OUR MISSION

Tenants Political Action Committee, Inc., was founded in the aftermath of the Rent Wars of 1997, when the State Senate Republicans threatened to allow rent control and rent stabilization laws to lapse.

Tenant leaders from New York City and its suburban counties - at that time, the only parts of New York State with rent control and rent stabilization laws - founded Tenants PAC to give renters more clout with elected officials at the only place many politicians care about: the ballot box.

Like many tenant activists, the Tenants PAC founders were frustrated at our inability to win enactment of pro-tenant legislation in Albany. The threat that the rent laws would not be renewed by the New York State Legislature in June 1997 was real.

Tenants and our supporters mounted an enormous organizing and lobbying campaign, and the rent laws were renewed. However, tenant protections were severely weakened as the price of that renewal, hastening the decontrol of rent-regulated apartments, and giving landlords an incentive to pressure and harass tenants to obtain vacancies.

The lesson was clear. The fact that tenants had done a good job of lobbying state legislators did not matter. Lobbying is important, certainly. But it is not enough to overcome the power of the real estate lobby. It was clear that tenants must get involved in election work.

Between 1997 and 2019, some 300,000 rent-controlled and rent-stabilized apartments in the downstate region were converted to unaffordable, market rent status due to pro-landlord provisions in our rent laws - and the tenants who moved into these apartments lack basic rent and eviction protections. Housing Justice for All won repeal of Vacancy Decontrol and other bad features of the rent regulation system in the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, but HSTPA unfortunately did not return the deregulated units to their former regulated status. Tenants PAC was deeply involved in the campaign to enact HSTPA.

One of the most important provisions of HSTPA was to eliminate the geographic restrictions on rent and eviction protections. Prior to HSTPA, only New York City and municipalities in Nassau, Rockland and Westchester Counties had the right to enact rent control laws. The late Republican Senate Majority Leader Warren Anderson said on more than one occasion that he would never allow the “cancer” of rent control to spread north of Westchester County.

HSTPA expanded the option to enact rent controls to any city, town, or village anywhere in the 62 counties of New York State. The City of Kingston in Ulster County opted into the Emergency Tenant Protection Act in August 2022, the City of Newburgh in Orange County opted into ETPA in December 2023, and more municipalities are in the pipeline. Over time this will change state politics for the better, and make tenants a stronger political force.

Tenants PAC played a central role in turning the New York State Senate from red to blue. It took many years of election work to achieve this: in the 1990s the typical split in the Senate was 38 Republicans and 24 Democrats, in a house where it takes 32 votes to pass any bill. In the 2018 election Tenants PAC helped the Democrats win 40 seats, which led directly to enactment of HSTPA in June 2019. Today the state senate has 42 Democrats and 21 Republicans.

Of course, not all Democrats are pro-tenant, although most of them are. Flipping the senate from red to blue is what made it possible to win major reforms such as HSTPA.

Tenants PAC is governed by a board of directors of tenant activists. Tenants PAC is not affiliated with any other electoral organization. Tenants PAC is an active member of the Upstate/Downstate Housing Alliance and participates in its Housing Justice for All campaigns.

Tenants PAC is an all-volunteer organization. Because we do not have to pay staff, virtually every dollar we raise from tenants and progressives goes to candidates we support. Support from our donors is what makes it possible for us to advocate for pro-tenant legislation and to help elect strong tenants’ rights supporters.

In a typical election cycle (state legislative elections occur every two years), Tenants PAC contributes between $100,000 and $150,000 to candidates we support. This is a drop in the bucket compared to the real estate lobby, but our targeted contributions can be extremely effective, especially as many of our candidates are underdogs.

In addition to raising funds, Tenants PAC recruits tenants to volunteer in targeted elections. Tenants PAC targets races where the tenant vote can make a difference and works to activate that vote in support of pro-tenant candidates.

Landlords understand the importance of elections. Every election cycle, developers, landlords and landlord organizations contribute staggering amounts of money to political candidates in New York State, in effect, bribing these elected officials to oppose tenant protection laws.

The only way that tenants can counter the enormous power of real estate money is to get involved in election activity. Politicians must learn to respect the power of tenants.

While tenants will never be able to match the landlords' money, our financial contributions to pro-tenant candidates can make a big difference. Furthermore, tenants can play a significant role in electing pro-tenant candidates by volunteering to knock on doors, staff phone banks, and help with Get Out The Vote activities.

Initially Tenants PAC concentrated on electing Democrats to the state senate. The Senate Republicans were owned outright by the real estate lobby and refused to allow even minor pro-tenant bills to be brought up for a vote.

Over time Tenants PAC helped elect more Democrats to the state senate, and the Democrats won a narrow majority in 2009-2010, which they lost in the 2010 election. Tenants PAC played a central role in helping the Democrats win a decisive majority in 2018. In the same year’s primary election, Tenants PAC helped defeat five of the eight members of the Independent Democratic Conference, a group of renegade Democrats who for eight years aligned themselves with the Republicans to keep the G.O.P. in power even when they were a numerical minority.

 In 2020 Tenants PAC began supporting pro-tenant candidates for the State Assembly for the first time. Among our successes that year was the victory of Marcela Mitaynes, a tenant organizer from Sunset Park, Brooklyn who until her election was a longtime board member of Tenants PAC.

Tenants PAC also supports pro-tenant candidates in local elections.

Since 1997 Tenants PAC has helped elect twenty-two pro-tenant State Senators and five pro-tenant Assembly Members, which includes replacing some pro-landlord Democrats with pro-tenant Democrats in primary elections. And we have come to the defense of pro-tenant incumbents when they have been challenged. Of course, some of our candidates have lost. But tenants are now a stronger force in elections.

Merely electing Democratic majorities does not guarantee that we can win significant pro-tenant legislation. Even pro-tenant legislators need to be reminded – and reminded again – of the need for stronger rent and eviction protections, and the electoral power of tenants.

Tenants have enormous power at the ballot box - if we choose to use it.