Policy and Public Information
RENT REGULATION AFTER 50 YEARS
An Overview of New York State's Rent Regulated Housing 1993
NEW YORK STATE DIVISION OF HOUSING & COMMUNITY RENEWAL
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POLICY AND PUBLIC INFORMATION
As the administrator of a government program affecting 2.5 million
New Yorkers, the agency has the responsibility to formulate and
disseminate clear, consistent policies and procedures and to
respond to all legitimate inquiries from tenants, owners and the
public. The Policy and Liaison Bureau is the legal voice of ORA. It
centralizes all policy coordination, legal advisory counseling, the
conducting of administrative hearings and public information under
the Deputy Counsel. This Bureau provides all the necessary legal
support to the ORA Deputy Commissioner and to all operating bureaus
when issues arise regarding legal policy, legislation, regulatory
codes and amendments, advisory opinions and legal research.
The bureau is also responsible for coordinating the dissemination
of information related to external policy and public information.
This is done through outreach to legislators, Bar Associations,
the Housing Courts, Owner Advisory and Tenant Advisory Committees
and sub-committees. In addition, the agency has produced and
distributed Fact Sheets explaining the various components of rent
regulations. At present there are 38 Fact Sheets in English and
Spanish providing detailed information on rent control, rent
stabilization and the Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA).
A coordinated public information program is administered through
the Central Rent Information Unit, InfoLine, Small Building Owner
[SBO] Counseling, Tenant Counseling and Freedom of Information
Law [FOIL] and the Borough Rent Office (BRO) system.
Owners and tenants are able to obtain required information, in
person or by phone, from the Gertz Plaza Central Office in
Jamaica, Queens or from the five Borough Rent Offices located
throughout New York City.
In 1993, ORA's Public Information staff, both at the Central
Office and in the borough offices provided assistance on rent
regulation matters to nearly 290,000 owners and tenants, of which
77 percent received assistance over the telephone and 23 percent
were counseled in person.
In 1993, the FOIL/Subpoena Unit docketed and processed 1,300
subpoenas, over 5,000 Freedom of Information requests, and almost
2,000 other requests for information regarding case status or
building registrations. Despite the large number of cases in the
unit, there were only 527 cases pending by the end of the year.
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FOIL SUBPOENA UNIT
Intake Resolved Pending
FOIL 5,159 5,251 455
Subpoenas 1,308 1,270 56
Rent Registration 1,385 1,414 6
Status of Cases 530 530 10
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TOTAL 8,382 8,465 527
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Infoline Calls Answered Calls Answered
January 11,832 July 10,952
February 11,110 August 10,288
March 16,043 September 12,860
April 9,386 October 9,917
May 11,212 November 8,827
June 15,214 December 10,600
Total Calls Answered 1993 -- 138,241
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GERTZ SMALL BUILDING OWNERS & TENANTS COUNSELING
Owners Tenants
Counseled Calls Counseled Calls
January 433 1,034 663 474
February 390 924 631 443
March 536 1,390 893 631
April 344 1,015 734 532
May 469 892 654 655
June 565 1,239 795 594
July 387 775 683 378
August 370 646 714 335
September 447 717 833 537
October 399 691 715 502
November 382 631 686 352
December 446 735 749 401
1993 Total 5,168 10,689 8,750 5,834
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BOROUGH RENT OFFICES SMALL BUILDING OWNERS & TENANTS COUNSELING
Owners Tenants
Counseled Calls Counseled Calls
January 1,162 2,036 2,434 3,343
February 1,042 2,006 2,151 3,600
March 1,852 2,413 3,399 4,303
April 1,653 1,809 3,067 3,617
May 1,479 1,830 2,856 3,324
June 1,778 2,127 3,690 4,056
July 1,869 2,069 3,254 3,852
August 1,278 2,164 3,266 4,196
September 1,132 1,926 2,991 3,698
October 1,221 1,995 2,881 3,672
November 1,173 1,895 2,805 3,439
December 1,203 1,887 2,412 3,711
1993 Total 16,842 24,157 35,206 44,811