Our new standards protect tenants in buildings owned or managed by asset managers on behalf of NYCERS, and in doing so safeguard the long-term sustainability and profitability of our real-estate investments.

Right now, there is no set uniform standard or regulation for property management practices in residential real estate across the country. Instead, a set of inconsistent patchwork landlord-tenant laws are in place.

This is unacceptable.

But our new “Rental Property Management Standards” – the first of their kind adopted by a public pension fund in the US – keep landlords from jacking up the rent or failing to provide 30 days’ notice for eviction filings. And I look forward to seeing similar standards adopted by pension funds and real estate investment firms nationwide.

My office is constantly coming up with creative solutions to confront the City’s housing affordability crisis. Our recent investment in the acquisition of failed Signature Bank’s loan portfolio is preserving over 35,000 affordable rental units while yielding strong pension returns. And I’m proud to have issued the City’s first social bonds, generating over $1 billion to finance over 7,000 new units of low-income housing.

But we still have a lot of work to do. Housing First policies are urgently needed to effectively end street homelessness and better support mentally ill New Yorkers. Overall, as research from my office suggests, stronger management is needed at the Housing Department Development to dramatically increase the pace of housing development.

Our investments do well when we do right by the people – and protecting the housing security of thousands of people while protecting New Yorkers is one of the strongest possible investments we can make. Read more about our new Rental Property Management Standards.

Thanks,

Brad