Posted by Leonard Steinberg on April 6th, 2012

Do you pay a half or a third of the rent for the same apartment as your next door neighbor? Well, in New York there are some antiquated laws that allow this insanity (paid for by landlords, yet protected by some politicians whose only goal is re-election).  I know of some wealthy, famous, RICH people who keep citizenship in the Hamptons, remain separated and pay super-low rent because of these laws. You could argue that governments should provide affordable housing and you would be correct……but should this ‘government provided affordable housing’ be paid for by a few select landlords/individual owners? And who decides who qualifies for this perk?  Why do only a select few benefit by this?

The U.S. Supreme Court will decide this month whether to take a case challenging the constitutionality of New York’s 1943 rent regulation law that gives tenants the right to renew their leases and limits rent increases to a variable percentage. If taken, the case would be heard in the high court’s October term — and a decision would be rendered by June 2013.

While the rent laws have withstood numerous court challenges over the years, the highly conservative court led by Chief Justice Roberts — which has already declared corporations to have the rights of people and may strike down the federal Affordable Health Care Act — has tenants all over New York nervous. But our elected officials have yet to contemplate actions government could take to ameliorate the effects of an abrupt end to rent stabilization and rent control.

Just like real estate taxes, if the select few beneficiaries lost their privileges, the majority would benefit. This court decision will be very telling as to whether we do or do not indeed live on ANIMAL FARM, where we are all equal but some are more equal than others…..