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Starrett City Tenants Demand N.Y. Senate Save Their Homes An estimated two hundred Starrett City tenants stormed Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno's office in Albany on Tuesday following an earlier press conference at which they demanded the Senate pass legislation before the upcoming end of the session to protect their apartments from dramatic rent increases set to begin this summer. Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith and Assembly Housing Committee and Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Caucus members joined the tenants at the earlier press conference to demand that legislation designed to save Starrett City's affordable apartments and thousands of other threatened Mitchell-Lama units be passed by the end of the legislative session. With just two weeks left before state legislators vote on a budget and recess for the summer, the tenants are pushing for the Senate to pass a bill designed to protect Starrett City residents from high rents. The bill is backed by scores of tenant groups, more than 50 members of the state assembly and senate, the New York's major unions, ACORN and the Working Families Party. An Assembly version has already passed. Tenants of Starrett City, a 6,000 unit affordable housing complex east of Canarsie which was put up for sale several months ago by its owners, expressed their urgent concern for new rent laws as they face losing their homes before the next legislative session can begin. "Starrett City is home to more than 20,000 working-class and middle-income New Yorkers-and they are all under attack," said Marie Purnell, president of the Starrett City Tenants Association Inc. "Without the protections that these bills will provide, we will most be priced out of our homes by the end of the summer. "Please Governor Spitzer and Senator Bruno, pass these laws now to save Starrett City before this legislative session ends and it is too late." On February 8, Starrett City Associates accepted a $1.3 billion bid from investment group Clipper Equities LLC, which is set to go through in August unless Clipper fails to get the deal by government regulators. By paying $221,000 per apartment, Clipper would likely be forced to raise rents to turn a profit that would force thousands of working families out of the complex. Last month, 10,000 New Yorkers marched in Manhattan to protect affordable housing and Mitchell-Lama buildings such as Starrett City, where they were joined by many of New York City's most prominent government and labor leaders.
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