Free Republic

The plan seeks to give more families the opportunity to become homeowners by removing an incentive to private equity firms and other large investors from purchasing one- and two-family homes. The proposed legislation would impose a 75-day waiting period before institutional investors, defined as those owning 10 or more single- and two-family properties with at least $50 million in assets, can make offers on such homes.

Governor Kathy Hochul announced that construction is underway at Town and Country Apartments, a 256-unit affordable housing complex in Binghamton. The $94 million rehabilitation project will modernize the 22-building garden-style development, fully electrify its infrastructure, and improve energy efficiency by 20%. The project is part of Hochul’s five-year, $25 billion Housing Plan, which aims to create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes across New York State, including 10,000 with support services for vulnerable populations. The initiative complements efforts by New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR), which has financed over 1,260 affordable housing units in Broome County in the past...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The Rochester City Council has passed the Good Cause legislation with a 7-2 vote. Council Vice President LaShay Harris and Councilmember Michael Patterson voted against the measure. Those in favor included Council President Miguel Melendez and Councilmembers Mitch Gruber, Willie Lightfoot, Mary Lupien, Stanley Martin, Bridget Monroe, and Kim Smith. The legislation includes an amendment from the City-Wide Tenant Union of Rochester that lowers the property size exemption. Only landlords with one unit are exempt from the new legislation ensuring protections apply to nearly all renters. Rent increases are limited to 7.7%. The move aligns Rochester’s Good...

President Joe Biden will propose on Tuesday a nationwide cap on rent hikes of 5% per year, according to The Washington Post, which cites “three people familiar with the matter.” The proposal will rescind unspecified tax breaks to landlords who raise rents by more than 5%, although it would only apply to landlords who own more than 50 rental units. This would cover roughly half of all rental units in the country, according to Post sources. It would not apply to units that haven’t been built yet so as to not discourage construction of new housing, which the Biden administration...

$4.2 million will go to develop supportive housing in Ithaca. Governor Kathy Hochul has announced that Steuben Churchpeople Against Poverty (dba Arbor Housing Development) will use the money to construct 20 permanent supportive housing units. The proposed Stately Apartments will feature laundry facilities, a community room, a garden, and commercial space. “Creating new permanent supportive housing is central to my administration’s work to reduce homelessness across New York State, while simultaneously supporting strong neighborhoods throughout our state,” Governor Hochul said. “When completed, these projects will provide vulnerable New Yorkers with an affordable place to call home and the security and...

I have been a landlord for ten years and I manage 41 residential and commercial office units in Tompkins County. About 2/3 of these are low or moderate income residential. I currently employ three full time staff. I became a landlord because I wanted to work on converting existing buildings to not use fossil fuels - I made the capital in the first place in the tech industry not by real estate investing. I also have significant bank financing. When I started, I greatly under-estimated the challenges of being a landlord and have been in an intense learning process. I...

Nonprofit on boards in the city of Seattle are facing huge bosses because tenants in the city are not paying rent. Following the pandemic eviction moratorium, a lot of tenants became used to someone else paying their bills for them and continue to not pay to this day. This has hurt the revenue of the nonprofits

The state is awarding just over $15 million in bonds and subsidies for a project that will create 78 affordable homes in Ontario County. Sunlight Lane Apartments in Geneva will be for low-and-moderate low-income households. The net-zero development will be fully electric and feature rooftop solar panels. The financing is allocated through the New York State Homes and Community Renewal program.

Housing advocates say easy public access to landlord-tenant complaints hamstrings renter efforts to find new housing, but pulling records from public view also raises concerns. The Strip District woman would feel a lot more confident about apartment hunting if her tenant history was not marked by three recent court complaints filed against her by her current landlord. “Honestly, it makes me feel like a criminal,” she said. The tenant, whose name is being withheld for privacy reasons, faced a health crisis last year and an ongoing disability that slashed her income, even prompting a GoFundMe plea for help with medical...

The rent’s too damn high in New York — but the broker fees are really murder. City dwellers wanting to score a place to live at a reasonable price are finding that out the hard way — as they are being socked with outrageous fees of up to $20,000 just to be able to rent an apartment. One home shopper claims he almost lost it when a broker tried to soak him for a $15,000 fee for a $1,100, rent-controlled apartment in a run-down brick building in Flushing recently. “I never replied because not in a million years would I...

