Rangel’s Sweetheart Rent Deals
By Don | July 11, 2008
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) is renting four apartments in New York at below market rates including one being used as a campaign office which is in violation of regulations of rent controlled apartments.
From the New York Times.
While aggressive evictions are reducing the number of rent-stabilized apartments in New York, Representative Charles B. Rangel is enjoying four of them, including three adjacent units on the 16th floor overlooking Upper Manhattan in a building owned by one of New York’s premier real estate developers.
Mr. Rangel, the powerful Democrat who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, uses his fourth apartment, six floors below, as a campaign office, despite state and city regulations that require rent-stabilized apartments to be used as a primary residence.
Mr. Rangel, who has a net worth of $566,000 to $1.2 million, according to Congressional disclosure records, paid a total rent of $3,894 monthly in 2007 for the four apartments at Lenox Terrace, a 1,700-unit luxury development of six towers, with doormen, that is described in real estate publications as Harlem’s most prestigious address.
The current market-rate rent for similar apartments in Mr. Rangel’s building would total $7,465 to $8,125 a month, according to the Web site of the owner, the Olnick Organization.
Rangel wasn't very cooperative when asked by the Times about the situtaion either.
Mr. Rangel, 78, declined to answer questions during a telephone interview, saying that his housing was a private matter that did not affect his representation of his constituents.
“Why should I help you embarrass me?” he said, before abruptly hanging up.
Speaker Pelosi should investigate this seetheart deal in the name of fairness but I expect that she will try to sweep in under the rug.
1 Comment | Post a Comment
July 13 at 4:52 am | #1 | Link
Why even report this, Sen Dodd, Obama, and others that are holding the American’s public purse can get sweetheart deals, we need to get some action, Shilly Jackson came out and requested the Gov to look into Harris County’s Jails, and within 2 weeks they had a cadre of investigators. why not investigate the democratic senators and even obamas money trails?
You all keep voting them again and again.
WHY, WHY, WHY?