Who's behind GOP 'affordable housing massacre,' Dems ask

BY GLENN BLAIN
DAILY NEWS ALBANY BUREAU

Thursday, May 12th 2011, 4:00 AM

Julia Xanthos/News

Senate Housing Committee Chairwoman Catharine Young 

ALBANY - Tenant advocates believe big-money landlords are behind a Republican-led effort to "massacre" New York's rent regulations - and are looking for the documents to prove it.

The Metropolitan Council on Housing on Wednesday submitted a Freedom of Information Law request for copies of all communications between landlord groups and top leaders in the GOP-controlled state Senate.

"The special interests behind the Republican-led affordable housing massacre need to be exposed," said Austin Shafran, an aide to Senate Democrats.

The Met Council's request is part of a stepped-up effort to pressure Senate GOPers into extending and strengthening rent laws before they expire on June 15.

Scott Reif, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R-Nassau), denied the GOP was working at the behest of landlords.

"We make the decision to support or oppose legislation based on the merits, plain and simple," Reif said.

Senate Housing Committee Chairwoman Catharine Young (R-Cattaraugus) has introduced a set of bills that critics charge would weaken tenant safeguards - such as removing the requirement that rents must reach $2,000 a month before an apartment could be deregulated.