City Council Proposes Unfunded AC Mandate
This bill requiring air conditioning and dehumidification in the summer months would drive up the cost of providing housing and deepen the city’s affordability crisis
(New York, NY) – The City Council is holding a hearing on a bill that would require housing providers to provide cooling and dehumidification in the summer months. The unfunded mandate will be a massive additional cost to already struggling housing providers due to its strict standards, which would force aging buildings to be completely renovated and retrofitted.
“There is a serious disconnect here,” New York Apartment Association (NYAA) CEO Kenny Burgos said. “The City Council needs to understand that unfunded mandates drive up rents and make the city unaffordable. We appreciate their efforts to improve housing, and are willing to work with them, but we have to be realistic and honest about the cost of providing that housing.”
The bill, Int. 0994-2024, would require housing providers to maintain an indoor air temperature no higher than 78 degrees and 50 percent humidity between June 15 and September 15 when the outdoor air temperature is 82 degrees or higher. To maintain these temperatures, residential cooling units would have to be installed where there is no central cooling. Requiring this in new construction makes more sense, but requiring every existing building to be retrofitted with a central cooling system is a non-starter.
The costs of this bill for existing buildings would be astronomical, including the price of the unit, the cost of installation, any additional renovations needed if asbestos are found in the walls, and the increase in electricity costs and usage, especially as many buildings are working toward complying with Local Law 97, the city’s signature climate bill.
In market rate buildings, those costs will be baked into rents. In rent-regulated units, the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) would have to assess how much to increase rents to cover these costs. Historically, the RGB’s data analysis has discounted or outright dismissed many unfunded mandates.
“It is admirable to want to provide the best housing possible for tenants, and we are aligned with the city council on that goal,” Burgos said. “But it doesn’t help tenants if we bankrupt the housing they live in. New Yorkers need and deserve financially stable, quality housing, and we need to find ways to provide that.”
This bill was introduced by Council Member Lincoln Restler, who called on the RGB to initiate a rent freeze in 2023, the same year that RGB data stated an 8.5 percent rent increase was necessary to prevent building deterioration.
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The New York Apartment Association (NYAA) is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit organization that represents a diverse coalition of apartment building owners and managers who provide the majority of affordable multi-family housing in the state of New York. To put it simply, we are Housing New York. NYAA was formed through the merging of two organizations that historically represented rent-stabilized building owners: The Rent Stabilization Association (RSA) and the Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP). The official NYAA website is HousingNY.Org. @HousingNY on X; @HousingNY on Instagram; @HousingNY on Youtube, and @HousingNY on TikTok.