Josephine Mitanyes, 10 years old, attended a hearing yesterday in lower Manhattan, where organizers and tenants testified before members of the State Assembly on the need for renewing the rent stabilization laws and preserving affordable housing.

Josephine held aloft a sign that said "Born and raised in New York and I want to stay here."

Her family, originally from Peru, lived in a building in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, which fell into the hands of a "bad landlord." "He succeeded in getting rid of half the tenants in six months so he could raise the rents, and then he bought nine more buildings," said Marcela Mitanyes, Josephine's mother. This family, which used to pay $600, now pays $1,800.

"What happened to me should not happen," Josephine testified.

Members of the legislature are looking at how they might renew and toughen the laws that protect families like the Mitanyes, since the laws are due to expire in June of this year.  At present these laws impose limits on rents – and on annual rent increases – in apartments occupied by people of low income. They also penalize bad landlords.

Among the Assembly members who led the hearing were Democratic legislators Vito Lopez (District 53), Hakeem Jeffries (District 57), Brian Kavanagh (District 74) and Linda Rosenthal (District 67). "This hearing examined the present laws on rent regulation, the renewal of such laws, and possible solutions the Legislature might implement to ensure the availability of affordable housing," stated a communiqué from the Housing Committee, chaired by Lopez.

They heard testimony from some 20 people, among them tenants, lawyers and community organizers. The experts touched on several subjects related to the need for affordable housing.

One central theme was the loss of affordable units as a result of the purchase of buildings by landlords who want to displace tenants with controlled rents so they can raise the rents to market levels. Approximately 300,000 such units have been lost in this way since 1993, according to information supplied by Maggie Russell-Ciardi of the New York State Tenants and Neighbors Coalition.

The participants told of landlords who harass tenants to drive them from their homes by raising their rents illegally, taking them to court, or cutting off their water and heat. "Many of my constituents have suffered at the hands of unscrupulous landlords," responded Assembly Member Rosenthal, who represents the Upper West Side.

"We have got to confront the bad landlords and these persons who are hurting people," added Assembly Member Lopez.

One of the proposed changes is to undo Vacancy Decontrol, a law that stipulates a unit can leave the rent stabilization program when the rent goes above $2,000.

In addition, the organizers spoke about a "housing crisis." The high levels of unemployment and poverty in the city have sharpened the need for affordable housing units, and in these times many unemployed people find themselves threatened with displacement. 

"I think that in the next four or five years we will see levels of displacement that are higher than ever. We are literally in a state of emergency," said David Jones, president of the Community Service Society.

At present it is estimated that there are 38,000 displaced New Yorkers, two-thirds of them families, according to information from members of the group Habitat for Humanity.  Some 113,000 people spent time in emergency housing during the last fiscal year.