Paterson: Yes on 30% Rent Cap Bill!
Posted by , December 02, 2009 at 7:52pm
Thank you, Governor Paterson
Governor Paterson pledged his support Tuesday night for a bill that would limit the rent burden for poor New Yorkers with AIDS at 30 percent of their income, and said he would sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
This removes a major roadblock to the bill’s passage because a staffer for Assembly Speaker Silver said Silver wouldn’t bring the vote to the floor because he believed Paterson would veto it.
Paterson’s commitment came when New York City AIDS Housing Network (NYCAHN) staffer Jaron Benjamin approached Paterson after a community forum on World AIDS Day at the First A.M.E. Mt. Zion Church in Brooklyn and asked him if he would sign the legislation. Paterson was aware the bill had passed in the Senate and Tom Duane’s support. He said if the Assembly passes the bill, he will sign it.
This was the first time the Governor publicly indicated his support for the bill, which increases pressure on Speaker Silver to schedule a vote in the Assembly.
“Tom Duane thinks this is a wonderful development,” said Duane spokesperson Eric Sumberg. (Duane had an otherwise awful week, with the gay marriage bill he sponsored failing in the Senate)
“I thank Governor Paterson for supporting legislation that will help me and my family keep our home. I’m not sure how much longer people living with HIV/AIDS can keep waiting,” said James Dean, a NYCAHN member who attended the event Monday night.
The 30 Percent Rent Cap bill would protect 45,000 low-income people living with HIV/AIDS and their families and provide desperately needed financial relief to 11,000 low-income people with AIDS who teeter on the edge of eviction because their rents are not capped.
Unlike all other New Yorkers receiving housing subsidies, the city’s HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA), a division of the Human Resources Administration (HRA), requires clients in their rental assistance program to pay all but $344 of their income towards rent each month.
The rent cap bill passed the Senate in a near-unanimous vote on July 16 and was endorsed by the NYC City Council on September 30th (Res.2145-2009). However, it remains stalled in the Assembly Ways & Means Committee. Advocates have asked Assembly Speaker Silver and Chairman Farrell to schedule a vote on the legislation during the emergency budget sessions.
See Senator Duane’s impassioned video ((viewed 18,000+ times on youtube) before the Senate vote:
blog comments powered by DisqusShare
Donate Today
Join our healing community by becoming a member today
