New York City Comptroller Mark Levine sharply criticized state and city rent rules, arguing that government policy has helped deepen the affordable housing crisis gripping the five boroughs.
Levine said regulations covering New York City’s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments have made it harder for building owners to repair empty units and return them to the rental market, because landlords often cannot recover renovation costs through higher rents.
The impact has been significant: a recent report found that 57,000 rent-stabilized units were vacant across New York City last year.
“The problem is we just have a shortage of supply of homes in New York City … In rent-stabilized buildings, we have tens of thousands of apartments that are sitting vacant,” Levine said Sunday during an appearance on 77 WABC’s “Cats Roundtable.”
“Why would a landlord leave an apartment vacant? Well, unfortunately, the law is very difficult. When an apartment becomes vacant and they need very expensive renovations, sometimes a six figure price tag, the owners of the buildings are not able to raise their rent enough to cover the cost of that renovation. And so, many of these apartments remain vacant,” he told host John Catsimatidis.
Levine said the city needs to move quickly to bring those apartments back into use. “This has got to be fixed. We’ve got to activate these homes so that they go back on the market. It can be done in a way that preserves affordability, but allows for more flexibilities for landlords to be able to pay for the renovations … We probably have a shortage of 500,000 apartments,” he said.
The Mayor Zohran Mamdani-controlled Rent Guidelines Board recently approved a two-year rent freeze for stabilized apartments, delivering on a campaign pledge. Landlords warned that the decision could further weaken the city’s aging housing stock, saying they will have less revenue to maintain their buildings.
Levine also argued that construction costs in New York City are far too high, saying it “costs too damn much” to build and again pointing to rules and decisions made by elected officials and government agencies.
He said the average cost to build higher-end apartments is more than $1 million, and even $750,000 for more modest units.
“It’s outrageous. It is partly the fault of city government, which has so many rules and regulations and makes it very, very difficult to get approval for permits,” Levine said.
He claimed getting the paperwork done for a housing construction permit could take 12 to 18 months.
“We’ve got to do better. I think you should get approval in 12 to 18 days, not 12 to 18 months,” Levine said.
People not paying their rent is another issue. Rent collections are still below pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. Rent collection was paused when people lost jobs during the outbreak.
That hurts the city’s public housing stock — especially the New York City Housing Authority — which relies on rent to help pay maintenance bills, Levine said.
“This has been a challenge for all kinds of housing, particularly for NYCHA. You don’t want to push people out … We just need to coax people back into paying their rents because we do need it for the operation of NYCHA,” the comptroller said.
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Elsewhere, Levine said the city job market is meh because of competition from states such as Florida and Texas.
“Job creation is basically just flat in New York. The only area where it’s growing is in healthcare, specifically home healthcare aides. It’s partly because there’s a lot more competition from other parts of the country – places like Texas or Florida,” said Levine.
“We’ve got to up our game to get job growth going again in New York. It’s something I’m all in on … There’s been a lot of housing development in Florida, and some of it is at New York’s expense. We’ve got to win that battle.”
Meanwhile, former three-term Republican Gov. George Pataki claimed New York is a state “that’s in decline” under one-party Democratic rule.
“We’re just seeing the greatness of New York erode right before our eyes. It’s just tragic. We’re doing it to ourselves,” Pataki said on 77 WABC’s the “Cats Roundtable.”
“The one-partisan, Democratic, overwhelming majorities that control Albany are destroying this state. Not with an atomic bomb, but with taxes, regulations, rules, spending, giveaways,” he said.
