Housing Notebook

• Topics of general interest to tenants, specifically, the struggle of tenants at La Mesa Verde apartments in Queens for a habitable place to live -

QUEENS TENANTS FIGHT FOR SAFE, HABITABLE HOUSING

Tenants at La Mesa Verde apartments in Queens are demanding that their landlord, A&E Real Estate, rectify a broad spectrum of unsafe living conditions including mold, collapsing ceilings, and lead paint. Scott Sommer spoke with them.

Housing Notebook is a production of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, New York's oldest tenant union.

• Cesar Spediaci, Elena Martinez, Leonardo Ruales, Ivonne Calderon, tenants at La Mesa Verde apartments -

• Met Council hotline: 212-979-0611, M & W 1:30-8 PM, F 1:30-5 PM; metcouncilonhousing.org, thetenant.org; info@metcouncilonhousing.org; Facebook & Instagram: search for Met Council on Housing; email: housingnotebook@wbai.org – no housing problems please! X: @met_council, @wbai.org, @scottmsommer (also on threads & bluesky); wbai.org – live stream, find archive, join radio station there or go to buddy.wbai.org to become a WBAI buddy or make a one-time donation – be sure to scroll down to choose Housing Notebook as the show you want to support! Or call 833-922-4692 - leave a message with your phone number if no one picks up, and they'll call you back. Mail a check made out to WBAI-Pacifica to WBAI Radio, 388 Atlantic Ave, Brooklyn NY 11217. 

• Walk-in clinics: on 1st & 3rd Tuesdays at 6:30PM at Trinity Commons, 76 Trinity Place; on 2nd & 4th Tuesdays at CUNY in the Heights, 5030 Broadway (12/9). For more information, click here. 

• For all Met Council events, including trainings for hotline volunteers, workshops, and meetings about basic rights, check the calendar here.

• Heat and hot water: from 6am to 10pm, when the outside temperature is below 55 degrees the inside temperature must be 68 degrees; from 10pm to 6am, the inside temperature must be at least 62 degrees. Hot water must be 120 degrees at the tap at all times. For more information, click here.

• New rent guidelines: for leases starting 10/1/25 in New York City: for apartments and lofts, 3 percent for a 1-year lease, 4 1/2 percent for a 2-year lease; class A & B hotels, lodging houses, rooming houses, & SROs: 0 percent - for more detailed info, click here. Poughkeepsie still in litigation; Kingston: 0 and 0; Westchester 2% for 1 year, 3% for 2 years; Rockland County 5% for 1 year, 6% for 2 years; Nassau 2% for one year, 3% for 2 years. For more information about developments in Kingston and Poughkeepsie, contact For the Many: email info@forthemany.org or call 845-481-0703.