The Census tells us that median gross rent in Brooklyn is just over $1,800/month. But if you’re a renter looking for an apartment today, the rent for what is actually available is likely to be much higher – over $4,000/month on average for a one-bedroom by some metrics. Limited supply and increasing demand have led to a dire situation for Brooklyn’s low- and even moderate-income renters, who are more likely to experience poor living conditions and fear of displacement by unscrupulous landlords.
By starting off with reviving the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants and holding a series of Rental Ripoff hearings, the new administration has demonstrated that it will be dedicated to protecting renters and holding landlords accountable. The purpose of this testimony is to share strategies that we hope the administration will pursue and on which we hope to partner.
Housing Task Forces
In 2014, when Borough President Reynoso became a member of the New York City Council representing Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn and Ridgewood in Queens, tenant harassment and displacement were already major issues in those communities. In fact, one could argue that conditions for tenants were even worse then, before the City passed Stand for Tenant Safety legislation to curb the use of construction as harassment and the State passed the 2019 Rent Laws and Good Cause Eviction. Tenant organizers in North Brooklyn identified the need for inter-agency and inter-organizational coordination to address poor building conditions, construction as harassment, and illegal and/or neglectful behavior by landlords. Organizers found that agency inspections resulting from 311 complaints were often disorganized and did not always result in the issuance of impactful violations, even when buildings needed serious repair.
What is a Housing Task Force? To address this, then-Councilmember Reynoso convened the North Brooklyn Housing Task Force, which began serving Williamsburg and Greenpoint and later added Bushwick. In 2023 as Borough President, he then convened the East Brooklyn Housing Task Force serving parts of Crown Heights, Bed Stuy, East Flatbush, Brownsville, ENY, and Cypress Hills. The model varies slightly between the two, but they share the goal of bringing City agencies together with local organizers to collaboratively address poor housing conditions and prevent eviction.
Who participates? Involved agencies include HPD, DOB, MOPT, and HCR, with other agencies such as OSE, DEP, DOHMH, FDNY, and the AG’s office brought in as needed. Participating groups in North Brooklyn include St. Nicks Alliance, Los Sures, RiseBoro, Communities Resist, Build Up Justice, Takeroot Justice, and the Bushwick Housing Independence Project. In East Brooklyn, participating groups are UHAB, HOPE Community, Cypress Hills LDC, Communities Resist, and Brooklyn Legal Services.
How does it work? First, the organizers create a list of problem buildings based on their experience working with local tenants. They work together to get consensus on the most distressed buildings to manage the size of the list. They then share that list with the relevant agencies and meet monthly to review it. The agencies work together to address conditions in the identified buildings through coordinated roof-to-cellar inspections and other interventions. Since the program’s inception, hundreds of buildings have received interventions that they might not have otherwise received.
Why use this model? This regular coordination between organizers and City agencies has several benefits. It formalizes a system that streamlines communication and efficiency between tenants, advocates, and government. Consensus among the groups about what buildings to include helps ensure that the buildings with the worst conditions are proactively identified and prioritized. (This does not always happen in a 311-dependent system, since tenants may not know how to make or may not feel comfortable making such complaints.) Coordination between agencies, organizers, and tenants means tenants are more likely to be home when inspectors come, negating the need for multiple visits. Having multiple agencies visit a property at once helps hold landlords accountable through multiple violation types/pressure points. This coordination in issuing violations can also reduce litigation time, should the building wind up in housing court.
What are challenges to consider? Unfortunately, the North Brooklyn Housing Task Force paused its work a year ago this month, demonstrating that this model is not without its pitfalls. The main reason for this pause is a lack of resources. Organizers felt that understaffing of the 311 system and inspectors at HPD and DOB (but especially at HPD) led to the return of a disorganized inspection regime and a lack of accountability for landlords, making the program less impactful. They also identified the need for strong, consistent, local leadership to ensure that the agencies participate regularly and in good faith. The organizers also face funding challenges of their own, which is why we are advocating for an expansion of the Anti-Harassment Tenant Protection (AHTP) initiative, which funds much of the organizers’ work, in the Fiscal Year 2027 budget.
