Albany, NY—In response to the rent law package put forth by the Senate and Assembly today, Rosemary Rivera, Co-Executive Director of Citizen Action of New York, has issued the following statement:
“The rent package agreed upon by the Senate and Assembly is a major step toward guaranteeing housing as a human right. For decades, powerful real estate CEOs have used the broken rent laws to extract enormous profits from Black, Brown and low-income families. This has devastated our neighborhoods, creating transient groups of people forced to live from pillar to post, and forced many into subpar living conditions.
“Citizen Action and members of the Upstate-Downstate Housing Coalition proposed nine housing bills that would provide the strongest tenant protections in recent history. The Senate and Assembly have stepped up and negotiated a package that only someone tied to the real estate industry would veto.
“We call on the Governor to show the same commitment to housing justice as his colleagues in the Senate and Assembly and sign these bills as soon as they hit his desk.”
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