SCRIE & DRIE Tenants & the MCI

Tenants on SCRIE (Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption) and DRIE (Disabled Rent Increase Exemption) will NOT pay the Major Capital Improvement (MCI) increase every month.  BUT

(1) You must pay (just once) the increased security resulting from the MCI's increase for your apartment.  
1 bedroom apartment: $23.01
2 bedroom apartment: $30.68
3 bedroom apartment: $38.35.

(2) You must notify DRIE or SCRIE using a form called "Adjustment of Abatement" about the MCI so that the government can pay Stellar the increase.  

SCRIE tenants can find the form at http://home2.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/pdf/scrie/scrie_adjustment_to_abatement.pdf .
You will need to fill in your SCRIE Docket Number.

DRIE tenants can find the form at  http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/pdf/drie/drie_adjustment_to_abatement.pdf
You will need to fill in your DRIE Case Number.

• Fill in the form, including your Docket or Case Number.  Check "Major Capital Improvement" in the Section II.  Sign and date the form in Section 8.

• Attach a copy of the DHCR order granting the MCI to the form.

• Send them together to the address on the form:

NYC Department of Finance

Attn: SCRIE (or if you're on DRIE, write, "Attn. DRIE")

59 Maiden Lane, 22nd Floor

New York, NY 10038.

If you do not have a copy of the DHCR order granting the MCI, please contact Sue. 

Call or Write Governor Cuomo

The rent-stabilization and rent-control laws that provide basic rent and eviction protections for 2.5 million New Yorkers are set to expire this June, putting affordable housing of some 2.5 million New Yorkers - including us - in jeopardy. While Governor Cuomo’s staff has indicated some willingness to roll the renewal of rent regulations into the budget process, this still hasn’t happened. We need to keep the pressure on the Governor to act sooner rather than later to renew and strengthen the rent laws.

Please CALL or WRITE the Governor.

IF YOU CALL (518-474-8390), here's a script you may want to use:

Hi, my name is _________ and I’m calling to ask Governor Cuomo to protect tenants by renewing and strengthening rent laws.  We need the Governor to stand up to special interests and protect millions of everyday New Yorkers and their families. Please tell Governor Cuomo to support renters, repeal vacancy destabilization, and save tenants in former Mitchell-Lamas. 

IF YOU WRITE , here's a sample letter you may want to use:
E-mail him through his website at: http://www.governor.ny.gov/contact/GovernorContactForm.php
Fax him at  518-474-1513 or send the letter by regular mail at the address on the letter:


(Date)

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo
Executive Chamber
Albany, New York 12224


Re: Strengthen Rent Laws Now

Dear Governor Cuomo:

    I urge you to support full repeal of vacancy destabilization, and re-regulation of the hundreds of thousands of apartments that have been deregulated during the last two decades.

    Restoration of our rent laws is necessary for the future economic and social health of New York State.

Sincerely,

(your name signed)
(your name & address printed)
__________________

The Real Rent Reform Campaign (R3) is working for ALL of us - including the market-rate tenants who need the protections of rent regulation.  If you can

• flyer
• phonebank
• come out for rallies or town hall meetings

please contact Sue or Steve!

For updates and more information on the R-3 Campaign, visit:   http://www.realrentreform.blogspot.com ; and "friend" R3 on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/realrentreform .

Our building & neighbor in West Side Spirit report

West Side Spirit

http://westsidespirit.com/2011/03/09/an-apartment-as-a-lifeline/

An Apartment as a Lifeline

Posted by West Side Spirit on March 9, 2011 · View Comments

By Megan Finnegan

EXCERPT:

Nery Cruz has lived in her apartment on 97th Street for 31 years, and she has never been more fearful for her future.

Cruz, 60, shares her two-bedroom apartment with her daughter, a teacher with an Ivy League education and a master’s degree who can’t find work. Cruz works full time as a social worker at a hospital. She just renewed her lease again, for $679 a month.


While the price might seem like a steal, it’s all that Cruz says she can afford, and she’s terrified of what will happen if rent-regulation laws aren’t renewed and strengthened this year.

“If the rent goes up, where are we going to live? We’re going to end up in shelters,” said Cruz. She said that rents on some neighbors’ apartments, after they have been vacated, have been jacked up to the $3000 range, forever pushing them out of rent regulation.

Cruz fears that her landlord wants her to leave in order do the same thing to her apartment.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE: West Side Spirit, http://westsidespirit.com/2011/03/09/an-apartment-as-a-lifeline/

See also "Rents Through the Roof," http://westsidespirit.com/2011/03/09/rents-through-the-roof/ 
 

Rent Stabilized tenants: Calculate your MCI increase (more or less)

Thanks to tenant Janak Ramakrishnan for creating an on-line calculator.  It is for tenants who choose to pay off the retroactive part of the MCI (Major Capital Improvement) month by month.  (There is no disadvantage if you do that.)

If you click here, you can type in the rent on your current lease and the number of bedrooms in your apartment, and calculate approximately 

• your rent bill for April 2011 
• your permanent MCI increase
• how many months it will take you to pay off the retroactive amount in installments
• your monthly installment (paying off the retroactive amount) for the first year
• your monthly installment (paying off the retroactive amount)  for some months into the second year.

This figure will only be APPROXIMATE since it does not take into account when and whether your lease will be renewed during this period, and whether any lease renewal is for one or two years.

The MCI increase is on top of any lease renewal increase.  So if your lease renewal increase is 6% for example, and the MCI is roughly 6%, that would make roughly a 12% increase in your current rent.

Click here or above for the calculator. 

General Tenants Meeting - Wed., March 16, 2011

Come to a 

GENERAL TENANTS MEETING

Wed., March 16th

8 PM - in the Community Room 

Get a copy of the Tenants Bill of Rights  that applies to ALL tenants (regulated and market-rate).  If the bill is passed by the NYC Council, it will have to be posted in every apartment building). 

We will discuss:

(1) The MCI (Major Capital Improvement) increase - which is generally under 6% of your rent stabilized rent.

(2)  DHCR's denial of Stellar's application for "unique or peculiar circumstances" increases in our rent.

(3) The Real Rent Reform Campaign  (on facebook and see the main website at http://realrentreform.blogspot.com/ ), including the Omnibus Rent and other bills.  

Please bring a chair and a neighbor!