What’s next? MOPT should expand this model throughout the city, although we believe that a targeted, neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach is more likely to succeed than a full citywide expansion due to the resources necessary to sustain it. In recent administrations, the City has primarily made anti-displacement investments tied to neighborhood rezonings. However, this can lead to dedication of more resources to areas that don’t have the most immediate needs. Instead, we recommend choosing geographies based on maximum potential to prevent evictions, improve building quality, support tenant stability, and address overcrowding. The neighborhoods most likely to succeed will have a combination of active tenant organizing, and/or an investment from the City in capacity building for tenant organizing; as well as significant issues with poor building conditions. This can all be measured using the City’s Equitable Development Data Explorer (EDDE)’s Housing Affordability, Quality, and Stability metrics, especially on overcrowding, evictions, and maintenance deficiencies.
Brooklyn’s Crown Heights is a potential candidate for expansion of the East Brooklyn Housing Task Force’s work. As part of the negotiations over the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use Plan, the City has already made a $3 million annual commitment to funding local organizations to provide free legal representation to tenants in Community District 8. Using some of these funds to support organizing could prevent escalation to housing court.
Tenant Relocation Assistance Legislation
The City’s Displacement Risk Index (part of the EDDE) analyzes neighborhoods using data on socioeconomics and demographics, housing conditions, and market pressure. It ranks 40% of neighborhoods citywide at “High” or “Highest” risk of displacement, including nearly all of the Bronx and much of Brooklyn. While our first priority is to prevent displacement before it occurs, we also want to encourage housing growth citywide, which inevitably will lead to tenants being displaced by demolition or major renovations. Additionally, despite HPD structuring its regulatory agreements to encourage perpetual renewal, it is ultimately the property owner’s choice whether to renew when any such agreement expires.
Intro 250-2026, introduced by Council Member Hudson by request of Borough President Reynoso, aims to address this by ensuring that displaced tenants receive compensation to assist with relocation expenses. The legislation is based on Seattle’s Tenant Relocation Ordinance (TRAO) program, which has served thousands of tenants since it began in 1990. Intro 250-2026 would require HPD to provide relocation assistance to qualified tenants making less than 130% AMI who are displaced due to demolition, major renovation, or – and this is different from Seattle – expiration and non-renewal of a regulatory agreement. The bill allows HPD to establish the payment amount by rule and could be based on factors such as income, geography, or other relevant data. (Seattle has a flat rate of $5,354 for eligible tenants.) The bill proposes splitting the cost between the developer and the City, as in Seattle. The City contribution acknowledges that the City’s policy is to support additional growth and change, and thus it shares in the responsibility for maintaining housing stability and affirmatively affirming fair housing.
Discrimination Enforcement
The City Council rightly continues to fight for the expansion of vouchers to help low-income tenants secure housing; however, vouchers are only good if tenants can actually use them, meaning they do not face illegal discrimination from landlords. While according to the latest Mayor’s Management Report, such discrimination complaints to the City’s Commission on Human Rights are down from last year, they still remain higher than past years, and the average age of the complaint caseload is 614 days. This is unacceptable and must be addressed by increasing staffing in the FY 2027 budget.
SAFER Homes Act
Since 1996, the Third Party Transfer program has been an important tool in the City’s toolbox to hold landlords accountable, protect tenants, and preserve and improve affordable housing. Its goal is to transfer properties with high municipal debt and poor living conditions from delinquent landlords to responsible owners. However, the program’s existing enabling legislation contains multiple issues that caused too many properties, including owner-occupied homes, to be swept up in the last round. This led to unnecessary foreclosures and lawsuits and undermined the program’s purpose.
The SAFER HOMES Act, Intro 657-2026, addresses these issues and creates the framework for a more targeted program that focuses on the most distressed properties, those with the highest levels of debt and hazardous or immediately hazardous violations. This can range from mold and leaks that can cause long-term health problems, to fire safety, security, or structural conditions that put tenants at imminent risk.
The legislation also adds crucial changes identified by the City’s TPT Working Group, including ending the problematic block pickup provision, adding more robust outreach requirements, and giving HDFC co-ops the opportunity to become co-ops again after transfer. It promotes opportunities for tenant ownership, adds community land trusts as eligible third parties for property transfer, and creates a path for vacant land and unoccupied buildings to be redeveloped, increasing options to create social housing. Additionally, it adds new provision to protect against legal challenges by allowing property owners to claim surplus equity. The administration should work with the Council to pass this bill this year.
Thank you for your time and consideration of the above. Borough President Reynoso looks forward to being a resource on development of the Housing Task Forces and working together to expand the model around the city.
