Loft Law Renewed to Next March 31
Housing Issue Remains Tied to Other Issues
By Bill Hall

In late October, the state Legislature passed a 100-plus-page bill that not only expanded gambling in New York State, authorizing the governor to negotiate up to six casinos with New York native American tribes, but also renewed the Loft Law until next March 31.

This past March, as loft tenants and others began to lobby for the renewal of the Loft Law, it was assumed that yet again, the state Senate and Governor George Pataki would hold the loft tenants hostage as a bargaining chip to use against the Assembly. As it turned out, the loft law was given five short extensions through the summer and early fall, and the legislature battled Pataki over a host of budget issues. Ultimately, the Loft Law and a number of other contentious issues were all extended to March 31, 2002.

The fight is far from over.

New Loft Tenants Not Protected

The Loft Law, originally enacted in 1982, requires that landlords bring rented lofts into compliance with building-code standards. After getting the correct certificate of occupancy, the landlord can pass the code costs along to the tenants, and the lofts become rent-stabilized. The law protects about 10,000 tenants.

This year’s renewal battle was further complicated by two added factors. First, and most important, over the past 20 years many tenants have created additional lofts from vacant manufacturing space. These tenants were blindsided just prior to Christmas last year, when the Giuliani administration started to enforce fire and building-code requirements against them. Some tenants were forced out of their lofts for a time, and many incurred heavy legal costs defending their tenancies in court and at the Environmental Control Board.

As the existing Loft Law requires a tenant to have been in possession of the unit in 1981 in order to be protected, none of these newer lofts are covered by it. The tenants in these lofts did a great job organizing and made a major push for coverage, but Senate Republicans rebuffed their arguments. They were not successful this year. With the Loft Law up for consideration again in less than five months, this is an issue that will not go away.

The second factor, not unrelated to the first, was a very antitenant bill put forward by the Giuliani administration that would have drastically weakened the existing Loft Law, and denied legal protection to future loft settlers. The city’s proposal was very complicated, very anti-tenant, and seemingly the product of the Loft Board’s then-executive director, Jeanette Koster. It was the last of a series of anti-tenant moves by her. She resigned from the board in late August when it became clear her "screw the tenants" bill wasn’t going anywhere.

Prior to the events of September 11, the battle between the Legislature and the governor over the state’s budget and social issues had already taken twists and turns never before seen. In the wake of the attack on the World Trade Center, the differing fiscal assumptions and the issues of budget allocation became more difficult overnight.

The battle is far from over. In fact, given the short renewal period after a spate of extension, the battle continues. With luck, a new Mayor who will fight for tenant rights, and continued lobbying in Albany by all loft tenants--those currently covered and those seeking coverage--hopefully next year will produce different results.

Bill Hall is on the Lower Manhattan Loft Tenants executive committee.