rent-stabilized homes that are currently vacant and unavailable for rent. The city will then match the rehabilitated apartments with households with City Fightin...

Mayor Eric Adams and NYC Corporation Counsel Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix recently announced the filing of two lawsuits against Alma Realty Corp. and Empire Management America Corp. for the failure to fix thousands of code violations that created dangerous living conditions for tenants. The lawsuits seek to improve the living conditions of tenants in more than 20 buildings collectively owned by the two entities. Additionally, the city also announced a settlement with Sentinel ...

There has been renewed interest to cap or limit broker fees paid by prospective tenants after some high-profile instances of brokers asking for thousands of dollars in fees in exchange for highly coveted apartments have made the news. In one case, a renter paid a broker fee of $19,500 for a rent-stabilized apartment that rents for $1,725 month on the Upper West Side. New York’s Department of State (DOS), the agency responsible for licensing real estate agents, is ...

Shortly before the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Ida, which resulted in 11 people drowned in basement apartments during the storm, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released a report called “Bringing Basement Apartments into the Light.” The report proposes a path to legalize basement apartments.

On July 21, the State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) announced that it is “actively reviewing and processing eligible Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) applications submitted through June 30, 2022.” This announcement came about because the 2022–23 state budget includes additional funds to support the ERAP program.

HUD recently announced that an Administrative Law Judge found that a Long Island landlord violated the Fair Housing Act when he refused to rent to a mother and her daughter because of the daughter’s cerebral palsy. The judge ordered the owner to pay $50,530 in damages to the family and a $20,111 civil penalty to the United States. The judge said the landlord’s behavior “merits imposition of a maximum civil penalty.”

The NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is responsible for proposing water rates, while the Water Board is responsible for establishing the rate following the proposal and subsequent public hearings. DEP delivers over a billion gallons of drinking water, treats 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater, and maintains more than 7,400 miles of sewer pipes each day.

In a preliminary vote on May 5, the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) recommended increasing rents for rent-stabilized apartment buildings. The RGB is made up of nine mayoral appointees, two of whom represent tenants, two who represent landlords, and another five members who are supposed to act on behalf of the general public. During the preliminary vote, five members of the board voted in favor of the proposed hikes. The board's preliminary vote called for the following ...