According to Sharon Otterman and Matthew Haag of
The New York Times, the HSTPA "mark[s] a turning point" for the millions of New Yorkers living in
rent-stabilized apartments "after a steady erosion of protections and the loss of tens of thousands of regulated apartments." The law institutes new limits on the amount spent on major capital improvements (MCIs) and individual apartment improvements (IAIs) that can be recovered through increased rent, which tenant groups contended were subject to "routin[e] abuse" by landlords seeking to "jack up rents and push out tenants." The HSTPA also instituted a number of new protections for residents of
mobile homes. Furthermore, the law permits other New York municipalities to institute their own rent regulations. The one major proposal which did not pass was a "
good cause" eviction bill, which would have made it far more difficult for landlords to evict tenants from their apartments in the absence of misdeeds by the tenants. If a landlord can not prove substantial rehabilitation, though, their rent histories may be seen as unreliable keeping them from moving away from regulation. == Reaction ==