This series contains records related to housing rights campaigns of the Metropolitan Council on Housing, mostly from the late 1990s and the early 2000s. A large portion of these materials relate to rent laws and include files on individual building campaigns; the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB); copies of federal, state, and municipal regulations; and newspaper clippings related on housing rights activism. Other materials focus specifically topics affecting individual tenants and tenant demographics, which include Housing Vacancy Surveys, and files on Disability Rent Increase Exemptions (DRIE) and Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemptions (SCRIE). A small amount of the records relate to the history of the Metropolitan Council on Housing and include a copy of the FBI's surveillance file on the organization. Other materials include an assortment of pamphlets and reports on housing and housing rights in New York City. These reports date from the 1950s to the early 2000s. Scattered throughout these boxes are several folders of materials related to the memorial of Met Council founder Jane Benedict, who died in 2005. These materials include her programs from her memorials service, biographical sketches of Benedict and correspondence and ephemera related to the memorial.
The series also contains one box of Metropolitan Council on Housing photographs and publication mocks. The majority of the photographs document events like housing rights campaigns, demonstrations, meetings, and banquets. Others depict housing issues in the New York City including photographs of buildings, neighborhood, homeless shelters, and apartments. Photographs were most likely collected and created for use in issues of the Metropolitan Council on Housing's newspaper Tenant. Mockups mostly consist of photograph layouts and date from the 1970s to 1988.
This series also contains issues of the Met Council's newspaper, Tenant, and copies of other periodicals related to housing rights including Tenant News and New York Apartment Law Insider. Copies of Tenant are mostly complete, and date from 1971 to 2014.
