REPS. NADLER & CROWLEY URGE CITY NOT TO RAISE RENTS ON AIDS HOUSING TENANTS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Jerrold Nadler (NY-08) and Congressman Joseph Crowley (NY-07) today wrote to Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki, calling on them to abandon their plans to dramatically increase rent for tenants of supportive AIDS housing residences.  On October 4, the city announced significant rent increases for AIDS housing tenants, giving them less than one month’s notice.

“Increasing rent on low-income New Yorkers living with AIDS is shameful; giving them no warning and no time to prepare is even worse. We must do better,” Congressman Nadler said.  “As we enter the winter months ahead, people should not be thrown out into the cold.  We must do better by AIDS housing tenants,” continued Congressman Nadler.

            Congressman Crowley said, “These significant increases in rent will deny affordable housing to people with AIDS and will likely have a negative impact on efforts to curb the spread of HIV in New York City.  People living with AIDS and whose income is very limited should not be treated unfairly and subjected to the fear of losing the roof over their heads.”  

The text of the letter follows:

October 30, 2006

Governor George Pataki                                   Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
Executive Chamber                                           City Hall
Albany, NY 12224                                           New York, NY 10007

Dear Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg:

We are writing to express our serious concerns regarding the recently announced rent increases for tenants of supportive AIDS housing residences.  AIDS housing tenants have been given less than one month’s notice that their rent will increase significantly.

This is unacceptable. 

We are concerned about the impact of these policies on the lives and health of each individual tenant, many of whom receive Social Security Insurance, Social Security Disability, or Veterans benefits as their sole source of income, and we are deeply concerned about the impact these policies may have on HIV prevention and public health efforts.  The increased rent requirements may leave tenants with as little as $330 a month – an inadequate amount to meet their daily expenses.  Most of the people in the program will be paying more than half their income toward rent.

We are also concerned that the new policy may violate federal guidelines for rent collection in supportive housing programs, as well as federal regulations, where housing units, developments, or subsidy programs have received federal funding.  The proposed state policy may require rents significantly in excess of federal limits.  

In light of these concerns, we urge you to immediately suspend enforcement of the proposed new rent collection policy for AIDS housing tenants.  We also request a clear and complete accounting of federal funding that has been provided or utilized by state and local government agencies, and private not-for-profit housing and service providers, for the tenants who have been targeted by the proposed policy.

We look forward to working with you to resolve this matter in a way that protects the lives and health of these vulnerable New Yorkers and continues the progress we have made to end homelessness and HIV/AIDS. 

                                                            Sincerely,

            Jerrold Nadler                                                              Joseph Crowley
            Member of Congress                                                    Member of Congress

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