57,000 Empty Apartments and Not a Word of Apology – City Limits

57,000 Empty Apartments and Not a Word of Apology – City Limits

By Annette Robinson Every indicator in New York City’s housing market is pointing in the wrong direction. Rents are at historic highs. Foreclosure notices are climbing in Black and brown neighborhoods that never fully recovered from the last crisis. Deed theft, the predatory stripping of generational wealth from families who built their equity over decades, continues to devastate communities from Brownsville to Jamaica. On top of all these facto…

57,000 Empty Apartments and Not a Word of Apology

“Short-term rental income was, for many of these families, not a luxury. It was the margin between keeping the house and losing it. Local Law 18 closed that door, and the people who closed it are now waving away 57,000 empty apartments as statistical noise.” Homeowners at a rally outside City Hall in 2025, calling for reforms to Local Law 18, which banned most short-term rentals. (Photo courtesy of the Restore Homeowner Autonomy and Rights coali…

57,000 Empty Apartments and Not a Word of Apology – City Limits – The Windy City Word

By Annette Robinson Every indicator in New York City’s housing market is pointing in the wrong direction. Rents are at historic highs. Foreclosure notices are climbing in Black and brown neighborhoods that never fully recovered from the last crisis. Deed theft, the predatory stripping of generational wealth from families who built their equity over decades, continues to devastate communities from Brownsville to Jamaica. On top of all these facto…