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$20 rent-control cap coming to Elizabeth, New Jersey
By
Michael Sol Warren
Published Nov 5, 2026 at 3:46 p.m. ET
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By
Michael Sol Warren
Published Nov 5, 2026 at 3:46 p.m. ET
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Rent-controlled tenants in Elizabeth, New Jersey won a years-long legal battle on Election Day after voters approved a measure that restores a $20 cap on future rent increases, at least for a year.
City leaders have tried to eliminate the cap for years, saying it was outdated, but affordability advocates in a city with a where roughly half the population is foreign-born said the cap is still needed for a community struggling in the margins.
“The rents continue to climb and are just incredibly unaffordable,” said Nedia Morsy, the director of Make the Road New Jersey, a group that advocates for immigrants and the working class.
Elizabeth voters agreed, approving the measure with 68% support, according to unofficial election returns.
“ We talked to thousands of tenants. We organized tenants to come to tenant meetings. We connected this issue to the broader affordability crisis sweeping everywhere,” said Isaac Jimenez, an organizer with the Freelizabeth campaign, which pushed for the $20 cap. “And tenants showed out.”
Morsy said the cap will restore critical protection for Elizabeth residents at a time when the city is seeing “explosive” rent increases.
Elizabeth’s local law requires the city to reevaluate its rent control rules every two years, according to Jimenez. The regular review means the voter-approved cap will only be in place for 2027. It will be up to city leaders to decide on renewing it for the longer term.
“ Whatever they choose to do after is up to the [city] council,” Jimenez said.
The dispute originates with a decades-old city ordinance that once capped annual increases on rent-controlled units to 3% or $20, whichever was less. The median rent in Elizabeth is $1,523, according to U.S. Census data. A 3% increase for that rent would be about $45.
Elizabeth leaders in 2022 changed the ordinance to remove the $20 limit, allowing 3% rent increases annually regardless of dollar amount. City Councilmember Manny Grova told NJ Advance Media at the time that the $20 limit was “outdated.” Grova did not respond to requests from Gothamist for comment.
The North New Jersey Democratic Socialists of America and Make The Road New Jersey, which partnered to organize the Freelizabeth campaign, responded with a petition drive in 2025 to force a referendum on restoring the $20 cap.
“We knew that rents were going to creep up, that developers were going to start moving into Elizabeth, and that we would need to make an intervention,” Jimenez said.
A group of landlords went to court to challenge the signatures that were collected on the petition. A judge ultimately validated the petition, but only after the deadline for getting the question on the 2025 ballot had passed. As the fight over the petition signatures played out, the city council attempted to restore the $20 cap. Landlords sued to block that effort as well. A judge rejected the landlords’ claim that the cap was unconstitutional, but did rule that the council’s vote on the ordinance was invalid because it came at a meeting that did not have proper public notice.
Matthew Moench, a lawyer representing the local landlords in court, did not respond to requests for comment.
David Brogan, the executive director of the New Jersey Apartment Association, called the $20 cap arbitrary and said it ignored the financial challenges facing landlords.
“Property owners face rising taxes, labor, insurance, utility, and maintenance costs, yet their ability to recover those expenses is severely restricted,” Brogan said. “Ignoring these economic realities risks discouraging investment, undermining property maintenance and ultimately diminishing the quality and availability of rental housing for the very residents this policy is intended to protect.”
Brogan said the cap would hurt apartment property values in Elizabeth, which would increase the tax burden on local homeowners.
“Ignoring the financial realities of providing rental housing doesn't solve the affordability problem,” Brogan said. “It simply kicks the can down the road.”
Morsy said the $20 cap was more important than ever amid the ongoing affordability crisis.
“ Meeting the bills that your money has already been assigned to at the top of the month is incredibly difficult,” Morsy said. “ If we want to maintain the fabric of people's communities, which is beneficial for all of us, then no [it’s not outdated.] It's responsive to a system that just continues to exploit working people with, at least for the interim, no end in sight.”
The small city, which sits just south of the Newark Airport, has been a favorite target of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which detained 1,138 people in Elizabeth during the first 18 months of President Donald Trump’s second term, according to a Gothamist analysis. When one person is detained or deported, there’s often a family that relied on that person left behind, Morsy said.
“ What we've experienced even more so in the last year has been people who have been separated from their breadwinners,” Morsy said. “ Folks that were already struggling to make ends meet because of abusive and negligent landlords now had even more of a difficult time trying to make it to the end of the month while simultaneously also trying to support a loved one who was trying to fight their case.”
Elizabeth’s rent increase cap was the main focus this election season for North New Jersey DSA, according to Jimenez, who is also on the executive committee of the chapter. Jimenez said expanding and strengthening rent control in the state is top priority for local socialists.
“ Rent control in whatever form, whether it's temporary rent freezes, whether it's universal rent control, is definitely something that we're going to try in other cities,” Jimenez said.
Mayor Christian Bollwage’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Tagged
Politics
housing
new jersey
Michael Sol Warren
Michael Sol Warren covers New Jersey for WNYC and Gothamist, and previously reported on issues around the Garden State for NJ Spotlight News and NJ Advance Media. He can be reached at [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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