La Sirena at 27 East Third Street

A bevy of East Village businesses are bearing the burden of increased rents for their neighbors in low-income housing. The Local reported that in order to fund $400,000 worth of upgrades to some of its 25 buildings in the East Village, the Cooper Square Mutual Housing Association is planning rent increases of about 30 percent for its commercial tenants.

“We tried as much as possible to use our reserve funds, instead of increasing the rents of the tenants through big increases that tenants cannot afford,” said Val Orselli, the executive director. “So either the cost has to be borne by residential tenants, who are very low-income, or the commercial tenants.” [more]

Residents of an affordable housing rental building in the East Village at 390 East 8th Street plan to announce today that they had filed a complaint with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman urging him to block the sale of their homes to Tower Brokerage by other tenants in the building. The building is designated for low-income residents because of a court agreement which mandated it, but groups say that the potential sale violates that agreement. Tenants from the building are trying to sell it to Tower, potentially leaving countless residents homeless. “I hope the attorney general does the right thing and blocks this sale before people become homeless,” said Marilyn Berdugo, a tenant of 17 years. TRD… [more]