Is Rent Control Heading for Extinction?
By Karen Ceraso In signing Massachusetts rent-control’s death warrant in January, Governor William Weld effectively dropped the number of U.S. states with rent control to three California, New Jersey, and New York, along with the District of Columbia. Under a steady barrage of challenges from conservatives and the real estate industry, rent control has become an endangered species. The election of Governor George Pataki has tenant advocates in New York City up in arms. Although the majority of the state’s rent-controlled units are located in New York City, rent control also affects Nassau, Westchester, and Rockland Counties outside the city. Upstate, rent control only covers a few thousand units in Albany and Buffalo, in old buildings subject to permanent vacancy decontrol. Governor Pataki, an upstate politician, had a “perfect anti-tenant voting history,” during his time as a state legislator, Michael McKee of the New York State Tenants & Neighbors Coalition wrote in the organization’
