Kamal Nasser isn't a paid community organizer. He's a Bangladeshi immigrant who works as a street vendor in Jackson Heights. But after repeatedly losing heat and electricity, and following months of eviction threats in his rent-stabilized Kensington apartment building, Nasser has taken on the role of advocating for himself and his fellow tenants in his building.

"I wasn't an activist until the management activated me," Nasser, 49, says.

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Housing The City Of Immigrants

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Nasser is organizing eleven other Bangladeshi tenants in his rent-stabilized building in a lawsuit against their landlord to make needed repairs to the building. They are represented by the Urban Justice Center.

This battle has showed Nasser the importance of rent regulation, and last month he made his first trip to Albany to advocate for the renewal of rent regulation when the law is up for a vote in June.

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When Nasser's neighbor Obaidul Hoqus hesitates about accompanying Nasser on a future trip to Albany to protect rent regulation laws, Nasser won't hear it. Instead, Nasser starts in on an eloquent speech about the "beauty of democracy."

"Politicians hate to lose power. Because they're afraid to lose, they need people to vote for them. In this building we have 38 apartments, so what's that? Seventy-six voters. The landlord has only one vote, but more money than everyone combined, so he doesn't even have to go to Albany," Nasser explains. "But the beauty of democracy is if we all knock on their doors in Albany and say, 'If you pass this law, we'll kick you out.' they have to listen. Because they hate to lose more than anything else."

Immigrants and rent regulation

Rent regulation provides protections for tenants and limits the amount of rent that a landlord can charge. New York State's rent regulation laws are set to expire in June. On April 12, the Assembly passed a bill supported by the Real Rent Reform Campaign, an advocacy group calling for strengthening existing rent stabilization laws. This bill would extend rent regulation until 2016 and end vacancy decontrol, which has allowed landlords to deregulate apartments when they become vacant and their rent exceeds $2,000.

The Assembly bill would lower rent increases for new tenants to 10 percent, down from 20 percent. The Republican-controlled Senate is unlikely to support this bill, and an aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo told The New York Times that he was seeking a deal that could pass both houses. Rent regulation is expected to be extended, despite landlord opposition and the argument made by many economists that ending rent stabilization will result in lower housing prices across-the-board and increased incentives for landlords to improve apartments.

Immigrants such as Nasser, who moved to the United States in 1982, are among the largest beneficiaries of rent regulation. According to "Housing the City of Immigrants" a policy brief by Community Service Society (CSS), 37 percent of immigrants live in rent-regulated housing, compared to 28 percent of second generation residents and 33 percent of the third generation.

Because of their stake in this fight, many immigrants are organizing around rent regulation, through entities like the New York Immigration Coalition's Immigrant Housing Collective.