Mayor Bill de Blasio | Andrew Burton/Getty Images
The Rent Guidelines Board took a preliminary vote Thursday to freeze rents on the city’s nearly 1 million rent-regulated apartments.
During a virtual meeting Thursday, the mayor-appointed board approved a proposal to keep rents flat on all one-year leases, beginning this October. Two-year leases signed over the year beginning Oct. 1 would see a zero percent increase in the first year of the lease and a 1 percent increase in the second year.
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The 5-4 decision is a win for Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has repeatedly called for a rent freeze in recent weeks due to the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Tenant groups had pushed for a rent rollback, while landlord groups argued a rent freeze would be politically motivated and is not justified by the board’s own data, given rising costs.
The vote typically takes place during a packed public meeting, and the board’s decisions are routinely drowned out by chants from tenant activists. This year, the proceedings were conducted virtually due to the virus. The board’s final vote will take place on June 17, but the vote Thursday indicates the direction the board will take.
The two tenant members on the board proposed the body enact a rollback of up to 3 percent on one-year leases, and a rollback of up to 2 percent on two-year leases.
“If this board wanted to, we could make a decision on a 100 percent rent rollback — and that would effectively cancel rent, so that makes this decision incredibly moderate,” said tenant member Leah Goodridge. “We are not saying that [landlords] can’t bring in any money, we’re simply saying that, no raises for this year given all of what’s going on.”
Owner representatives on the board proposed increases between 2 and 3 percent on one-year leases and between 4.75 and 5.5 percent on two-year leases. They also proposed that for leases going into effect before next year, no rent increase would be collected prior to 2021.
“The owners need to pay their employees’ salaries, their real estate taxes, water and sewer taxes and their mortgages. ... The tenants who have unfortunately lost their jobs need to look to the government for aid. Neither the owners nor this board are in any real position to help them,” said landlord member Patti Stone. “The mayor should not be giving unlimited tax increases and simultaneously pressuring and manipulating the outcomes of this board to achieve his political goals.”
De Blasio said at a recent press conference “the facts couldn’t be clearer” that the board should approve a rent freeze this year, given the scale of the economic damage from the pandemic.
“The challenges that landlords are facing right now are real. I’m not belittling them. But they pale in comparison to the challenges that tenants are facing,” he said.
The Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord group, echoed Stone’s points and said the mayor should also freeze property taxes and water and sewer bills if the board is going to enact a freeze.
“All a rent freeze will do is seal de Blasio’s legacy as the mayor who expedited the deterioration of the city’s aging housing stock,” Joseph Strasburg, the group’s president, said in a statement.
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Rent Guidelines Board approves rent freeze in preliminary vote - Politico
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