The Rent Guidelines Board approved a 3 percent increase on one-year leases for rent-stabilized apartments. As usual, no one was happy about it.
Photo: Laura Brett/ZUMA/Alamy
The Rent Guidelines Board voted Monday in favor of a 3 percent increase on one-year leases and a 4.5 percent increase for two-year leases. As usual, no one is happy.
In the 5-4 vote, both of the tenant representatives and the two landlord representatives voted against the 3 percent hike — though for vastly different, and predictable, reasons. Those representing the landlords’ interest warned the hikes weren’t high enough to address the financial difficulties rent-stabilized landlords say they are facing in maintaining their housing stock. “We understand that this is a very difficult decision, and that this board is put in a position each year to the utter failures of the state elected officials and the city government to address the high cost of housing and the abject lack of supply,” Christina Smyth, a lawyer and landlord rep on the board, said in front of a booing crowd. She also blamed the 2019 state tenant-protection laws for “the systemic defunding of buildings,” along with growing property taxes, as well as insurance and utility bills.
On the tenant side, there were echoes of Zohran Mamdani’s call for a rent freeze, which he’s made a pillar of his mayoral campaign. That’s where those “no” votes came in. “I think we spoke clearly this year: We demanded a rent freeze, we elected a mayor who promised a rent freeze,” said Genesis Aquino, who is a tenant-side board member and executive director of the affordable-housing advocacy group Tenants & Neighbors.
Eric Adams has overseen several rent increases since he first took office. Even without last night’s vote, rents on rent-stabilized buildings had already increased a combined 9 percent during his tenure, with the board last year approving a hike of 2.75 percent for one-year leases and 5.25 percent for two years, according to Gothamist’s math. During his two terms as mayor, Bill de Blasio oversaw three rent freezes and overall a combined 6 percent increase in rents.
Also unhappy (sort of) about the vote? Eric Adams, who just hours before had called on the board to choose the “lowest increase possible,” or a cap of 1.75 percent for one-year leases, while also criticizing calls for a rent freeze as “short-sighted.” After the board voted, he said he was “disappointed” by the decision. Join the club.