3510 Radio Wrap

New York City is facing a housing crisis with high rents and a lack of availability. Landlords are hesitant to rent out their spaces due to tenant protection policies and the difficulty of evicting non-paying tenants. This has led to many apartments sitting vacant. On the other hand, individuals like Shiran Revivo, a college graduate, are struggling to find affordable housing as prices continue to rise. The median asking rent for vacant apartments is $2,750, making it difficult for those with lower incomes to afford. The lack of available housing and high prices are contributing to the crisis. In the last couple of years, New York City, though it's never been cheap, has been facing an unprecedented housing crisis. We're seeing record high rents being driven partly by a lack of housing availability. Many places are not affordable for median income families, and many landlords are just refusing to rent out their spaces due to the policies in place for tenant protection in New York City. Reporter Baya Babaya spoke with individuals on both sides of this issue to get a sense of how they're managing it. So I'm here with Avi Benz, a homeowner in southeastern Brooklyn. Avi owns a three-family house in a residential neighborhood. He and his family occupy the first two floors of the home and rent out the third. He says he has no real choice but to be a landlord if he wants to live in this house. If I didn't need the money in order to pay the mortgage, there would be absolutely no reason why I would get a tenant. Avi explains that this is because landlords often get stuck with a tenant who doesn't pay their rent. We know some friends that weren't as lucky when they took in people that they had no idea about, but we got very lucky. It is stated in New York City's government website that the only way to evict a non-paying tenant is through a non-payment eviction proceeding in housing court. And Avi further adds that this can also be a very difficult and lengthy process. Yes, it can take up to a year sometimes, and that's after having to take days off of work to go back and forth to court, and having to spend money on a lawyer, and all that, and you still have to wait sometimes longer. Avi explains that the reason why homeowners are finding it so difficult to open their apartments up to new tenants is because of the lengthy eviction process. If it was easier to evict, then I wouldn't really be too concerned with who's coming in, I would just try to help. This is the reason why so many apartments are sitting vacant in the city. Homeowners are scared to get stuck with a problematic tenant who's not going to abide by their lease. The way New York system is so set up, and it's generally very much against the landlord, it's very difficult to take someone out once you bring them in. You have to really make sure in your gut you know that these people are going to come, they're not going to be a problem. It was found in HBS that 4.54% of all New York apartments are vacant as of 2021. The Gothamist also released a report stating that more than 13,000 rent-stabilized apartments sat empty for the past two years. As Avi just explained, this is because of the harsh regulations placed on landlords. Now let's hear from Shiran Revivo, a college graduate looking for affordable housing. Shiran is 23 years old and starting her career in the nursing field. She says that she finds it very difficult to find affordable housing. It's not easy. I look everywhere, but every single studio or one bedroom I find is close to $2,000. The median asking rent for all vacant apartments was $2,750 last year, up 46% from $1,875 in 2017. I do pretty well for a newly graduate, but definitely not enough to afford over $2,000 for an apartment, along with food, groceries, bills, transportation, and it's insane. Conventional wisdom says to keep housing costs below 30% of your income. So the average New York City renter would have to earn $134,000 per year, which is almost twice the city's median household income. Already about one-third of renters in New York are out there spending more than 50% of their income on rent. Many won't even look at your application if the asking price is above 30% of your income. She believes the reason for these insane market prices is that there's not enough housing available in New York City, which confirms the assertion made earlier that housing availability and apartment vacancies are trending upward. There's simply no room in the city. According to CBS News, rental prices in Manhattan are up to an average of nearly $5,200 a month in March of 2023, while the average annual salary in Manhattan is $6,607 a month. That's more than 50% of the average income spent on rent. As we move forward, our shared dedication for solving these problems will be the basis for creating a fair and affordable housing situation for all future generations. For Baruch College, this is Batia Babaev in New York City.