The 2 million-plus New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments will see their rents climb for the third year in a row after the board in charge of setting rates approved the increases at its chaotic final vote on Monday.
The Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) passed hikes of 2.75% for one-year leases and 5.25% for two-year leases as hundreds of people protested outside Hunter College in Midtown Manhattan.
The nine-person panel of mayoral appointees voted 5 to 4 in favor of the increases, which were narrowed down from preliminary ranges of 2 to 4% for one-year leases and 4 to 6.5% for two-year leases approved at a similarly raucous vote in April.
The changes impact about 1 million households across the city and will take effect Oct. 1.
Dozens of police stood by on the street ahead of the vote before flooding the sidewalk and detaining several protesters blocking the building’s main entrance, including Assemblywoman Marcela Mitaynes and two others. The lawmaker was escorted into the back of a police van with her hands zip-tied behind her back.
Tenants marched, chanted and cheered outside, but, in a departure from years past, mostly refused to enter the voting venue. The handful who did sit in the audience drowned out the landlord representatives and Chair Nestor Davidson with shouts of “Shame!” “Thief!” and “F— you!”
Both residents and elected officials called out the board and Mayor Adams, who appointed six of the current board members and has closely aligned himself with the real estate industry.
“The RGB is always concerning,” Adams said at a press conference on Monday ahead of the vote. “People are hurting … I know what it is to worry about your food and your rent, all of those things. So we’re going to continue to advocate based on the concerns of New Yorkers.”
Retiree Lisa Schwartz, 63, said a rent hike would make her life difficult.
“It’s tough living in New York,” said the Rego Park, Queens, resident. “Give us a break for the next few years until we all get on our feet again. Since the pandemic, it’s been hard for everyone to get on their feet.”
She was one of the many tenants who wanted a rent rollback or freeze, as happened under the de Blasio administration during the pandemic years.
Monday’s increases were widely expected and have long been characterized by activists as a foregone conclusion in favor of real estate estate interests. But public frustration at the board has reached a fever pitch this year amid the larger housing and affordability crises in tandem with staggering homelessness and eviction rates, as half of New Yorkers struggle to afford the basics and the majority are rent-burdened.
At the same time, landlord groups and the real estate lobby had been pushing for even higher rent increases to offset operating costs, particularly for older buildings in the outer boroughs.
“This year’s RGB vote pushes the city’s largest segment of affordable housing, already in financial distress, closer to the edge of insolvency — a disaster for owners and the millions of New Yorkers they house,” said Joseph Strasburg, president of the Rent Stabilization Association.
Monday capped the monthslong RGB season in which the board weighs its data alongside public input to decide whether or not to raise rents and, if so, by how much. The lead-up to the final vote is customarily marked by raucous public meetings across the boroughs.
Market-rate apartments are not affected by the RGB process.
Last year’s final vote brought a 3% hike for one-year leases, a 2.75% increase in the first year of a two-year lease and 3.2% in the second.
