Your Home, Your Rules: Why Canarsie Homeowners and Businesses Must Stand Up for Their Rights
By Tony Lindsay
President, New York Homeowners Alliance Corp
www.nyhomealliance.org | tlindsay@nyhomealliance.org
Our neighborhood has always been built on hard work, homeownership and community pride. For generations, families and small business owners alike have poured their lives into this community. But that foundation is being threatened — not by crime or neglect, but by City Hall policies that treat small homeowners and neighborhood entrepreneurs as expendable instead of essential.
Local Law 18, sold as a crackdown on “illegal rentals,” has become one of the most punitive and discriminatory housing policies our community has ever faced. While the hotel lobby celebrates, thousands of homeowners across District 46 are struggling to pay rising mortgages, property taxes and utility bills — especially those on fixed incomes or juggling multiple jobs to stay afloat.
It’s not corporate landlords being punished. It’s the elderly homeowner renting a guest unit on the first floor to cover medical costs or the young couple using modest Airbnb income to pay tuition. These are families living in their own homes — not running hotels.
A Target on Canarsie
District 46 has seen one of the highest foreclosure-filing rates in New York City. By stripping homeowners of income options that once kept them above water, the city is squeezing the very residents who anchor this community — and with them, the small businesses that depend on local spending.
When guests visit, they eat at the restaurants along Flatlands Avenue, shop on Avenue L and stop at the small stores and salons that line Rockaway Parkway. Every dollar circulates through the local economy, helping to keep jobs, storefronts and family-run businesses alive. When homeowners lose that income, business owners lose customers.
Harassment and Punitive Fines
Enforcement under Local Law 18 has become a form of targeted harassment. More than 70 percent of cases involve one- and two-family homeowners, a large number of them Black and Hispanic. These are families living in their own homes, not commercial operators.
Many have been hit with or threatened with fines from $5,000 to $10,000 for simply sharing a room. Residents report OSE agents showing up unannounced, acting like police and intimidating homeowners into letting them in. This heavy-handed approach is unnecessary, unfair and erodes trust in city government.
A Recipe for Displacement
This pattern fuels gentrification and displacement of Black and Brown middle-class and working-poor homeowners already struggling to remain in the city. As longtime residents are forced out, local shops that have served this community for decades lose the very neighbors who keep their doors open.
Intro 948-A: A Common-Sense Fix
That’s why Councilwoman Mercedes Narcisse’s bill, Intro 948-A, is so important.
To be clear, the bad actors are already gone. Local Law 18 succeeded in shutting down illegal “Airbnb arbitrage” operators who hoarded apartments and ran de facto hotels. That part worked. But now, the same law is punishing small homeowners — people living in one- and two-family houses legally classified as private dwellings — who simply want to share their homes.
Intro 948-A corrects that mistake. It protects owner-occupied homes, restores fairness and allows residents to share space without fear of harassment or crippling fines. This isn’t about turning neighborhoods into hotels — it’s about preserving homeowner rights and community survival.
Why This Matters
Even if you don’t host, your neighbor probably does — maybe a retired MTA worker, a single parent or even a hotel worker, like a housekeeper or front desk attendant, trying to make ends meet. The irony is that the same Hotel Trades Council leading the charge against short-term rentals isn’t paying many of its own members enough to survive — let alone afford their mortgages. And now, those very workers are being denied the same opportunity to host in their own homes to stay afloat.
The issue isn’t just about short-term rentals; it’s about the right of every homeowner to control their own property and the right of every small business to thrive in a community that stays intact.
When City Hall takes that right away in one area, it sets a dangerous precedent. Today it’s hosting; tomorrow it could be how many relatives you can live with. Intro 948-A gives homeowners and small business owners the breathing room to remain independent and self-sufficient.
A Call to Action
Councilwoman Narcisse has taken a bold stand for her constituents, but she can’t do it alone. Homeowners and business owners across District 46 must rally behind her bill and make their voices heard.
If you host short-term rentals — on Airbnb, Booking.com or privately — or if your business depends on local traffic, now is the time to show up, speak up and stand together. Attend the upcoming hearing and ensure your voice is part of the record.
Your home is your sanctuary. Your storefront is your livelihood. You built them both — and the city has no business telling you how to sustain them. This fight is about privacy, autonomy and the basic dignity of ownership.
If we don’t defend our rights, no one else will. It’s time for City Hall to stop criminalizing survival and start partnering with the people who’ve built — and continue to sustain — this city.
