NYC NOW - February 8, 2024: Midday News

Episode Date: February 8, 2024

Rents are rising across New York City, and so are broker fees. WNYC's David Brand reports on how some apartment-hunters are facing eye-popping upfront costs. Meanwhile, The New York City Council sent a letter last month warning Mayor Eric Adams they would sue if he failed to implement voucher expansion laws for more low income housing, Councilmember Diana Ayala says City Hall never responded. Plus, for the second year in a row, Governor Hochul is making housing a centerpiece of her legislative agenda. WNYC’s Sean Carlson sat with Albany reporter Jon Campbell to walk us through the Governor’s plans.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Thursday, February 8th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Rents are rising across New York City, and so are broker fees. WNYC's David Brand reports on how some apartment hunters are facing eye-popping upfront costs. Brokers are usually hired by landlords to list and show apartments, but it's tenants who end up paying the extra expense. In some cases, brokers are charging massive sums in the thousands, especially for rent-stabilized

apartments. Kalsam-Michie O'Say is one elected official trying to put a stop to the high up-front costs. He's sponsoring a bill to make whoever hires the broker pay the fee instead of having it fall on the tenant. I don't think anyone should be forced to pay a fee to someone who they never hired. It's kind of replicating how we do transactions in every other industry. But the Real Estate Board of New York. and other critics say landlords will just factor the fee into higher rents,

or that landlords already paying more for insurance, gas, and other expenses would be forced to eat the cost themselves. The city council is paving the way to sue Mayor Eric Adams over his refusal to enact new laws giving housing vouchers to more low-income New Yorkers. The council sent a letter last month warning Adams they would take the unusual step if he failed to implement the voucher expansion laws. Councilmember Diana Ayala says City Hall never responded. She tells WNYC she'll introduce a resolution to allow the City Council to take legal action against the mayor at a meeting later today.

The mayor says he's blocking the new laws because they'll cost too much to implement. It's the latest in the escalating tension between the mayor and the council. The Adams administration did not immediately respond to our request for comment. Stay close. There's more after the break. I'm Sean Carlson for WNYC. For the second year in a row, Governor Hokel is making housing a centerpiece of her legislative agenda in New York. But unlike last year's failed attempt to address New York State's affordability crisis, this year it's all carrots, no sticks. And that was demonstrated by the bunch of produce the governor brought to her announcement today.

I'm told this is what you're willing to eat to help build more housing. And I've got 600 million carrots out there on the table. Here to walk us through how the governor intends to get towns and cities to eat their veggies, as it were, is WMIC's Albany reporter John Campbell. John, the governor is using this expression pro-housing communities. What is her pitch here? So the governor really wants to make hundreds of millions of dollars of these grants available to towns, cities, villages that are willing to create more housing. And she started this program last year, but now she wants to basically give it more teeth. The current program, it gives municipalities bonus points essentially on these grant applications if they're considered a, quote, pro-housing community.

And she wants to take it a step further now and she wants to make it a requirement to get these grants. But that would require state lawmakers to approve it and that's a hurdle here. And it could be a really big deal for some local governments, particularly the smaller ones. Some of these grants are pretty considerable, like a program known as the downtown. revitalization initiative. That's one where these towns and cities can compete for $10 million to bolster their downtown corridors. I'm probably not the only one here who's never heard of a pro-housing community. What defines a pro-housing community? Well, you'd be forgiven because it's a pretty new term, but there's two ways that you can qualify for this under the governor's

program. One is you can point to your housing stock and say, hey, we have boosted our housing stock over the last one year, three years. Here's the proof. There are different percentages for different parts of the state. And then the second way is by passing a resolution that Hockel's office is authored that basically commits your local town to implementing policies that promote housing growth. So you'd essentially be committing to adding more housing in the future. How is Hockel's approach this year different from that ambitious housing proposal that she pitched last year? Well, that's where the carrots come into play, Sean.

This is the carrot approach. Last year, the governor went with what many people characterized as a quote-unquote stick approach. And her plan last year would have required every local government in the state to boost their housing stock. And if they didn't, there was a punishment attached to it. They'd have to give up zoning approval of housing projects. And lawmakers, local leaders, they really hated that approach. so it died. And now Hockel's going with this carrot approach.

She's basically offering up treats in the form of state grants as a way to get these local governments on board. Now, we remember last year's housing plan collapsed because there was a lack of buy-in from leaders in the state legislature. So what about this year? Are legislative leaders on board with this current plan? The leaders of the Senate and the Assembly, they're both Democrats. They say any housing deal needs some sort of greater protection. for tenants who are already in housing. And that's really where the governor and the legislature aren't seeing eye to eye here.

The governor was asked about that earlier today, and she said housing supply is a different conversation from tenant protections. And she took issue with lawmakers who are linking those issues together. That has never made sense to me. Separate them. Let's have two thoughtful conversations. But the number one priority is to get more shovels in the ground to build more housing throughout the entire state of New York.

Now, not long after that, I ran into State Senator Julius Salazar. She's a Brooklyn Democrat, and she sponsors a bill that would bolster eviction protections for tenants. I asked her what she thought of the governor's comments. Creating more housing and trying to address the housing crisis in a comprehensive way makes housing supply and tenant protections inextricably linked. She did go on to say that she appreciates that the governor seems to be signaling that she's, willing to have a conversation on tenant protections, though. We should know. Governor Hockel is not the only elected official rolling out a plan to tackle the state's

affordable housing crisis. Progressive lawmakers are rolling out a thing. It's a new social housing proposal. Tell us about that. Yeah, this is a new bill. It's sponsored by Manhattan Senator Cordell Clear, Brooklyn Assembly member Emily Gallagher is on board too, and it's a big swing. It would create a new state authority that would be tasked with acquiring, building,

renovating affordable housing. And the general idea behind it is the state would be into much more hands-on role to actually create housing and keep it affordable for residents. But it would require some significant money. The bill supporters estimate that a $5 billion initial investment could lead to something like 26,000 new homes. Okay, but what are the odds of something like that getting past? Well, that's always the thing, right, Sean?

And like I said, it is a big swing. And big swings usually take quite a bit of time in Albany, sometimes years and years and years and years. And that said, there's some pretty powerful lawmakers behind it. The chair of the Senate and the Assembly's housing committees are on board. And some labor unions are on board, too. It's WMIC's John Campbell speaking to us from Albany. John, thanks so much as always. Thanks, Sean.

Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WMYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. Also subscribe wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back this evening.