Dear Friends,
I am writing to ask that you join me in acting immediately regarding an issue of utmost importance to the future of preserving affordable housing in New York City.
As you probably know, New York City’s rent protections are established by the New York State Legislature – and consequently (despite a pro-tenant State Assembly) as a result of nearly four unbroken decades of a State Senate unfriendly to tenants, New York City’s rent laws have been severely weakened resulting in the loss of over 150,000 affordable apartments in the past decade alone. Now, for the first time in 40 years, those concerned with preserving affordable housing and addressing homelessness have an opportunity to make real progress – but the possibility of progress could be snatched from our hands IF WE DON’T ACT NOW TO URGE THAT A SENATOR HOSTILE TO THE INTERESTS OF TENANTS IS NOT APPOINTED TO CHAIR THE SENATE HOUSING COMMITTEE !!!
Please find below a suggested email / letter to State Senator (and leader of the Democratic Conference) John Sampson, urging him to reconsider his near decision (not yet final) to re-appoint State Senator Pedro Espada as the Chair of the Senate Housing Committee. As you may know, Espada is currently under investigation for his behavior in numerous ways, from his refusal to report on his campaign funders, to his reporting on his business dealings.
Please join me in contacting Senator Sampson ASAP by email and call his office this Monday expressing your concerns – and if you are able, to have a letter written to his office from your organization or House of Worship early this week. The affordable housing movement has never had a better chance to make progress on behalf of New Yorkers in need of housing security. Please join me and others in acting now to make this progress possible.
For more information about the work of the Interfaith Assembly please visit iahh.org
I join the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing and a broad coalition of individuals and organizations in urging you in the strongest possible terms NOT to re-appoint Pedro Espada as chair of the Senate Housing Committee.
As New Yorkers look to you and the New York State Senate for leadership in addressing the worse homelessness and affordable housing crisis this city has known in nearly 100 years, we are counting on you to appoint a housing chair committed to address their valid concerns for decent, affordable and secure housing – not one who has threatened to make the Senate an object of ridicule and derision.
As a member of the Senate and as its Housing chair last year, Senator Espada successfully torpedoed every single piece of pro-tenant legislation that came to the Senate for consideration. His dishonest and selfish behavior and his unwillingness to treat the Senate and the people of New York with the respect that we deserve should disqualify him from serving as the chair of a committee that needs an exemplary public servant – not one who seems to use every opportunity to thumb his nose at all that is decent and respectful. From refusing to report his campaign contributions, to parking his car at a fire hydrant on New Year’s Day, to the numerous other ways that he demonstrates his complete disregard of the public’s trust, he has shown himself to be unworthy of chairing the Housing Committee.
Certainly, with the numerous active investigations into his behavior (along with the fact that serving as “Majority Leader” should preclude his chairing any Senate committee) you and your colleagues can find a Senator more qualified to serve as Chair of the Housing Committee in this CRUCIAL YEAR in the efforts to establish real protections for the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in need of housing security.
Tenants and affordable housing advocates worked hard to help the Democrats become the majority in the State Senate. Being stuck with a Housing Committee chair who does the bidding of the landlord lobby rather than serve all New Yorkers would be a slap in the face for our efforts. If you do not pass real rent reform legislation this year, legislation that takes back lost tenant protections and re-regulates apartments that we have lost in the last 15 years, it is hard to see how you can maintain the majority after November. New Yorkers have waited long enough.
