Met Council on Housing used grassroots community organizing to advocate for tenants’ rights. In the years following Met Council on Housing’s founding, the organization addressed pressing issues such as urban renewal, the need for more public housing and the expansion of Columbia University into Morning side Heights.

Early Grassroots Organizing

Met Council on Housing’s grassroots campaigns during the 1960s addressed issues of urban renewal, discriminatory evictions and increasing residential segregation that affected neighborhoods throughout the city.

Urban Renewal

The founders of Met Council on Housing were brought together by their neighborhood struggles against urban renewal in New York City during the 1950s. Directed by planning czar Robert Moses, urban renewal sought to remove substandard housing and stimulate downtown economies. However, the process involved the widespread demolition of working class neighborhoods in favor of middle class housing developments. By 1959 sixteen massive projects had displaced over 100,000 people, who were disproportionately African-American or Latino. By the late 1950s “Save Our Homes” organizations across the city were successfully exposing the pain of wholesale neighborhood destruction and the role of urban renewal in perpetuating racial segregation. While opposing the destruction of neighborhoods, campaigning for the removal of Robert Moses, and creating alternate plans for redevelopment, Met Council on Housing brought together the work of organizations such as Yorkville Save Our Homes, the Chelsea Coalition on Housing, and the Cooper Square Committee.

Public Housing

Public housing has always been a fundamental part of Met Council on Housing’s political goals. In New York City, large-scale public housing projects contributed to the displacement of low-income families, as neighborhoods were razed for new developments. Met Council on Housing proposed a more radical solution to the housing crisis: a ban on the destruction of livable housing, the strict enforcement of existing housing codes and the construction of small-scale public housing projects on vacant land (termed “vest-pocket” housing). Met Council on Housing published these suggestions in the 1964 report A Citizens’ Survey of Available Land, which documented 122 vacant sites on which low-income housing could be built without displacing residents.

Columbia University

Tensions between Columbia University and neighboring residents in Morningside Heights and Harlem had been simmering since the early 1950s, when an urban renewal project displaced thousands of residents north of 122nd Street. Columbia University continued its expansion into Morningside Heights throughout the 1960s, evicting tenants who were disproportionately African-American or Latino, and leading to a New York City Human Rights Commission investigation. Met Council on Housing member Marie Runyon, co-founder of Morningsiders United, led the fight to preserve low-income, integrated housing in Morningside Heights. Morningsiders United, with support from the activist organization Students for a Democratic Society, challenged Columbia University’s policy of keeping apartments intentionally vacant by reclaiming these buildings and preparing them for occupancy. Met Council on Housing also worked with student and neighborhood activists to successfully oppose the construction of a university gymnasium in Harlem.

In later years, Met Council on Housing turned its attention to supporting the citywide squatters’ movement, raising awareness about poor housing conditions through events such as the People’s Court Housing Crimes Trial, and challenging the practice of warehousing apartments

During the 1970s and 1980s, Met Council on Housing focused on the need to increase the supply of decent and affordable housing for low-income families in the city. Met Council on Housing lent support to the Operation Move-In squatter movement, dramatized poor housing conditions in the People’s Court Housing Crimes Trial and opposed the practice of warehousing vacant apartments.

1970 Squatters’ Movement

Factors such as urban renewal, the physical expansion of major institutions like Columbia University, and the lack of sufficient public housing made it very difficult for low-income families to find housing in New York City during the late 1960s. During the summer of 1970, communities responded with a squatter movement which installed over 300 families in vacant apartments across the city. Most of these squatted apartments, frequently slated for demolition in urban renewal areas, were owned by the city or by large institutions. Led by African-American and Latino families, this squatter movement received support from Met Council on Housing in the form of help with repairs, negotiations with landlords and fighting evictions. Squatters succeeded in delaying institutional expansion into Morningside Heights. Some landlords yielded to demands, providing services in squatted apartments and for a few, the right to remain in their new homes. The squatter movement gained significant media coverage, giving exposure to critical housing issues such as urban renewal, property speculation, long-term vacancies and the need for affordable housing.

People’s Court Housing Crimes Trial

Met Council on Housing continued to work to expose the substandard housing conditions faced by low-income families. In December 1970 Met Council on Housing organized the People’s Court Housing Crimes Trial with the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords and I Wor Kuen (a radical Chinese organization). The event brought together a multiracial and intergenerational group of people working on housing issues in New York City. Tenants, squatters and sympathetic city officials testified to an audience of 1,500 at Columbia University about the poor housing available to low-income residents. The testimonies were also heard by a panel of judges representing the Met Council on Housing, the Black Panthers, the Movement for Puerto Rican Independence, the Young Lords, and I Wor Kuen. A 13-count indictment was issued to the City of New York, as well as to the landlords and bank of the city. The People’s Court placed then-Mayor John Lindsay in contempt of court for failing to appear.

