Mayor de Blasio’s latest assault on rats includes a proposal to prevent building owners in targeted areas from putting garbage out for collection before 4 a.m. on pick-up days and Increased organics collection requirements for multifamily properties.
The House subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development approved a fiscal 2018 budget proposal with $6.9 billion more than the President requested, but not necessarily enough more to continue all existing subsidies. The New York Housing Conference estimated that 14,000 voucher tenants around the state could lose funding.
No good deed goes unpunished when it comes to reporting illegal Airbnb apartment rentals. New York City apparently sees nothing wrong with fining building owners who report tenants breaking the law. Meanwhile, Newsday reports that Airbnb bookings near Jones Beach have quintupled since 2014 to almost 20,000. It is hot outside. A quick check for mid-week availability in August showed 300 units in elevator buildings listed.
The New York City Planning Commission, Monday, approved a major rezoning of Far Rockaway for higher density development. The proposal now goes to the City Council. They better hurry before Rockaway washes away.
City assessors did not visit 54% of the properties they were supposed to before valuing them, according to an audit by the State Comptroller issued yesterday. The investigation also found almost 100 global changes made to the Finance Department’s computerized assessment program with no record of who authorized them or why. Coincidentally, four potential City Council Speakers just signed a letter urging Mayor de Blasio to stop fighting a lawsuit claiming that City property tax assessments are unfair and discriminatory. Admit it and fix it, they say.
Rental and sales brokers are seeing their listings models attacked on all sides this week with Streeteasy and the Real Estate Board at war over competing platforms, and sites such as Nestio and Joinery trying different ways to cut out brokers entirely.
Mamaroneck building owners and tenants can expect to be surveyed by HUD on their experience with a Small Area Fair Market Rent pilot program. The test resulted in higher rents in the two affected zip codes than the rest of Westchester County. Other test areas being surveyed had a mix of higher and lower rents in their regions.
Mayor de Blasio, yesterday, trumpeted building or preserving 77,651 units of affordable housing since his election. But the actual number of new units completed so far is 4,145.