News

NEW YORK, NY April 12, 2008 —Affordable housing advocates are rallying against global lenders who they say are giving out high-risk loans to large developers, who in turn are allegedly trying to push out tenants who pay the lowest rents. WNYC's Cindy Rodriguez reports.

REPORTER: A large developer named Vantage Management recently bought 30 rent-stabilized buildings in Queens with just over 2,000 apartments. The Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development says the company has filed close to one thousand lawsuits to try to remove tenants who are paying low rents. Benjamin Dulchin says the lawsuits are an effort to push people out due to pressure from lenders looking for bigger profits:

DULCHIN: A lot of the private equity backed landlords are explicitly expecting 20 to 30 percent of the tenants to turn over in the first year, and that's really a rate of turnover that can only be achieved through harassment.

REPORTER: According to the Rent Guidelines Board, the average turnover rate for rent stabilized buildings is 10 percent. Vantage Management adamantly disputes the allegations of harassment and says tenants are only sued if they are not paying the rent or if they're illegally subletting their apartments.

For WNYC, I'm Cindy Rodriguez