New Affordability Protections Enacted Last Year for Lower Manhattan Residents Not Yet Available
The process of delivering a package of affordability to benefits to Lower Manhattan residents who have long been excluded from them is inching forward.
In 2022, State Senator Brian Kavanagh led the successful push for legislation to extend four protections that have been available for decades elsewhere in the five boroughs, but from which Battery Park City residents have been barred, because of the technicality that the community is governed by a State agency, rather than the municipal government. A similar codicil has excluded residents of Independence Plaza in Tribeca, because that development was created under the State’s Mitchell-Lama program.
For renters, these benefits include the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption program (SCRIE) and the Disabled Rent Increase Exemption program (DRIE). Condominium owners may be eligible for the Senior Citizen Homeowners’ Exemption program (SCHE) and the Disabled Homeowners’ Exemption program (DHE).
Under the SCRIE and SCHE programs, renters who are over 62 years of age and have annual incomes of less than $50,000 can seek to have rent increases limited or frozen, while seniors who own condominiums and earn less than $58,399 may be eligible for reductions in their property taxes. With DRIE and DHE, disabled residents aged 18 years or older are subject to the same income limits, of $50,000 for rental tenants and $58,399 for homeowners.
Governor Kathy Hochul signed the bills extending these protections in December, but the programs have not yet been implemented for the newly eligible residents they aim to protect.
At Tuesday’s meeting of Community Board 1, Senator Kavanagh said, “we passed a couple of bills previously on SCRIE, DRIE, SCHE, and DHE. Unfortunately, the City has determined that they will need a piece of City-enacted legislation” before activating these protections.
“This has added a little time to the process,” he said. “We’re working very closely with the City Council and City Hall to get those done. I don’t think there’s any objection. But it’s another step in the process, which has been long and complicated.”
Senator Kavanagh did not provide a timeline for when the City’s procedural requirements will be satisfied and a rollout of the new benefits can begin.