NEW YORK (AP) - Rep. Charles Rangel has four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem, including one he uses as a campaign office, at a time when the city is experiencing a chronic shortage of low- and moderate-income housing, The New York Times reported Friday.
Rangel pays about half the market rate for three adjacent units at the luxury Lenox Terrace complex, while the fourth apartment is several floors below, the newspaper said.
The city and state require such apartments be used as primary residences.
Rangel's monthly rent last year for all four units was $3,893, the paper said. The market rate would total about $7,500.
Rangel's net worth is between $566,000 and $1.2 million, the Times said, citing congressional disclosure records.
Housing experts told the newspaper that it is not illegal to acquire more than one rent-stabilized apartment, but knew of no one else with four of them. The city's rent-stabilization regulations allow tenants to renew leases if they use their unit as a primary residence, paying annual increases set by a city board.
Lenox Terrace is owned by the Olnick Organization, a family-owned company that built the complex in 1958 as Harlem's first luxury apartments. The company declined to comment for the Times on why it allowed Rangel to lease four rent-stabilized apartments.
Rangel has lived in the complex since the 1970s, but the Times said it was not known when he amassed the four units.
Rangel, who is chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, had no immediate comment on Friday, but scheduled a midday press conference.
"Why should I help you embarrass me?" he told the Times.
"Why should I help you embarrass me?" he told the Times.
When will these reps learn to clean up their backyards? The democratic machine is huge and well funded and backed by the media and HOLLYWOOD. I think it is time(overtime) that the republican party hold a nationwide conference on how to re-group and unify themselves. The way these reps are going they won't even get endorsed by the conservs. Perhaps the conservs should start endorsing conservs nationally.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
When will these reps learn to clean up their backyards? The democratic machine is huge and well funded and backed by the media and HOLLYWOOD. I think it is time(overtime) that the republican party hold a nationwide conference on how to re-group and unify themselves. The way these reps are going they won't even get endorsed by the conservs. Perhaps the conservs should start endorsing conservs nationally.
He's a Representative, not a Republican ... he's the strongest Democrat in congress aside from the speaker, he controls the checkbook on the ways and means committee.
Rangel should be thanking Shelly Silver for ensconcing his "right" to: A. Own a rent controlled apartment; B. Own FOUR rent controlled apartments; C. Sublet said apartments at whatever rate he wants; D. Pass on those same aprtments to his heirs, at the current controlled rent rates; E. Charge the Tax payers FULL VALUE for that rent controlled apartment/office.
Congressman Charles B. Rangel is serving his 19th term as the Representative from the 15th Congressional District, comprising East and Central Harlem, the Upper West Side, and Washington Heights/Inwood. He is is the Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, Chairman of the Board of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Dean of the New York State Congressional Delegation
Congressman Rangel is the principal author of the five billion dollar Federal Empowerment Zone demonstration project to revitalize urban neighborhoods throughout America. He is also the author of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which is responsible for financing ninety percent of the affordable housing built in the U.S. in the last ten years. The Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which Congressman Rangel also championed, has provided thousands of jobs for underprivileged young people, veterans, and ex-offenders.
He is also the author of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, which is responsible for financing ninety percent of the affordable housing built in the U.S. in the last ten years.
Am I reading this section correctly? Is this Mr. Rangel taking credit for the entire sub-prime housing crisis?
Rangel defends living in 3 rent-stabilized apartments The Associated Press
NEW YORK — U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel on Friday defended living in three combined, rent-stabilized Harlem apartments as a legal benefit of long-term city residency, but said he may abandon a fourth apartment he uses for campaign work if it’s not allowed. Rangel, one of New York’s most influential politicians and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, held a raucous news conference outside his Lenox Terrace apartment complex to respond to The New York Times’ Friday report on his four below-market apartments. “I feel so terribly proud of never having to leave my neighborhood,” said Rangel, 78, who said he had lived in two homes in Harlem throughout his life. He said he didn’t negotiate a deal with his landlord for his current apartment, where he has lived for about 20 years. “I don’t see anything unfair about it, and I didn’t even know it was a deal,” said Rangel, D-N.Y. Housing experts said Rangel’s living arrangement was legal and said tenants often combine smaller, rent-stabilized apartments into larger ones over the years. Gov. David Paterson acknowledged earlier this year paying below-market rent in an apartment in Rangel’s building. But some questioned whether the powerful congressman and champion of affordable housing initiatives was taking advantage in a market where low-income housing is disappearing. “It’s that he seems to have gotten away with certain things with his landlord, which is notorious for unfairly targeting other rent-stabilized tenants for eviction,” said Joe Catron, an organizer for the Metropolitan Housing Council, a tenants’ rights group. Rangel pays a combined $3,894 a month for the four apartments, the Times reported. The rent is roughly half the market rates advertised by his landlord, The Olnick Organization. He earns $162,500 a year, has a time share in the Dominican Republic and a net worth of between $516,000 and $1.3 million, according to congressional financial disclosure records. Olnick spokeswoman Jeannette Boccini declined comment Friday on Rangel’s living situation. Regulations governing the city’s 1 million rent-stabilized apartments allow a tenant to live in an apartment at below-market rates as long as it’s a primary residence — the tenant’s home for just over six months of the year. Tenants’ rent rises every one or two years, with the increase set by a city board. Long-term residents sometimes pay far lower rents than newer arrivals, since owners can impose higher rents on apartments when they change hands. Combining apartments to make a larger one is “not uncommon,” said Nancy Peters, spokeswoman for the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal, which oversees regulations for rent-stabilized apartments. Rangel said he moved into an apartment that had already been combined by a previous tenant. The congressman said he added another studio apartment a few years later to accommodate visiting relatives. The regulations do not allow rent-stabilized apartments to be used for business. The rules usually are enforced at the landlord’s discretion, Peters said. Rangel said in a separate statement that he rented the fourth apartment, six floors below his home, about a decade ago and thought it was appropriate to use as an office because there are other offices in the complex. “I guess I have to take another look at something that hasn’t come up until now,” Rangel said of the office. He said he would talk to his landlord and would move his campaign office if necessary. An owner of the Olnick Organization, Sylvia Olnick, donated $2,000 to Rangel’s campaign in 2004 and has given $5,000 since 2004 to his political action committee. Olnick’s president, Bruce Simon, donated $500 to Rangel’s PAC, according to the Federal Election Commission. Rangel said he didn’t know of the donations until he read about them in the Times. Some tenants openly challenged Rangel as he spoke Friday, including a critic who said the congressman didn’t help him when he was facing eviction from another apartment building owned by the same landlord. “He’s got a reputation of not helping anyone other than himself,” said Lance Smith, 45, who has a Web site critical of Rangel. Catron said Olnick has targeted residents legally living in Lenox Terrace for eviction, sometimes citing false records of home ownership elsewhere. Hanif I. Shabazz, a film producer who lives in an Olnick building next to Rangel’s, said the congressman helped alleviate a rat problem in his building and responded to other tenants’ complaints. Shabazz, a 30-year resident of a rent-stabilized apartment, said he had no problem with Rangel’s similar arrangement.
ED OU/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., stands in front of his apartment in Harlem for a news conference on Friday. Rangel has four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem, including one he uses as a campaign office, at a time when the city is experiencing a chronic shortage of low-and moderate-income housing, The New York Times reported.
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