NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Millions Roll in from Congestion Pricing, Wildcat Strikes at NY Prisons, and Efforts to Revive AirBNB in NYC

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

Congestion pricing tolls brought in nearly $48 million in January, according to the MTA. Plus, a debate moves to the capitol as week two of a wildcat strike continues at New York state prisons. And finally, homeowners speak out to revive Airbnb in New York City, after city leaders amended the legislation.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. I'm Jenae Pierre. $48 million. That's about how much the MTA says its congestion pricing tolls brought in last month when the tolling program first went live. Transit officials say that puts the agency on track to have enough money to fund major transit repairs. Anna Choppany is the vice president for research at the citizens' budget. Commission. She says it's a good start, but says it's too early to tell how drivers will react to the toll long term. I don't think that the first month is necessarily going to be representative

of long-term trends with congestion pricing. It all comes as the Trump administration moves to try to kill the tolls. Governor Kathy Hokel and the MTA are suing in response and say they'll continue to charge the congestion tolls until a judge tells them the stop. New York City Jail officials say a man died in their custody this week, marking the second prisoner death in seven days. Officials report 55-year-old Terrence Moore had a seizure while in a holding area at Manhattan Supreme Court. Moore's lawyer says he was at court for a scheduled appearance in connection with murder and burglary charges from 2023. Just last week, a 38-year-old man died at the Rikers Island jail complex. Governor Kathy Hokel is considering transferring prisoners out of state as a

a wildcat strike at New York State prisons enters its second week. WMYC's Jimmyville kind has more. The spouses of striking correctional officers are pushing lawmakers to improve safety in New York state prisons. The women stood with Republicans as they try to repeal the halt law, which restricts the use of solitary confinement. Bernadette Singer, whose husband works at the Collins Correctional Facility in Erie County, took her case to the New York State Capitol. We should not have to be here right now. Prison officials work for the governor are serving legal notices to demonstrating guards. Their wildcat strike is against the law and not sanctioned by the union.

The state says striking officers could lose their health insurance. Bernadette was undeterred. We are not going to be bullied into submission. We're not going to give up this fight. We are going to continue to hold the line. We will talk to every senator. We will knock on every single door. Advocates of the 2021 halt law say it makes conditions in prisons more humane.

Halt doesn't ban solitary commitment outright, but it means guards have to be more selective about when they use it and give people breaks from extended isolation. Anthony Dixon was incarcerated for 30 years. He says Hockel shouldn't give in to the correctional officer's demands. We're negotiating with terrorists. These officers, they don't represent the union. So who is the governor even negotiating with? Talks between prison officials and the union representing correctional officers are ongoing.

That's WMYC's Jimmy Vilkond. Homeowners are speaking out as city leaders switch up legislation that was supposed to revive Airbnb across the five boroughs. More on that after the break. An effort to revive Airbnb in New York City is not going well after a city council member significantly amended the legislation. Homeowners like Bedstice, Marginet, more robbers are no longer able to rent their extra rooms. My colleague Sean Carlson talked with Marginette about the legislation and the advocacy group restore homeowner autonomy and rights, which she's a part of.

Marginet, can we just start with your story? Can you tell us about how you became a homeowner and your experience with short-term rentals? Of course, yes. Ten years ago, we drained our savings like many people do, you know, to achieve that dream. And we were able to buy a two-term. family home in Brooklyn, but we always knew we would need multiple streams of income in order to stay and afford the home. And one way we wanted to do that was through the use of short-term rental income or home sharing. So when the crackdown on Airbnb happened, how did that affect you? Enormously, you know, we had been five-star hosts. And, you know, we had hosted people from all over the world, but also people in our community. We had, you know, a neighbor who had a baby and her mom came stayed for three months. We had, you know, another neighbor who broke her foot and couldn't handle

stairs, so they stayed there. In 2023, you know, my industry kind of blew up. I was not able to get back at the same level of employment. And so it was really making the difference between being able to sustain our lifestyle, stay in the home and not. But for others, people have lost their homes. People have had to sell preemptively before foreclosure. People have been foreclosed on. You know, people have had to leave New York City. It's been, you know, devastating and has created a new housing affordability crisis for one and two family homeowners. Councilmember Farah Lewis introduced a bill in November that would allow owners of one and two family homes to host renters for less than 30 days without being present. But Lewis has amended the bill and stripped it of its key reforms.

If the bill passes in its current form, the only change would be a new provision allowing owners and occupants to lock parts of their homes while guests were present. What pressure do you think lawmakers are under to not allow short-term rentals in New York City? First of all, I want to say we're very grateful to the City Council for making an opportunity to amend Local Law 18 because there was some exploitation of the short-term rental market. We do think that there was room for regulation. However, we think Local Law 18 went too far. As it was back in 2018 or so when it was passed, I think there was enormous pressure from the hotel lobby. You know, what we would say is that, again, I think while it makes sense for there to be some regulation so that exploitation of quote-unquote bad actors, meaning people who bought up properties with the express and exclusive purpose of short-term rental, I think that does have to be regulated. But we become sort of political roadkill in this discussion.

We are no threat to the hotel industry. Now, you mentioned the housing crisis and tenant activists say the measure would reduce the number of other. available apartments for long-term renters during housing shortage. Of course, rents are super high right now because landlords can earn more by renting out their units to tourists. What do you think about that? So the truth is we live in our homes. They're not available. My home is not available for rent because I live in it.

Even the second unit we use often for various reasons throughout the year. One family homes, in particular, people live there. And our ask and our advocacy work is specifically for owner-occupied, one of the first. to family homeowners. You know, people who are being displaced because of the loss of these short-term rental incomes, where do they go? They can't go into a rental market that's already oversaturated or in crisis. But, you know, they can't buy another home somewhere else for various reasons at both the macro level and the local level.

So, you know, this is a new crisis of homeowner affordability. And if the goal is really to preserve housing for long term, I think we have to look at both sides of that. Paris has a 90-day limit a year for short-form rentals. Would you support something similar like that in New York City? I don't think so for us because we live in our homes. I don't think that that type of 90-day limit should be imposed here. You know, this is as much about helping people afford to stay in their homes, helping people deal with the various life events that happen, a new baby, a lost job, a lost spouse, a kid that goes off to college.

And we really want to be able to use the short-term rental to keep those homes. And as it relates to our lifestyle, maybe this year it's more than 90 days or less than 90 days the following year it might not be. The larger issue here is that we'll look down five, 10 years down the line and we'll look at the loss of homeowners in our communities. And we'll look at how the communities have changed because every day regular New Yorkers were not able to afford to stay. in their homes. We have to work as hard as we can to keep people in their homes because if we don't, the future of homeownership here is in jeopardy, the future of New York, Brooklyn and Queens and the Bronx, these are places that need pillars, they need stability, and homeownership provides that stability for people. So this one carve-out could make a big difference not only for us today, but for the future of New York City as well. That's Marginette Moore Roberts from the group Restore Homeowner Autonomy and Rights, talking with my colleague, Sean Carlson. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WMYC.

I'm Jene Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.