New York, New York Is a Helluva Mess

There always seems to be something to beat up on New York about, and, God bless their little pointy heads, they just keep poking themselves in the eye with crisis after crisis.

Somehow it’s the taxpayers left in the state who are always on the short end of the stick.

Housing is really a problem and not a recent one, although greatly exacerbated by the influx of illegals flooding into the state. Back in June, Eric Adams, New York City’s dapper chief executive, proposed paying residents to take illegals into their homes to help with the overflow of bodies on the streets and in shelters.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams proposed Monday that New Yorkers accept illegal immigrants into their private homes and get paid for it.

Following up on the latest effort to place a growing number of migrants in houses of worship, the mayor said he wants to go beyond that solution by paying local homeowners and landlords.

He said moving asylum seekers into private homes would be a progression from housing single migrant men in 50 churches, mosques and other houses of worship across the five boroughs.

The $125 per illegal number was bandied about as compensation for eventually sheltering them in homes as a natural progression moving that population out from churches, etc.

…The nonprofit New York Disaster Interfaith Services plans to make available about 50 religious spaces for overnight shelter for up to 19 single adult men at each location per night.

The program will cost the city $125 a person, per day — about a third of what it reportedly cost taxpayers to house migrants at homeless shelters or hotels.

Sounds like a lot of money, but I guess to the city and state, it’s a huge savings over what they’re spending now.

…New York City initially planned to spend about $12.3 billion on migrants from 2022 to 2025, with migrant care costs, which were unplanned, making up 2.5% to 4.3% of the city’s spending in fiscal year 2023. 

“That, I think, made it real,” says Chishti. “That this is not going to be sort of a nice Statue of Liberty handshake in welcoming immigrants. This has a real physical cost.”

Adams later reduced spending estimates to $10 billion in the 2024 budget, citing higher tax revenues and better fiscal management. But that left some city councilmembers and immigration advocates puzzled over what exactly, had changed.

Down at the human level, the city is spending $396 a day on each migrant coming through the shelter system, according to the City Comptroller’s office. These costs include shelter, health care, Medicaid enrollment, vaccinations, school enrollment, legal orientation, and more, although a detailed breakdown of costs was not available to the comptroller as of December 2023. There are indirect costs, too, with a general strain on public services, the costs associated with integrating the new arrivals into the labor market, and the impact on communities.

There hasn’t been much movement or news how plans are proceeding on that front yet. But it’s interesting that hizzoner piped up about the idea just as Gov Kathy Hochul and the legislature’s Plus One  ADU (Additional Dwelling Unit) legislation started humming along. That’s where the state gives a low or moderate-income homeowner up to $125,000 (plus all sorts of bennies like expedited permitting help, etc.) for upgrading an existing structure, converting a garage or attic, or just plain building a tiny house in the backyard into a habitable abode. For…gosh, whoever might need to live there. And if the homeowner wants to rent it out after the state foots part – or all – of the bill, why, that’s okay, too.

Neat how that works. The state is enticing and financing the middle and lower classes to make their lives more “affordable” by becoming basically migrant housing.

I’d be very careful what I wished for when a government as prone to Big Brotherism as New York starts waving cash for a piece of my property, though. Admittedly not being completely up on the niceties of rental law in New York still doesn’t stop my jaundiced eye from squinting at the “deal.” Particularly when you realize that these “migrants” are incredibly well-versed in whatever “rights” and handouts are to be awarded to them wherever they land. And that New York is one of the ground zeros for squatting battles. 

There’s no way I’d even entertain the idea, as I wrote when I first learned of Adams’ proposal last year.

…But it’s what’s not being said in any of the pitches for the mayor’s vision that could bite homeowners in the tookus who jump on this. The different 30 day rules he’s referring to have nothing to do with what happens when the illegals you’ve allowed to take shelter in your home, by virtue of the kindness of your heart and largess of the state, then decide they don’t want to leave. New York City and state rules favor squatters. And there are also very specific triggers for being able to claim residency in any abode you’ve occupied that make it practically impossible for a homeowner to safely rent rooms to these people.

As if that weren’t enough, now the NY state legislature wants to step in and make the entire state “rent-controlled.” Yes, if they get their druthers, you would no longer be allowed to charge what you can get for your property or what even helped you break even. With their cost of living and taxes, trying to keep pace with those in a once-a-year rent increase more than the CPI is “unreasonable”?

You have to marvel at the enlightened economic thinking of New York politicians. Gov. Kathy Hochul and her Legislature are hashing out a deal as part of the state budget that would impose universal rent control while creating tax breaks for housing developers. Increase disincentives for investment, and then layer on subsidies. Genius.

Rents in New York City have soared in recent years even more than inflation. The average monthly rent in Manhattan for market-rate apartments last year was roughly $5,300, about 30% higher than in 2021. Progressives accuse landlords of price-gouging, though their 2019 rent-stabilization law is a major culprit.

Democrats are now pushing so-called Good Cause Eviction standards that would establish a de facto cap on rent increases in what are now market-rate apartments. They want to classify rent increases that exceed 3% or 1.5 times the consumer-price index, whichever is higher, as “unreasonable.” Landlords couldn’t evict tenants who refuse to pay more.

…Rent increases on nearly half of New York City’s rental housing stock are already capped, which is a disincentive for landlords to invest in maintenance and improvements. Tenants in rent-regulated units are roughly twice as likely to complain about rodents, heating breakdowns, mold and peeling paint as those in market-rate units. Landlords used to be allowed to “de-regulate” units when tenants moved out and the rent exceeded $2,800 a month. The 2019 law bars them from doing so and limits rent increases to pay for renovations.

…Extending rent control to market-rate apartments will compound the 2019 law’s damage and discourage new housing. Are Democrats in Albany trying to precipitate a local banking crisis by spurring massive write-downs on apartment buildings? Their plan could make New York housing uninvestable.

The tenant couldn’t be evicted for refusing to pay this “unreasonable” rent increase. The state is willing to create its own squatters category on your property.

Who in their right mind would be a landlord in New York right now?

Ah, progressive hellholes. 

They simply get more hellish.