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Rent-Stabilized Tenants Poised To Score Lowest Rent Hikes In Decades
By
Lauren Evans
Published Jun 17, 2014
Modified Jun 17, 2014
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By
Lauren Evans
Published Jun 17, 2014
Modified Jun 17, 2014
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Anyone living in a rent-stabilized apartment is a lucky duck, with notable, ghastly exceptions. But even for the city's one million rent-stabilized tenants, the cost of living still increases annually—last year, it was four percent for one-year leases and 7.75 percent for two-year leases. Paychecks, for many of us, don't enjoy the same automatic expansion.
The city's Rent Guidelines Board—comprised largely of de Blasio appointees—will determine this year's rent hike on Monday, which is poised to be the lowest in decades. Last month, the board determined the range will be between zero and three percent for one-year leases and .5 and 4.5 percent for two-year leases; historically, the board has voted on a point somewhere in the middle of the range.
“The range being considered is the lowest in history, and that’s a reflection of the affordability crisis we are facing as a city," de Blasio spokesman Wiley Norvell told the Post. "Tenants are clearly struggling after so many years of significant rent increases."
A rent freeze may be unprecedented, but so too are the now abundant tales of "middle-income" residents eating dollar pizza crusts so they can afford to stay in their East 39th Street apartments, to say nothing of the babies being raised in the shadows of toilet bowls.
Several city council members have vocally supported a rent freeze.
“At this point, proposing any rent increases will further endanger our city’s affordability and New Yorkers’ ability to remain here,” said Councilwoman Margaret Chin during her testimony. “Whenever we threaten the affordability of our city, we threaten the economic vitality and vibrancy of a place that has long been home to artists, entrepreneurs, seniors and working class families.”
During her testimony, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer also pointed out that Manhattan alone lost nearly 100,000 rent-stabilized units between 2002 and 2012. "While I am relieved to see that the proposed adjustments are in a lower range than what they have been in previous years, I believe you must take the most responsible course and approve a rent freeze," she said. "While you may view a proposed three or four percent rent increase as minimal or reasonable, I urge you not to evaluate that percentage in isolation, standing alone, but in the full context of the last ten or fifteen years of consistent, relentless, substantial rent increases that have been imposed on tenants in this city."
Landlords, predictably, are less thrilled, arguing that a rent freeze would prevent them from making needed repairs and send the city spiraling into a dystopian nightmare of graffiti-covered flophouses and eternally sputtering radiators.
Last month, Mayor de Blasio released his $41 billion plan to create 80,000 new units of affordable housing and preserve 120,000 more, calling his vision "the most expansive and ambitious affordable housing agenda of its kind in the nation's history."
The Rent Guidelines Board's Monday vote will impact leases held between October 1, 2014 and September 30, 2015.
Tagged
affordable housing
affordable housing crisis
de Blasio
rent
rent guidelines board
rent stabilization
Lauren Evans
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