Real Rent Reform Campaign

The Upstate-Downstate Housing Alliance is fighting for greater tenant protections for all New York residents. We believe that housing is a human right; that all people should live without the fear of eviction; and that strengthening renters’ rights is critical to strong neighborhoods, education and health, and economic stability for all New Yorkers. 
For more than 70 years, New Yorkers across the state have benefited from various forms of rent control, which protects tenants from unjust evictions and arbitrary rent increases. Now, however, that system has been eroded so much that it only applies to tenants in eight counties. It has been weakened with loopholes that encourage tenant harassment and allow sudden and permanent rent hikes. Since 1994, we have lost nearly 300,000 units of affordable, rent-stabilized housing. Five million renters in New York State have no protections whatsoever. 
Every tenant in New York, no matter where they live, deserves the same basic protections. 
In 201…

Tenants Brave Snow to March for Stronger Rent Laws
By: Kathleen Wakeham Published: December 2018


On the evening of Nov. 15, hundreds of tenants braved fast-falling snow and rivers of slush in Lower Manhattan to demand that the state Legislature enact stronger tenant-protection laws when Democrats take control in the coming session. The march, organized by Housing Justice for All, a coalition including the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance and the Real Rent Reform campaign, began with a rally at Bowling Green. Nova Lucero of the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition, a former Met Council organizer, led chants of “Si se puede” and “La renta sube sube, el pueblo sufre sufre,” to the beat of drumming on orange plastic buckets. It ended at the offices of the Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord lobbying group, at 123 William St. “Elected officials need to know that we want them to fight for us, for our voices to be heard, and for universal rent control for all of New York …

Democrats, WFP Roll to Strong Majority in State Senate
By: Kenny Schaeffer from Jessica Ramos for New York State SenateWith turnout up almost 50 percent from four years ago, voters in New York State elected a strong Democratic-Working Families majority to the state Senate on November 6, ending more than five decades of total or de facto Republican control.  Following the rout of the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) in the September 12 primary, the results mean that, when the new legislature is seated in January, real Democrats under the progressive leadership of Andrea Stewart-Cousins of Yonkers will have a majority of as much as 39-24 in the Senate, counting Simcha Felder of Brooklyn with the Republicans.  This is great news for tenants in New York City and around the state, who have seen rent and eviction protections gutted by the legislature over the past 25 years, causing the loss of hundreds of thousands of affordable units and triggering unprecedented homelessness and affo…

IDC arrasada Seis de los ocho demócratas renegados del Senado estatal derrotados en las elecciones primarias
By: Michael McKee
Published: October 2018 from Tenant/inquillino
Traducido por Lightning Translation


La multitud en la Bronx Ale House estalló en aplausos y gritos. Algunos bailaban o saltaban, aunque el bar estaba tan lleno que eso bien hubiera podido lesionar a alguien. Todos los ojos estaban enfocados en una de varias pantallas de televisión, algunas sintonizadas a New York 1, otras a Bronx News 12.  Cuando se declaró quién era la vencedora en la elección primaria para el distrito 34 del Senado estatal, la reacción fue ensordecedora. Alessandra Biaggi había ganado sorprendentemente el escaño de Bronx-Westchester al titular Jeff Klein, al ganar con el 55 por ciento de la votación.  Klein fue el fundador de la Conferencia Demócrata Independiente (Independent Democratic Conference, IDC), un grupo de senadores renegados que hicieron un arreglo para repartirse el poder con los rep…

IDC Wiped Out Six of the Eight Turncoat State Senate Democrats Go Down in Primary
By: Michael McKee
Published: October 2018/Tenant/Inquillino


The crowd at the Bronx Ale House erupted in cheers and shouts. Some danced or jumped up and down, although the bar was so crowded that could have gotten someone hurt. Every eye was focused on one of several video screens, some tuned to New York 1, some to Bronx News 12.  When the victor in the primary for the 34th state Senate district was declared, the response was deafening. Alessandra Biaggi had upset incumbent Jeff Klein for the Bronx-Westchester seat, winning 55 percent of the vote.  Klein was the founder of the Independent Democratic Conference, a group of rogue senators who entered into a power-sharing arrangement with the Republicans that enabled the GOP to keep control of the chamber even during the two years (2013-2014) when the Democrats held a 33-30 majority. They claimed credit for some progressive half-measures and things that a De…

Tue, Oct 30th 7pm- Housing Justice Town Hall: Bay RidgePS/IS 30, the Mary White Ovington School 7002 4th Ave Brooklyn
More information and to RSVP

Mon, Nov 12th 1-4pm- Canvasing for Universal Rent Laws in the Bronx
Meeting at Burger King 3500 Boston Rd
More information and to RSVP

Thu, Nov 15th 4:30pm - Whose Side Are You On?
Meeting at Beaver St and Broadway
More information and to RSVP



Can you help phone bank? 
What would happen if we could invite every tenant in NYC to an event? If you are like me, you may wonder why in a city of 1 million rent stabilized households, we do not see hundreds of people showing up at every hearing and rally.  As t

On September 5, the trustees of the Westchester County village of Ossining voted to opt into the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974, in the first major expansion of rent stabilization in New York’s suburbs since 1981. 
The 3-2 vote by the village board came after more than ten years of campaigning by tenant advocates. Ossining corporation counsel Stuart Kahan said more than 1,800 apartments in the village of 25,000 people on the Hudson River would be eligible for coverage. 
Most municipalities in Nassau, Rockland, and Westchester counties enacted rent stabilization in the 1970s by opting into the ETPA. In the Village of Hempstead, on Long Island, it was delayed until 1981 because of Republican control of the local legislature. Since then, the only places in the three suburban counties to opt in have been two Westchester villages, Croton-on- Hudson in 2003 and Rye in 2006. But as their laws apply only to buildings with 50 or more units, they cover just one building in each village…

The crowd at the Bronx Ale House erupted in cheers and shouts. Some danced or jumped up and down, although the bar was so crowded that could have gotten someone hurt. Every eye was focused on one of several video screens, some tuned to New York 1, some to Bronx News 12. 
When the victor in the primary for the 34th state Senate district was declared, the response was deafening. Alessandra Biaggi had upset incumbent Jeff Klein for the Bronx-Westchester seat, winning 55 percent of the vote. 
Klein was the founder of the Independent Democratic Conference, a group of rogue senators who entered into a power-sharing arrangement with the Republicans that enabled the GOP to keep control of the chamber even during the two years (2013-2014) when the Democrats held a 33-30 majority. They claimed credit for some progressive half-measures and things that a Democratic majority would have passed anyway, but their move was directly responsible for killing numerous progressive bills, including all legi…

Republished from the July/August 2018 Tenant/Inquillino Newspaper

By:  Michael McKee Published:  July 2018
City Council Speaker Corey Johnson addresses a rally of New York City loft tenants in Albany May 22, supporting a bill to prevent loft evictions over the coming months. Johnson led a delegation of tenants who came from the city and Nassau and Westchester counties to push for stronger rent laws. Assemblymember Maritza Davila (D-Brooklyn) is at leftThe 2018 session of the New York State Legislature ended with a whimper, not a bang. For the first time in years, there was no “Big Ugly” bill that swept up numerous unrelated issues in a last-minute grand trade between the two houses.  This strange outcome derived from an impasse in the state Senate, where the Republicans maintain a 32-31 majority with the help of turncoat Democrat Simcha Felder of Brooklyn. But when GOP Senator Tom Croci of Suffolk County returned to active duty in the Navy in May, the Republicans found that they could …