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March & April 2026 Updates

March & April were real busy at UTA! We celebrated our 53rd Anniversary, shared several employment opportunities, highlighted the Drake Manor / Idlewild Terrace Tenant Union launch, acknowledged some public speaking engagements UTA participated in and organized, uplifted the work of our Homelessness Prevention Program & tenant organizer, gave some updates on legislative priorities at the state and local level, and flagged some upcoming events at the Capitol!

https://mailchi.mp/3ea108fa896b/march-april-updates

Inclusionary zoning teach in & speech prep

On 4/16, UTA and Citizen Action will be holding a teach in and preparing speeches for public comments at the upcoming Common Council meeting. On 4/20, the Council will be voting on amending Inclusionary Zoning. The changes include giving developers the ability to pay their way out of providing affordable housing, decreasing the number of affordable units to be built, and increasing the rent in those affordable units, among other things. All the while, NYS is preparing to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in Albany, much of which will go to the same developers we’re catering these amendments toward. That ain’t right!

Inclusionary Zoning February Update

The City of Albany has proposed a reform to the current Inclusionary Zoning ordinance that would make the following changes to the current law:
1. Increase the Area Median Income from 60% to 70%, meaning new developments must be eligible to tenants with higher incomes than before.
2. Rather than the tiered structure which set aside between 7-13% of units in new developments for low income renters, the new ordinance would be a flat 5% for all developments of 20 units or more. However, developers can buy their way out of providing those units to tenants with 70% of AMI by giving the City of Albany $50,000 per unit. For example, if 100 units are being developed, 5 of those would need to be eligible to tenants with an income of 70% of the AMI. Now a developer can pay the City $250,000 (5 units x $50,000) to be exempt from inclusionary zoning.

This is better than the original proposal by former Mayor Kathy Sheehan, but is still a rollback of inclusionary housing.

The bill also establishes new compliance mechanisms to ensure that if a developer maintains their inclusionary units they are going to eligible households and promoted accurately.

The money a developer would pay to exempt themselves from Inclusionary Zoning would go to the Albany Community Development Agency where a Housing Trust Fund is to be established. The Housing Trust Fund will be overseen by community organizations and members to ensure it goes where its most needed.

Inclusionary Zoning at risk of repeal

In a last minute backroom deal, the Mayor’s office whipped 9 Common Council Members to support an initiative to overturn our local affordable housing ordinance that took years of research and dialogue to win.

The proposal does two things:
1. Raise the income level that inclusionary zoning serves from low-income to median income.
2. Grant developers a buyout mechanism so that they don’t have to build any working class housing.

These changes are a big deal. Developers could pay their way out of providing low-income housing for as little as $5,000 per unit, assuming they’d even need to, since rents would be higher than $2,000 per month under this “affordability” rubric.

Developers already get hundreds-of-thousands of dollars from tax-payer subsidies, and now we’re giving them a cheap ‘out’ at low-income tenants’ expense.

But the deal’s not done.

On December 1, the six dissenting votes proposed compromise piece of legislation that:

  • Raises the inclusionary zoning ordinance’s affordable unit Area Median Income from 60% of the AMI to 70%, rather than the proposed 100% AMI that the Mayor’s office rushed through;
  • Includes a compliance mechanism to ensure that the affordable units are provided to those who need them most;
  • Increases the ‘buy out’ fee from $5,000 or $10,000 to a $25,000 per unit until only 5% of the property is set aside for those who need them, rather than allowing developers to fully exempt themselves from providing low-income housing;
  • Ensures that 75% of funds raised via this buy out mechanism support tenant initiatives, and 25% will support low-income homeowner/homebuyer programs.

On December 18, both proposals will be sent to the County Planning Board for review.

It’s important to contact your common council member and let them know that you support affordable housing requirements!

November 2025 Updates

UTA’s 2025 November newsletter brought attention to our achievements in 2025, celebrated Ida Yarbrough Tenant Union winning every one of their 16 demands, alerted the community of Mayor Sheehan’s attempts to steamroll Inclusionary Zoning, acknowledged a new program UTA was hosting thanks to Assembly Member Gabriella Romero, updated readers about the struggle at the Amsdell Tenant Union’s ongoing negotiations with their landlord, and celebrated the late- Michael Mckee, a long-time friend of UTA and tenants across NYS, among other things. Read the newsletter below:

https://us8.campaign-archive.com/?u=977769337a6a325db48766460&id=498088d46d

October 2025 Updates

In October 2025, UTA celebrated its 52nd Anniversary event, brought attention to the ongoing union struggles of both the Amsdell Tenant Union and Ida Yarbrough Tenant Union, notified readers of UTA’s participation in the Housing Justice For All statewide retreat, thanked KeyBank Foundation and the B’nai B’rith Gideon Foundation for supporting UTA’s emergency rental assistance program, and discussed an upcoming Assembly Housing Committee hearing later that month. Read more below:

https://us8.campaign-archive.com/?u=977769337a6a325db48766460&id=f9467d5df6

September 2025 Updates

In September, UTA released the list of its annual event awardees, held a successful Tenant Union Organizing 101 training that was attended by 30 community members and 6 tenant unions, brought attention to the dangerous conditions at Tivoli Park Apartments, broadcasted staff participation in a backpack distribution effort with Assembly Member Gabriella Romero, and expressed what work UTA was doing despite emergency rental assistance drying up earlier that month. Read more below:

https://us8.campaign-archive.com/?u=977769337a6a325db48766460&id=30da85c992