About STPCV–TA

To achieve these goals, we operate on the axiom that “a single person can make a difference, together they make change,” and we abide by three principles:

Long-term Affordability

Affordable housing is under perpetual threat in New York from landlord groups and sometimes from unfriendly state and local elected officials and legislators. We have seen over the years the impact this has had on our community.

We work as a grassroots community organization with others to initiate change, to make our message heard regarding better conditions for tenants. We hold press events, we go to Albany, we rally at City Hall. We have proven that we affect the dialogue and instigate change.

High Quality of Life

We love living at Stuyvesant Town–Peter Cooper Village. The open space, the Oval, the cafe, the farmers market, the safety. We at the TA work every day to protect this—our positive sense of community. There are also things that need constant attention. Quieting the noisy neighbors above. Managing the trash and recycling. Making sure the washing machines are working. These ongoing, everyday issues are examples of what we work on every single day.

Ongoing Maintenance Combined with MCIs

Many things that have changed with the different property owners and managers over the years, but there has been one constant: Major Capital Improvement rent increases. We review and analyze every MCI the owner files for to make sure the project is eligible and the costs are accurate. Since the costs become part of an apartment’s base rent, this is critical to affordability.

Our Story: A Brief History of 50+ Years

In February 2024 the Tenants Association won its lawsuit to keep our community protected by rent regulation when Blackstone declined to appeal. We celebrated not just our victory but our neighbors and other supporters who made it possible.

The TA has had other victories over the years: 

• getting Blackstone to dismantle a power plant on the property and not build a second, larger one
• getting more and better lighting, security, and Public Safety presence under scaffolding
• supporting the plaintiffs in the Roberts v. Tishman Speyer class action lawsuit, which returned 4,311 of the community’s apartments to rent regulation
• winning a court appeal to safeguard tenant security by not requiring names on keycards
• fighting mid-lease increases and Major Capital Improvements
• getting residents in 15 of the 21 buildings in Peter Cooper Village and two in Stuyvesant Town that were the most affected by Superstorm Sandy a onetime reduction of 15 percent from the July 2013 rent bill
• and more

Why is a tenants association necessary? Because things change.

In the Beginning . . .

The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. built our community after World War II as a place for people of moderate means.

And so it was—until spring 1971.

A New Era: Bad Legislation Activates Tenants

In spring 1971, the state legislature enacted so-called vacancy decontrol, which was introduced by Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. It allowed apartments vacated after June 30, 1971, to be deregulated. It was a huge blow to affordable housing.

A group of STPCV tenants took action to overturn the harmful legislation. And the Tenants Association was born. We formalized in the fall of 1971. 

Our first goal: repeal the legislation.

Organizing Is Powerful

Working with others, we showed just how important rent laws are to the social fabric, vitality, and stability of the city. The effort was successful: vacancy decontrol was repealed in 1974 through the Emergency Tenant Protection Act, but it was still possible to deregulate an apartment if the rent reached a certain threshold and the tenant’s income went above a certain amount. And owners could add certain costs to get the rent above the threshold.

But that wasn’t the end.

The Fight Never Ends—New Challenges

In 2000, MetLife went public; in 2006 it announced that it would sell the property. The formerly benevolent owner became predatory, actively harassing tenants. Our then City Council Member, Dan Garodnick, helped us put together an offer for the property, but we were outbid by Tishman Speyer.

Things went downhill for tenants immediately. Tishman’s business plan was to oust as many tenants as possible and turn a middle-class, affordable residential enclave into luxury housing. We found ourselves helping tenants who were accused of living elsewhere retain their homes—a new challenge.

Identifying an Illegal Practice: The Roberts Case

In the years MetLife and its successors had been renovating apartments to deregulate them and jack up the rents, they had forced out deregulated tenants by asking for exorbitant rent increases. The practice was common, if illegal. But the owners had been receiving a tax break known as a J-51, which required them to keep the affected units under rent regulation.

A class action lawsuit, Roberts v. Tishman Speyer, was brought with the Tenants Association reaching out to all tenants for support. The case was fought up to the state’s highest court, and the plaintiffs won! The affected apartments had their rents reset and would remain under regulation until the J-51 expired, on June 30, 2020. Regardless of the amount of rent, we were once again a completely rent-regulated community. 

But could we stay that way?

A New Owner: Blackstone

When Tishman Speyer went bankrupt and debt servicer CW Capital took over, we put all our influence and political capital into preventing another auction. Ultimately, the property was sold to Blackstone–Ivanhoé Cambridge, which agreed to keep “affordable” only 5,000 of the 11,240 or so apartments. Another challenge for the TA: was there a way to keep them protected by rent stabilization?

Tenants Plug Away

The fight to protect tenants wasn’t happening just here. City and state tenants were organizing to get better laws. Finally, in 2019, the state legislature passed the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act. A key provision: any apartment rent stabilized on June 14, 2019, remained rent stabilized. That opened the door for our recently won lawsuit. We claimed that despite Blackstone’s agreement with the city, all apartments here should remain protected by rent stabilization. We won the first round in State Supreme Court, and Blackstone declined to appeal.

We are all rent stabilized again!

We Think Big and We Think Small

We’re not afraid to bring big lawsuits to benefit our neighbors. We also sweat the small stuff: we respond to those who contact our phone Message Center or ask a question online. We follow key developments in our area, and we challenge MCIs to save tenants money. And through it all we have been supported by our superb state and local representatives, as well as our formidable attorneys. We wouldn’t have been successful without them, and we couldn’t have undertaken these actions without our neighbors’ support.

Fifty more years!