City Council Hearing on Predatory Equity

On Monday, April 27, 2009, the City Council held a hearing on Predatory Equity - including about our landlord, Laurence Gluck of Stellar Management.

Predatory Equity occurs when investors buy affordable buildings knowing that what all the tenants pay together (the "rent roll") cannot support their investment or pay the high returns they expect. The only ways to get that money are to

• oust rent regulated tenants (through eviction, bribes, and harassment)
• sell or refinance the building immediately for more money (no longer possible in this market) - as Gluck did for the Riverton in Harlem, or
• let the building maintenance and infrastructure go to seed.

The City Council hearing was packed to the rafters, as tenants from every borough looked through the Predatory Equity Survival Guide - a terrific, easy-to-understand pamphlet.

Click on the publication below for newspaper reports on the hearing:

The New York Post, Foreclosing in on 90,000 Apartments

The New York Times, Housing & Economy

The Indypendent, Foreclosures Could Loom for Rent-Regulated Buildings.

For more information on this hearing, click here.