The state Democratic Committee has been served an eviction notice on the Park Avenue South office space it once shared with the now-defunct reelection campaign of outgoing Gov. David Paterson. According to the Daily News, Paterson for Governor and the state Democratic Party owe Rose Hill Property Associates $28,848 in rent dating back to Oct. 1 on their 10th-floor space at 461 Park Avenue South, and Paterson’s campaign is allegedly to blame. [more]

From left: David Paterson and Tom Duane

A group of local activists held a rally today, urging Governor David Paterson to sign a bill that would ensure people living with HIV/AIDS relying on rental assistance would pay no more than 30 percent of their income for housing. The bill, introduced by Assembly member Deborah Glick and State Senator Tom Duane, the latter of whom attended the rally, would affect all individuals enrolled in the HIV/AIDS Services Administration’s housing assistance program. Currently, some of the program’s enrollee’s pay upwards of 70 percent of their income toward their rent, according to pro-bill activists. Paterson vetoed the legislation in September, but had promised to reintroduce the bill at a latter date. Thus far, activists say, Paterson has failed to reintroduce the bill in his agenda. TRD

[more]

Andrew Cuomo (left), Mario Cuomo and the Governor’s Mansion in Albany

Behold the new — and old — home of Governor-elect Andrew Cuomo, the 40-room Victorian mansion that’s sat mostly unused by the governors since his father, Mario Cuomo, left office 16 years ago. David Paterson spent only 55 days in the house during his first nine months on the job, while Eliot Spitzer preferred his Fifth Avenue apartment or his farm in Columbia County and George Pataki’s own Putnam County mansion served as his primary residence. But the younger Cuomo plans to return the Albany property to the home it was when his father lived there, spending several nights per week there (he’ll head to Mount Kisco on Wednesdays, Thursdays and every other weekend to see his three teenage daughters, whom he had with ex-wife Kerry Kennedy). Cuomo was 25 when his father was elected, having grown up in a modest row house in Hollis, Queens, but he told the New York Times that he thinks of the Eagle Street mansion, which is set on six acres, as a “magical place” that “gives you a sense of the importance of state government and what it was all about, and how seriously it was taken.” [NYT]

Governor Paterson

Governor David Paterson has announced the consolidation of all state housing agencies into one, single organization known as the New York State Homes and Community Renewal. Under the new umbrella organization, the state housing officials will be divided into three categories: finance and development, housing preservation and community renewal. In addition to streamlining the state’s regulatory housing groups, Paterson said he made the decision to consolidate the agencies in response to the state’s $9 billion budget deficit. “[The new organization] will increase transparency and efficiencies and strengthen our ability to improve the quality of life from one end of New York to the other,” Paterson said. TRD

[more]

Governor Paterson

Governor David Paterson signed legislation into effect today requiring landlords to disclose any history of bedbug activity in a building to possible tenants. The move comes on the heels of an increasing number of bedbug complaint calls to 311 in New York City — 11,000 such calls were made last year, compared to just 537 in 2004. The “Bedbug Disclosure Act” was sponsored by New York State Assembly member Linda Rosenthal, whose district includes the Upper West Side and portions of Hell’s Kitchen. Rosenthal said that the legislation is key to helping city residents avoid an increasingly prevalent problem. “New York City tenants have been living in fear of bedbugs,” Rosenthal said. “Nothing is more horrifying than signing a lease after a lengthy apartment search, only to discover that your new apartment is bedbug-infested.” New York City has seen several high-profile locations succumb to infestation in recent weeks, including the Empire State Building and the AMC movie theater in Times Square. TRD

[more]

Senator Krueger and Assembly Member Gottfried

The campaign to crack down on illegal hotels is coming to a head. State
Senator Liz Krueger and Assembly Member Richard Gottfried will join
tenants, housing rights advocates and other state and city officials at
a rally tomorrow to urge Governor David Paterson to sign into law the illegal hotel bill they sponsored. The bill aims to free New York City agencies to enforce the law against illegal hotels — apartments designated as permanent residences that are improperly used as transient hotel rooms. The legislation already passed the Senate and the Assembly. Krueger and Gottfried talked to The Real Deal
about how illegal hotels have threatened the city’s tenants, affordable
housing stock and tourists, where they’ve [more]

While many tenant advocates and local officials have supported a recent bill aimed at shutting down illegal hotels,
hostel and single-room-occupancy hotel owners say it could unfairly
harm their businesses, according to the New York Times. Yesterday
afternoon approximately 150 demonstrators gathered in City Hall Park to
protest the legislation, which was passed by the State Assembly roughly
three weeks ago. Among its aims, the bill would bar residential units
from being rented for fewer than 30 days and clear up allegedly
ambiguous multiple dwelling laws that some say create loopholes for landlords.
The bill, which was also passed by the State Senate in late June, faces
approval from Governor David Paterson, although reports indicate the
governor is likely to veto. [NYT]

[more]

A bill requiring landlords to disclose a building’s bedbug history to prospective tenants passed in both the state Senate and Assembly yesterday and will become law once signed by Gov. David Paterson, the New York Times reported. The new regulations would stipulate that landlords include disclosure forms — about bedbugs either in the particular apartment in question or in any other apartment in the building — with their leases. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development has seen bedbug complaints balloon in the city to almost 11,000 in 2009 from 537 in 2004. Still, some Republicans had argued against the measure because they said it would depreciate property values. [NYT]

[more]

A bill requiring landlords to disclose a building’s bedbug history to prospective tenants passed in both the state Senate and Assembly yesterday and will become law once signed by Gov. David Paterson, the New York Times reported. The new regulations would stipulate that landlords include disclosure forms — about bedbugs either in the particular apartment in question or in any other apartment in the building — with their leases. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development has seen bedbug complaints balloon in the city to almost 11,000 in 2009 from 537 in 2004. Still, some Republicans had argued against the measure because they said it would depreciate property values. [NYT]

[more]

Gov. David Paterson signed into law last night a measure that legalizes the residential use of industrial loft buildings and expands protections for loft tenants, including those in three of the city’s 16 Industrial Business Zones: Greenpoint-Williamsburg, North Brooklyn and Maspeth. According to Crain’s, the Bloomberg administration had fought hard to exclude all of the IBZs from the law, asking Paterson to veto the bill unless all 16 were protected. But in a last-minute deal with Paterson, Bloomberg was only able to spare some. IBZs were created by the Bloomberg administration to aid manufacturers, who were being priced out of their industrial spaces by landlords looking to make larger profits through — sometimes illegal — residential conversions. Sources said the mayor’s office was disappointed with the agreement, though publicly a spokesperson for Bloomberg said the administration is happy with the deal. [Crain's]

[more]