....June 5, 12:22 PM
	DisadVantage Home should be a sanctuary, but for many residents in Queens financing a place to live in the borough is becoming exceedingly difficult. Foreclosure rates are high and so is rent. So what is the average Queensite to do? The City is trumpeting housing units in Queens West, Hunter’s Point South and Willets Point but, time and again, the people ask, “Where’s the affordable housing?” Meanwhile, new companies are buying the small amount of rent-stabilized properties left in the borough with questionable intentions. In Queens alone, Vantage, a real estate company, bought more than 80 apartment buildings containing more than 4,000 rent-stabilized apartments. In order for the new landlord to meet the cash flow required by the mortgage bought at market rate, rent is often needed to be raised above the rate which is allowed under the rent-stabilization or rent control law. Therefore it is in the landlord’s financial interest to encourage present tenants to leave the building so a higher rent can be established and many fear this will result in harassment or discontinuation of services. We demand the City step in with a plan to curb such business practices as well as create more affordable housing in its Queens developments.