Warehousing

As the city rebounded from the 1970s financial crisis, new threats to tenants emerged during the 1980s. Coop conversion allowed landlords to convert their rental apartments into market-rate cooperatives or condominiums. The regulations for coop conversion allowed vacant apartments to be sold at higher costs, increasing the incentive for landlords to “warehouse” vacant apartments in preparation for conversion. By the late 1980s, a New York State survey estimated the between 40,000 and 100,000 apartments were being warehoused annually. Met Council on Housing campaigned for the passage of regulations by City Council to limit the warehousing of apartments.

An overview of the legislative campaigns central to the work of Met Council on Housing: challenging the Urstadt Law and Maximum Base Rent, campaigning for the Emergency Tenant Protection Act and the Flynn-Dearie rent control bill, and fighting the 1997 Rent Wars.

Rent control in New York City originated in wartime limitations on the rights of landlords due to emergency housing shortages. During World War II, the federal Office of Price Administration was given the authority to regulate local rents. After a year of tenant mobilization, a rent freeze was applied to the city in 1943. The provisions of this wartime rent control system continue to form the basis of the city’s rent regulations. Met Council on Housing has fought over the past fifty years to preserve and expand this system, particularly through periods of backlash such as the 1970s and 1990s, when the rent regulation system came under sustained attack from the real estate and landlord lobby groups.

Maximum Base Rent

In 1971 modifications to the rent control system were passed under Mayor John V. Lindsay, introducing rent increases through the Maximum Base Rent system. This system began with an initial across-the-board rent increase of 15%, as well as subsequent yearly increases of 7.5% until rent reached a state-determined maximum level. This legislation affected 1.3 million apartments in New York City. Met Council on Housing organized a rent strike campaign, which failed to gain citywide momentum, but did win specific concessions in forty striking buildings.

Home Rule and Vacancy Decontrol

Beginning in 1962, the policy of “home rule” allowed New York City to have control over housing legislation for the city. However, by 1972 Governor Nelson Rockefeller reversed this policy with the Urstadt Law, placing the responsibility for rent legislation in the hands of state politicians in Albany. This put tenants in NYC at a dramatic disadvantage when pursuing rent control legislation. At the same time, New York State legislature passed a second bill, introducing “vacancy decontrol” which removed rent regulations from apartments in New York City as tenants vacated their apartments. Met Council on Housing, along with organizations such as the East Harlem Tenants’ Council, called for a citywide rent strike in response to the Urstadt Law and vacancy decontrol.

Emergency Tenant Protection Act

After significant set backs like Maximum Base Rent, the reversal of home rule and vacancy decontrol, Met Council on Housing fought to maintain the remnants of the rent regulation system. An upswing in tenant organizing led to the passage of the Emergency Tenant Protection Act in 1974, which extended rent stabilization to most of the apartments affected by vacancy decontrol. Although the legislation was imperfect, it was vital for retaining the surviving rent regulations. Met Council on Housing collaborated with New York State Tenants Legislative Coalition to defend and extend the protections of the Emergency Tenant Protection Act throughout the 1970s.

Flynn-Dearie Bill

Throughout the late 1970s, Met Council on Housing collaborated with tenant organizations from across the state under the umbrella of the Coalition Against Rent Increase Pass-Alongs (CARIP). In 1979 CARIP backed the introduction in Albany of the Flynn-Dearie Bill, an uncompromising revision of existing rent regulations. The Flynn-Dearie bill would have eliminated the distinction between rent controlled and rent stabilized tenants, required landlords to open their books to state auditing before new rent increases were approved, and ensured that low-income seniors and disabled people never paid more than 25% of their income on rent. CARIP and Met Council on Housing lobbied intensely for the Flynn-Dearie bill. However, in 1983 the state assembly passed compromise legislation that excluded many of the provisions critical to Met Council on Housing’s vision for statewide rent control.

The 1997 Rent Wars

With existing rent regulations set to expire in June 1997, the real estate and landlord lobby launched their strongest attempt to destroy tenant protections in New York State since 1971. Tenants responded in great numbers to this threat. Met Council on Housing’s Annual Tenant Lobby Day saw over 7,000 people on the streets of Albany, including representatives from labor, the NAACP, religious organizations and community groups. Over 1,000 tenants gathered outside Governor George Pataki’s Manhattan office the day rent regulations were set to expire. The revival of a radical and diverse tenant movement succeeded in preserving the foundation of the rent regulation system, though tenants suffered a serious defeat. The Rent Regulation Reform Act of 1997 allowed 20% rent increases on vacant apartments, extended the impact of vacancy decontrol and placed new limitations on the powers of Housing Court.