Leon Goldenberg

A property tax credit won't fix rent stabilized housing. It doesn't restore the value buildings need to refinance and repair. No government has the money to cover that gap for the decades this housing has to last. NYCHA proved that. Nonprofits and Article XI buildings pay little or no tax and are still underwater. A credit deep enough to right the ship would likely come with strict regulatory agreements on the rest of the building. Lenders won't lend against that. Vacancy resets are key. They speed up apartment rebuilds and restore enough value that lenders will lend again. When lenders won't lend, rents carry more of the cost. By "protecting" an apartment no one lives in, you put a bigger target on the ones renters actually live in. No one is saying resets solve everything. Property taxes and liability insurance costs still need to be addressed. But resets are essential to any fix.

Fannie Mae now assumes flat rents for four to eight years on NYC stabilized buildings. Freddie Mac paused new loans. After 2019 they became the lenders of last resort. 74% of private lenders have stopped lending. If rents won’t rise, and lenders won’t lend there is no money for repairs or improvements. The people who face the impact of that most directly aren’t landlords. They are renters living in buildings that are falling apart around them. We are told the only component missing from NYCHA is billions of dollars in funding at the same time the only thing missing from a 850,000 rent stabilized units is a coat of paint. Both of these things are lies.