New Report Reveals 26,000+ Rent-Stabilized Apartments Being Warehoused by Landlords
“Apartment Warehousing: Separating Myth from Fact”
Upcoming report debunks landlord claims of “insufficient rents” — shows evidence that widespread warehousing of apartments is motivated by investor profit-seeking, exacerbating the housing crisis.
New York, NY – Today, the Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing, which includes Communities Resist and Cooper Square Committee, released a report titled “Apartment Warehousing: Separating Myth from Fact,” which rebuts landlord claims about lack of funding and provides strong evidence that such warehousing is harming everyday New Yorkers by exacerbating the city’s housing crisis. The data and case studies show that landlords have adequate funds to put vacant units back on the market without substantial rent increases and that claims of insufficient funds are pretextual at best.
For decades, landlords have notoriously held rent-stabilized apartments off the market for their own gain. Investors looking for a quick profit have bought old buildings, quickly displaced lower-paying tenants through harassment and intentional mismanagement, and pursued massive rent increases through the Individual Apartment Improvement (IAI) exception. When some of those tactics were barred, many landlords “Frankensteined” units: combining adjacent vacant apartments to create a new “first rent.” This significantly increased rents while dramatically reducing New York City’s affordable housing stock during a housing crisis.
Despite the state closing the “Frankensteining” loophole in 2024 and capping IAIs (now at $347.22), over 26,000 units are being held off the market.
This report concludes:
Landlords are using their ample funds for other purposes instead of keeping their buildings habitable.
Dilapidation is primarily from landlord neglect. Landlords should make required upgrades while tenants are in their homes, and Albany should not legislate rent increases to reward owner negligence during long tenancies.
Tenants need reliable public information from the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) and the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) about who owns their building and is responsible for maintaining it.
You can view the full report here: Click here
“For too long, landlords have held vacant units off the market in hopes of gaining windfall profits, while falsely claiming it would be too expensive to make the apartments habitable. During this moment when affordable housing in New York City is desperately needed, some landlords seek to exacerbate and manipulate the housing crisis for the purpose of weakening tenant protections. I applaud the coalition for releasing this report and debunking the landlord lobby’s claims. The time is long overdue to stop playing games and put these units back on the market. New Yorkers deserve access to safe and affordable housing, as is their right. It’s time for landlords to do their jobs,” said Sam Chiera, Director of Litigation of Communities Resist.
“In 2024, landlords were easily able to convince elected officials that they were in dire need of more money even without opening their books to prove their case. Albany gave them a fat IAI increase that has become permanent, which erodes the gains tenants won in 2019. But both the city and state governments have created programs to help landlords in real need which they never avail themselves of. It’s time for Albany to stop giving handouts to landlords while affordable housing sits empty and people live on the streets,” said Cindy Hwang, Cooper Square Committee.
“Stellar Management, the landlord of our building, is spending millions to buy up other buildings, and the Gluck family that founded Stellar with Steve Witkoff has enough money to create its own foundation. They don’t need additional dollars to keep our homes and the 12 warehoused apartments here habitable,” said Sue Susman, Stellar Tenants for Affordable Housing.
“With the affordable housing crisis we are currently in, it’s unconscionable that landlords are holding the most affordable apartments in this city vacant. Eight apartments in my building alone have been warehoused for years and just need a fresh coat of paint. That’s eight families suffering in a homeless shelter due to the greed of these landlords. Any legitimate affordable housing plan must begin with, first and foremost, getting these warehoused apartments back on the market and families back in these homes,” said John Leyva, Save63Tiffany.
About the Coalition to End Apartment Warehousing
The Stand for Tenant Safety/End Apartment Warehousing Coalition includes some 20 organizations, including Communities Resist and Cooper Square Committee, working to keep existing affordable housing and ensure the safety of the tenants living there. We have won both a state regulation and a state statute to limit rent increases for combined (“Frankensteined”) apartments, and we are waiting for implementation of New York City’s Local Law 1 of 2024 to keep tenants safe in buildings where many apartments are warehoused — by requiring inspections of those apartments to ensure they are code compliant and not fire traps or harboring vermin. We want legislation to raise money for housing vouchers by taxing affordable apartments left vacant for long periods. We need housing for all — not just quick profits for a few.
About Communities Resist
Communities Resist (“CoRe”) is a community-based housing legal services and advocacy organization established and led by people of color to empower, educate and represent low-income communities and community coalitions preventing gentrification and displacement. Founded in 2019, CoRe has racked up several impressive wins, stopping nearly 1,000 evictions, filing 4,000+ affirmative litigation cases, engaging more than 8,000 New Yorkers at housing rights workshops and recovering settlements of all sizes for tenants across New York City.
“After years of feeling powerless against our abusive landlord who wasn’t providing heat and hot water nor repairing my apartment, my neighbors and I had no other choice than to reach out for help. With the help of our attorney from Communities Resist we were able to organize a Tenant Association and fight back against the abusive landlord. We finally won,” said Ramona Blash of 316 Suydam St. Tenant Association.
About the Cooper Square Committee
The Cooper Square Committee (CSC) works with area tenants to contribute to the preservation and development of affordable, environmentally healthy housing and community/cultural spaces so that the Cooper Square area remains racially, economically, and culturally diverse. The Cooper Square Committee has spearheaded significant neighborhood victories in our history, comprising over 60 years of tenant organizing, community-based planning, advocacy and development. We rely on the active involvement of our members in the organization’s work to advance our affordable housing agenda.
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