Rent control tenant quagmire

[Sam Sagor]

The love of my life has asked me what to make of the following situation. This is not for a property I own :

Story time for a parent :

There is a tenant we'll call him Mister Ed, living in a rent controlled apartment in NY, NY E 25th str. It's a nice place for students as it's by a major college and they are driving rents up it's 2.5k - 3.5k a month for a comparable apartment. He pays 1k and lives a miserable existence because for some reason he is responsible for his own repairs for the last few decades (not sure if this is purposeful campaign to get rid of him). There are only 2 tenants still on this kind of rent control in 20 unit building. Some time ago maybe 3-5 years back Ed's landlord approached him and offered to pay 40k for him to pack up and move out. Ed turned it down - flash forward 2 years he lost is job / retired at 65. My fiancee wants to help the poor fool get as much as he can and help buy a house for him. She instructed him to ask the landlord and see if she would reinstate the offer: he has not acted for 1.5 years because ED doesn't want to talk to "those property managing bozos". Living there is a non-sustainable situation for Ed and he wants to move but doesn't think he can. He worked as a social worker in Harlem for decades and gave a chunk of his paycheck to his clients. This was a life-safer for some of them but horrible for his own finances. He's got nothing but the apartment ... so he holds out for cash he is too proud to ask for. She is aware there is probably no helping him at this point but came to me to ask if we can negotiate with the landlord because he's too paranoid to help himself.

She suggested this would mean getting in contact with Ed's landlord and offering to get Ed moved along by the end of the month for 50k. (building has done well thanks to renovation and packing college students into each room) Ed will stay despite the living conditions probably for the rest of his life. So at 1.5k -2.5k more coming in a month that seems win-win to me. I am stumped as to how I'd put this together.

What is this called simply cash for keys? Is there something that needs to be taken care of to get rid of the rent control? What would the process be? Cashiers check to Ed on checkout? Is there a better way to go about this - where the landlord knows he's leaving and Ed knows the "bozos" are giving him good money? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Steve L.]

Phone call would be simple:

"Hi, my name is Sam, I am friends with your tenant on 25th St, named Ed. I wanted to call you because we have been discussing his future and has told me that previously you had offered some money for him to relocate. In discussing his future we were wondering if that offer is still on the table?"