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Know Your Rights
Source: Daily News
Subject: Housing & Environmental Justice
Type: Media Coverage

Housing coalition rallies in Queens to keep city affordable

The Alliance for Tenant Power, a group including Make the Road New York, New York Communities for Change, and the Legal Aid Society, launched a campaign in Jackson Heights Tuesday to change state laws governing rent-regulated apartments. They said more than 100,000 regulated units have been lost in the last 20 years.

New state regulations must be put in place to help keep the city affordable for more than just the rich, a coalition of activists demanded Tuesday.

Members of the Alliance for Tenant Power rallied in Queens against loopholes in state laws they say were part of the reason the city has lost more than 100,000 affordable apartments in the last 20 years.

“When you lose rent-regulated apartments, you lose the fabric of the community,” campaign manager Delsenia Glover said at Make the Road New York’s headquarters in Jackson Heights.

The activists hope to eliminate the state’s vacancy bonus, which lets landlords raise rents when longtime tenants leave.

They also want to end the process by which apartments become de-regulated when rent rises above $2,500.

“It’s getting to be too much,” said Julio Cando, 58, who rents a studio in Jackson Heights for $1,300.

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