NYC Helps Ex-Cons Rent Units, Ignores Rejected Co-op Buyers

Some lawmakers have a soft spot for former criminals seeking housing.

But not for ordinary people looking to buy a co-op.

Let me explain.

To help ex-cons, the City Council in 2023 passed the Fair Chance for Housing Act, which took effect last week. It gives many people with criminal histories a shot at renting or buying an apartment without their history being held against them.

However, the Council has for years refused to pass a bill that would protect law-abiding people from discrimination by co-op boards, as has the state legislature. Non-criminals can still legally be left in the dark about why boards reject them.

The latest bill to remedy that has enough sponsors to pass, Gothamist reported, but after nearly two years it has not been brought to a vote — and might never be — because of objections from members with a lot of co-ops in their districts.

Some of those members voted for the Fair Chance bill protecting former criminals, defying opposition from co-ops and landlords. Manhattan Council member Keith Powers was the lead sponsor, but has withheld support from the measure requiring co-op boards to tell applicants why they were rejected.

Powers is not alone. A bunch of Council members with co-ops in their districts don’t support the co-op disclosure bill, Intro 407. (Its supporters are the chamber’s most progressive members, and lead sponsor Pierina Sanchez chairs the Committee on Housing and Buildings.)

You might be wondering why any members who championed the background-check bill are not supporting the disclosure bill. Why help applicants with criminal pasts but not law-abiding co-op shoppers?

Powers declined to offer Gothamist an explanation, as did his colleague Julie Menin, but let’s read the tea leaves.

“It’s interesting that Westchester would be more progressive than New York City, but there we are.”
Julie Schechter, Fox Rothschild

Their Manhattan districts have the most valuable real estate in the city. Powers’ domain runs from 31st Street to East 93rd Street, including a glorious stretch bordering Central Park from Fifth Avenue to Third Avenue. In Midtown, its east-west borders are the FDR Drive, Broadway and Seventh Avenue. Menin represents the Upper East Side and, like Powers, has more than 37,000 co-op units in her district.

Common criminals can’t afford co-ops in these areas, and even if they won the lottery, would not try to get past their snooty boards. In the Real World, Powers’ background-check bill does not affect these buildings.

But the co-op transparency bill would. People of means sometimes sue when turned down by a co-op board. Knowing the reason for their rejection could make them more likely to file a case — and to win it.

At least, that’s what the co-op lobby claims.

But those fears have not been realized in Westchester County, which passed a transparency bill in June 2021.

“There are very strict rules that a co-op board has to comply with when it receives an application,” noted Julie Schechter, a partner in the co-op and condo practice at Fox Rothschild. “They have to give a reason for the rejection within a certain number of days of having received an application.”

She added, “It’s interesting that Westchester would be more progressive than New York City, but there we are.”

Interesting indeed. But there are no accidents in politics.

The Council bill to limit criminal background checks primarily affects landlords, as the vast majority of applications for housing in New York City are for rentals. Losing the landlord vote is of little concern to City Council members.

But in certain districts, the co-op vote is crucial. And what’s the risk of opposing co-op transparency? No powerful interest group is going to come after you for that. Nor will anyone rejected by a co-op board without explanation seek revenge by challenging a local Council member.

The safest thing to do is ask the Council speaker to keep the transparency bill bottled up and hope no one notices.