A San Diego law would force landlords to allow their tenants operate childcare facilities in their units. Not only that, but landlords have to notify tenants of their right to do so. This law brings with it a lot of liability for landlords if a child is hurt.

Governor Kathy Hochul of New York announced a substantial $46 million grant initiative aimed at supporting more than 1,400 households in achieving affordable homeownership. This financial aid will primarily assist low- and moderate-income families, facilitating essential home repairs, safety modifications, and replacing older manufactured homes. Additionally, the program includes providing down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. Governor Hochul emphasized the importance of this investment in the face of rising housing costs, positioning it as a crucial step in New York’s battle against the housing crisis. This move aligns with the Governor’s ambitious $25 billion Housing Plan, which intends to create...

It’s already very expensive to rent in a hot housing market like Southern California. Now landlords have found a way to make things even worse. A growing number of property owners and managers are hitting tenants with extra fees each month — a nickel-and-diming of people that the airlines, for one, have made a core aspect of their business model. It’s been common for years for landlords to charge more for a parking space or having a pet.

The ACLU and a taxpayer-funded group are “demanding a federal crackdown on landlords who don’t rent to tenants with eviction records,” reports Reason Magazine.They are arguing that it is racist and sexist not to rent to people who have histories of being evicted, because blacks are more likely than whites to be evicted, and black women apparently have the highest eviction rates.In a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last week, the HOPE Fair Housing Center, which gets taxpayer money, “argues that such policies amount to illegal discrimination based on race and sex, given...

Legal aid groups in Chicago filed a lawsuit and a complaint with the Department of Housing Preservation and Development on Tuesday against corporate landlords for automatically rejecting prospective tenants with “any prior connection to an eviction case.”

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — On Wednesday, a ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated the completion of a new housing development for sustainable homes in Rochester. Governor Hochul announced the completion of the $49 million mixed-use affordable housing development, Edna Craven Estates, which creates 164 sustainable homes and a new community center in Northeast Rochester, consisting of seven separate buildings along Clifford and Joseph Avenues. The newly constructed Edna Craven Estates features ground-floor commercial space and a new community center.

MONROE – A federal lawsuit filed by a group of landlords, including Pamela Lee, who own rental properties, says that a Monroe town law passed earlier this year is discriminatory against landlords and violates the federal Fair Housing Act. The lawsuit also alleges that families with more than two people cannot reside in a one-bedroom rental unit. The lawsuit, filed by six LLCs that own rental properties and Pamela Lee, a member of all of the LLCs and owner of properties in Monroe personally, asserts that the town is attempting to prohibit them from enjoying their constitutional right by depriving...

Now, a New York State Supreme Court judge has ruled for Ithaca Renting, agreeing with the local business’s position that the Section 8 program’s inspection requirement was a violation of the Constitution’s protection against searches. In his ruling on June 27th, Hon. Mark G. Masler says the Attorney General’s argument “is fundamentally flawed for the simple reason that, as set forth above, a landlord cannot accept a Section 8 housing voucher as payment for rent without agreeing to participate in Section 8, which, in turn, requires that the landlord authorize warrantless searches.” Judge Masler’s ruling points out that the Housing...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Retiree Pamela Haile has paid property taxes, insurance and other bills on a house she lets out in Oakland, but for more than three years her tenants have paid no rent thanks to one of the longest-lasting eviction bans in the country. The eviction moratorium in the San Francisco Bay Area city expires next month and Haile can't wait. The 69-year-old estimates she is owed more than $60,000 in back rent, money she doubts she will ever see. Moreover, the tenants have trashed her house and it will cost tens of thousands of dollars to make it...

Albany must include “good-cause eviction” once it finally passes the stalled state budget, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other progressive electeds said at a Wednesday rally in Astoria, Queens. “Fighting to pass good-cause eviction is essential,” the Democratic congresswoman, who represents a swath of the Bronx and Queens, told a crowd in Athens Square. “We have to push Gov. Hochul to make sure that she includes this in the budget.” The good-cause evictions bill, first introduced in 2019, would bolster protections for tenants in non-rent regulated apartments by barring landlords from kicking them out without “good cause,” such as failure to...