Albany lawmakers target insurance hikes squeezing affordable landlords
Publication: The Real Deal
Albany lawmakers target insurance hikes squeezing affordable landlords
Bills would create a $50M relief fund and force insurer transparency
New York legislators are taking aim at the insurance crisis battering affordable housing landlords.
A trio of bills unveiled this week would create a $50 million fund and ramp up oversight of insurers after years of spiraling premiums that advocates say threaten the city’s low-income housing stock, Bisnow reported.
Assembly member Emérita Torres, who represents the South Bronx, introduced the measures after a study by the National Equity Fund and Enterprise Community Partners found that insurance costs for affordable buildings have more than doubled since 2017, from $712 to $1,495 per unit. The study also found that more than half of affordable landlords are spending more on operating costs than they’re taking in through net income.
Torres’ package includes a grant fund offering up to $3,000 per unit, or $2 million per project, to help cover the widening gap between insurance bills and landlords’ bottom lines.
The other two bills would require annual state reporting on premium rates, nonrenewals and denials, and convene a task force of housing and insurance officials to study the problem and propose long-term fixes.
Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference, who advised on the legislation, told reporters the lack of public data has made it nearly impossible to pinpoint what’s driving the surge.
“We have some anecdotes and examples, but we don’t have a real pattern that we can see with any public data,” she said.
The cost crunch is hitting hardest in the Bronx, where the concentration of rent-stabilized housing is highest in the city. Enterprise’s study pegged the borough’s per-unit insurance cost at $1,806 last year, roughly 6 percent above the citywide average.
Insurers’ retreat from the market has left landlords with few options.
The situation could worsen if mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani delivers on his campaign promise to freeze rents in stabilized units, a move that landlords warn could choke revenue as expenses balloon.
Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office declined to comment on the pending bills but pointed to $1.5 billion in state housing funds earmarked this year to expand affordability. The Legislature won’t reconvene until January, meaning any relief — if it comes — is still a ways away.
In the meantime, landlords are taking matters into their own hands. A group led by Wavecrest Management formed a captive insurance company to pool risk and negotiate better rates.
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