De Blasio Proposes Protections For Loft Residents

WILLIAMSBURG, BROOKLYN — Mayor Bill de Blasio is proposing new policies that would make it harder for landlords to rent regulated residential lofts at the market rate.

De Blasio proposed the steps on Wednesday as a new measure to help maintain the city’s supply of rent-regulated residential lofts. If the policies are approved by the New York City Loft Board, they would grant multiple new protections to loft residents. The rules would allow for all occupants of a loft to apply for rent-regulation status, even if said occupants aren’t the primary leaseholder, allowing affordable lofts to stay within families if a primary leaseholder dies. In cases where a landlord buys out a rent-regulated tenant, the rules would curb future rent increases instead of immediately allowing the loft to be rented at the market rate.

"I wish we didn’t have the phrase 'starving artist' but it was created for a reason," de Blasio said during a visit to a Williamsburg loft on Wednesday. "There’s got to be a place in this city for people who are creative, even if doesn’t make them wealthy. And this is what we defend today."

De Blasio faulted the Bloomberg administration and legislators in Albany for changing loft regulations to favor the real estate industry and landlords over tenants.

"Decisions of the previous administration again at the state made it easier for landlords to turn over their spaces and get market rates and take these live-work spaces out of regulation," he said.

Currently, an estimated 10,000 artists and other residents live in lofts that are overseen by the city’s Loft Board. The number of buildings with rent-regulated lofts has dropped by 30 percent in the last 13 years, according to the De Blasio administration.

“Lofts are a part New York City’s fabric. Our creative economy was largely fueled by artists who lived and worked in the same space,” said NY State Assembly Member Joseph Lentol, who represents Williamsburg. “While lofts serve many purposes, they continue to provide affordable housing that shapes New York’s live/work community.”

Separately, legislators in Albany are working to modernize the state’s Loft Law, which was first written in 1982 after New Yorkers began using manufacturing spaces as their primary residences. The law allows for tenants to petition the state to have a loft treated like a regular residential apartment, allowing the space to be brought up to code, legalized and rent regulated. Tenant advocates have long called for the law to be updated and made more tenant-friendly.

Image credit: Drew Angerer / Staff / Getty Images News