Time runs out for New York City rent regulation renewal

NEW YORK (WABC) -- New York City tenants, clergy members and politicians are expressing outrage after the expiration of rent regulations for over 2 million residents.

The protections expired late Monday. Lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on extending it before a midnight deadline.

Governor Andrew Cuomo, like other politicians in Albany, have come under fire for the rent regulations expiring, and tenants are taking out their frustration on them.

Outside the governor's office in Manhattan Tuesday, they brought their tents, sleeping bags and even their pillows, along with chants of frustration.

"What do we want? Stronger rent laws!", they chanted.

Dozens of tenants living in rent-regulated apartments again took their protest to Cuomo's office and Lynda Williams brought her anger over the city's rent laws expiring.

"He's letting us go to bed every night thinking that he's going to do the right thing and he has not done the right thing," said Williams.

"We have no choice but to move to 633 Third Avenue and to take over his home," said lead organizer Jose Lopez.

They blame the governor as much as they do lawmakers in the Senate and the Assembly for not finding a way to strengthen the rent protections and to extend them beyond Monday's deadline.

"Now we are at risk of being on the street and I'm nervous," said tenant Vaughn Armour.

And he believes, "Rents are just going up, up, up, and all they are just trying to do is push it up to $2,500 and it becomes unstabilized."

The governor has said, "New York tenants should know that this state government will have zero tolerance for landlords that seek to exploit those who live in rent-regulated units".

2 million New Yorkers live in 1 million rent-regulated apartments. Molly Hernandez asks, where does she go at 72 years old if rents do go up?

"How much will it go up do you think?", we asked her. "How much will it go up? $2,500", she said. ("Can't afford that?") "Nope, I am on a fixed income, Social Security," she said.

"It's mind-boggling that these laws were allowed to expire," said City Councilman Daniel Garodnick, whose Manhattan district includes a largely rent-stabilized complex with more than 11,000 apartments.

If the laws aren't extended, restrictions on rent increases and evictions for more than 2 million tenants in and around New York City would disappear once their leases expire. Lawmakers say that's an unlikely scenario, but it has tenants nervous: New York City's 311 information hotline has seen an uptick in calls in recent days from tenants asking about the expiration, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

Cuomo has said he won't let lawmakers leave Albany until they renew the rent regulations, seen as crucial to the future of affordable housing in the nation's largest city.

The laws briefly expired during their last renewal cycle four years ago; an extension passed a few days later. Seeking to reassure tenants, Cuomo has said any renewal agreement this time will be retroactive and has warned of "serious legal consequences" for landlords who try to raise rents or dislodge tenants in the meantime.

The state Assembly's Democratic majority passed a plan in May that would renew the rules for four years, lower the rent increases allowed on vacant apartments and repeal a provision that currently allows some apartments to be deregulated when tenants move out. The Republican-led Senate passed a proposal Monday to extend the law for eight years and institute new income verification rules for tenants.

The Democratic governor has said he wants stronger tenant protections, among them making it tougher to deregulate vacant apartments. But his critics say he could do more to put a deal in motion. They accuse him of attempting to tie rent regulation to unrelated issues, such as his education tax credit proposal.

Natasha Creese is watching the debate play out from the apartment she shares with her sisters in Brooklyn's Crown Heights, a now-hot neighborhood that was not so when her family moved in a quarter-century ago. She's concerned that changes to the rent laws could accelerate displacement in the area, where an unregulated three-bedroom can easily rent for three or four times the $1,000 a month her family pays.

"It's nail-biting," she said.

For more information on tenants rights in New York City, please visit: http://www1.nyc.gov/site/hpd/renters/tenants-rights.page

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)