Queens, New York-based Yoso Properties faces pushback from East Main Street tenants vowing to fight evictions from properties slated for housing redevelopment that will increase rents. State Rep. Antonio Felipe, chair of the housing committee, is looking at expediting a law that would provide protections from no-fault evictions.
Mayor Joe Ganim weighs in on this issue above in conjunction with the Fair Rent Commission.
From News 12:
Leslie Caraballo, a single-working mother of Bridgeport, says she and 29 other families who live in several properties along East Main Street received eviction notices.
The residents claim the evictions are unreasonable and believe the developer is only buying the properties to renovate and increase the rent.
“I’m fighting this,” Caraballo said. “But what’s going to happen now to me? What’s going to happen now to my child?”
City Council President Aidee Nieves says the developer has agreed to make concessions.
“This was a very big real estate sale,” said Nieves.
Caraballo says there’s no allowance made for things such as application fees and a severe shortage of available housing.
“What about my kid? What about the kids here who already have schools?” asks Caraballo.
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Not an abundance of information here,but it sounds like the developer legally purchased these properties and is looking to renovate. He has every right to do it.
Perhaps you recognize “rental housing” as a subject I have called attention to in recent years. Quality affordable housing is necessary in the City and is the reason I have focused on the “dead” Fair Housing and Fiar Rent commissions. They have died from failure by a series of mayors to create a sufficient flow of nominated community members from which they make timely appointments. When current folks serving twenty years ago had no new nominations, the ability to hold meetings with quorums was eliminated and these “resident boards” passed away in plain sight. “Fairness” regarding the sheltering of residents became a circus, chaos, and an open opportunity for investor profit.
The City Council took up the cause last year by approving a new ordinance, promoting a new Fair Rent Commission, staffing the cause in the current budget, and will see a first virtual meeting this week, I have been told, though public access is not communicated on the Fair Rent Commission website at this moment, that instructions will be available.
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The possibility that the East Main Street narrative above does not fit into Fair Rent Commission issues was floated to me by staff since the East Main St properties are “evictions”, not fair ent issues. If you change the narrative, people become further alienated from FAIRNESS. Are current renters being evicted by new owners, so that repairs and renovations can be done? Renovations happen in Bridgeport housing that is HUD supported without evictions. Floor by floor, unit by unit, there is temporary dislocation without evictions. What is different in this case? Why does the law, if it does, permit this turnover of satisfied renters, who face normal and timely renewals, with or without attention to updating, separate the issues so that NO BOARD OR COMMISSION in the City exists to quiet the reasonable outcry from threatened residents?
Yoso Properties is a NY developer. Their website declares that they offer their “customers a stress free” experience. They have bought the property in question at a price that likely makes sense to them when rents are increased with new tenants after renovation. Their YOSO website says nothing about current residents in properties in which they become interested or invested. Where is a body in the City that can bring more attention to this current fast lane for real estate investors who have little or no previous stake in the community? Where is the legislative channel that applies to this form of transaction, and transition, that acknowledges resident rights and some form of fairness? Time will tell.