Marcelo Rochabrun is a senior reporting fellow at ProPublica covering immigration.
He joined ProPublica in 2015 after graduating from Princeton University. He was a finalist for a Livingston award in 2016 and won a SABEW award in 2017 for his coverage of how New York City tenants are harmed when regulators fail to enforce the state’s housing laws.
Prior to joining ProPublica he interned at the Center for Public Integrity and was Editor-in-Chief of his college newspaper, The Daily Princetonian. He won an IRE award for uncovering that Princeton’s exclusive eating clubs had told the IRS that the lavish renovations of their lounges and tap rooms were in fact educational expenses, which allowed their alumni donors to claim tax deductions they were otherwise not entitled to.
Since 1995, developers in lower Manhattan have relied on a letter written by former Mayor Giuliani to justify receiving tax breaks without rent restrictions. Former lawmakers who wrote and voted for the law say the practice violates the intent and clear meaning of the statute.
New York's Legislature wanted to give tax breaks in Lower Manhattan in exchange for limits on rent increases. The mayor and the real estate lobby had another idea.
The move comes after a ProPublica investigation that documented how the government was making it hard for disabled borrowers to get their loans forgiven.
ProPublica showed last week how the charity had used federal funds to acquire vacant buildings, but some had been occupied just days before the charity moved to acquire them.
Among other facts, newly released housing documents reveal that 239,000 regulated apartments have “preferential” rent, meaning landlords may be able to boost rents by more than what the city allows.
A bill introduced in response to ProPublica’s reporting would make landlords liable for up to 10 times the amount of overcharges imposed on tenants in rent-stabilized apartments.
City regulators haven’t enforced a 2007 law that requires doormen, janitors and other service workers at taxpayer-subsidized apartment buildings to be paid wages comparable to union rates.
City Council members propose inventory system and fines for landlords after ProPublica reports that 50,000 apartments aren’t registered for rent regulation as required.
Owners are getting $100 million in property tax breaks while violating the law requiring them to officially register, and city and state officials are unable to explain why.
Help ProPublica and WNYC investigate how renters are being exploited under a housing program that will save developers $1 billion in property taxes this year.
“The Wire” creator and former Baltimore Sun reporter talks about a historic public housing fight, race and what makes white people go “batshit, batshit crazy.”
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