Tuesday night will prove a key night in the battle over New York City rent hikes, with the question being: how much more will some residents end up paying for their rent?
The Legal Aid Society is demanding a rent freeze ahead of the NYC Rent Guidelines Board’s final vote Tuesday night — a vote that will impact millions of people in rent-stabilized apartments.
The Rent Board is looking to vote on proposed rate hikes: a 2% to 4% increase on a one year lease, and a 4% to 6% jump for two-year leases.
On Monday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams acknowledged how inflation is devastating New Yorkers and said he hoped the rent board will go with a smaller rent hike — if any — as to not decimate New Yorkers.
Last week, the Board heard renters express fear that the rent hikes could push the struggling working class into poverty.
The organization Community Action for Safe Apartments condemned the rent hikes saying it directly impacts some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. However, the city also heard from landlords who said they are facing rising maintenance and building costs and need help meeting those financial increases.
“I live in a rent-stabilized building. If I wasn’t working, I’d be in a really sticky situation,” Frank Blau, a Long Island City resident, told News 4 New York. “I think it should stay flat, or the City should help out.”
Meanwhile, another resident told News 4 New York: “Make it illegal, a certain percentage, to spike the rent, I feel…You shouldn’t push people out who have been living here for decades.”
The vote will take place Tuesday at 7 p.m. If it passes, it will be the highest rent increase for rent-controlled apartments in 10 years.
Tuesday’s vote will take place a few days after the City Council determined that there is indeed a public emergency requiring rent control in New York City, and voted on Thursday to extend rent stabilization laws that were set to expire next month.
The legislation declares that the City Council determined that there is an ongoing housing emergency, and that the emergency will continue after the current expiration of the Rent Stabilization Law, July 1, 2022. Additionally, the introduction of legislation558-A calling for the expiration date of the Rent Stabilization Law to be amended to April 1, 2024, thus allowing for the renewal of rent regulation to follow its ordinary triennial cycle, was approved and is currently waiting Mayor Eric Adams’ signature.
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