Talk Bronx New York

A group of Bronx tenants were crowing Tuesday after scoring a court victory that rolls back recent rent hikes and could bolster rent regulation protections across the city.

Tenants at 1600 Sedgwick Ave. sued their landlord, Riverview Redevelopment, for hiking rents on 80 apartments after removing them from a federal rent regulation program, which the tenants’ lawyers argue was done illegally.

In late December, a Bronx state Supreme Court judge issued a preliminary injunction, ruling that the landlord must charge regulated rents.

“We are thrilled that this judge agrees that our landlord - whether they like it or not - must charge rent-stabilized rates,” said tenant leader Cora Bennett, who was targeted for eviction for refusing to pay the added rent.

The court cited a March appeals court ruling that Manhattan’s Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village landlord Tishman Speyer could not deregulate apartments while receiving J-51 tax abatements and exemptions from the city.

Riverview Redevelopment has collected over $150,000 in the same tax breaks since 2000, according to the Urban Justice Center, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of tenants.

“By extending the victory of the tenants in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, the state Supreme Court’s preliminary injunction has put all predatory landlords on notice,” said UJC attorney Garrett Wright.

Riverview Redevelopment took the 80 apartments out of the federal Below Market Interest Rate program early last year and then hiked rents by hundreds of dollars. The landlord had already begun eviction proceedings against a half a dozen tenants for nonpayement of rent by the time UJC filed suit. Read more..

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Report: Bronx Investment Returns Little for Borough’s Poor

A report focusing on the Northwest Bronx has found that as investment in the borough has increased in recent years, the influx of money has had little effect on the area’s poorer residents.

Released today by the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition and the Urban Justice Center, the report “Boom for Whom? How the Resurgence of the Bronx Is Leaving Residents Behind,” found that the area’s residents are stymied in a “a cycle of dead-end, part-time, and low-wage work.”

According to the study, which was based on surveys of 351 residents and Census data, 32% of surveyed adults are currently unemployed. Of those adults who are working and have a high school degree or lower, 55% are making a living wage.

The report also notes that what jobs do exist are mainly in retail, health care, and food services – industries that consist primarily of minimum wage jobs.

It recommends that Bronx neighborhoods undergoing redevelopment negotiate community benefits agreements with developers to create more affordable housing and higher-paying jobs. It also states that the city should build more high schools and create more workforce development programs.

The survey did not employ randomized sampling – for example, it relied heavily on data collected from Bronx high school students because its authors wanted to highlight the trouble teenagers face in finding work.

And while the racial demographics of those surveyed is close to that of census data, there are differences. Census data shows that 13% of the Northwest Bronx is white, but in the report, 4% of those surveyed were white.

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