After Revote, Rent Guidelines Board Considers Lower Range of Rent Hikes on 2-Year Leases

The board which votes each year on rent changes for New York City s nearly million regulated apartments is now considering an increase between down from to percent on two-year leases starting Oct It s still far from the rent freeze housing advocates want Scenes from the Rent Guidelines Board meeting vote in A final vote on this year s changes will take place in June Photo by Adi Talwar New York City s Rent Guidelines Board held a revote Tuesday morning opting to consider a slightly lower range of rent hikes for stabilized apartments with two-year leases though still far from the rent freeze housing advocates want The board which votes annually on rent changes for the roughly million regulated units across the city is now considering an increase between down from to percent on two-year leases starting Oct The range proposed for one-year leases remains the same as what the board landed on with its first preliminary vote in April an increase between to percent A final vote will be held in June Board Chair Doug Apple mentioned they decided to lower the threshold under consideration for two-year leases after hearing population testimony on the impact of expected rent increases on tenants whose incomes are not keeping pace with the rising cost of living When making its determination each year RGB considers the economic conditions both tenants and building owners are facing Residents in rent-stabilized apartments earned a median annual income of according to the board s facts Meanwhile average inflation-adjusted wages were down percent at the end of that year and through the bulk of In calling for a rent freeze tenant advocates point to RGB figures which unveiled the owners of buildings containing rent stabilized units saw a more than percent increase in their Net Operating Income NOI earnings left over after operating costs are paid in and The Board s own evidence makes clear that landlords continue to see strong returns yet rather than providing relief to the households greater part in need this vote paves the way for an increase in evictions and displacement pushing vulnerable New Yorkers into poverty and homelessness the Legal Aid Society disclosed in a announcement Tuesday morning These harms will only be compounded by looming cuts to federal housing programs and the likely passage of a regressive budget from Washington that will further erode the critical safety net protections the New Yorkers we serve rely on the organization added Landlord groups however say the NOI increases cited by the board are driven largely by properties in the core of Manhattan pointing to buildings in several outer borough neighborhoods where owners are seeing revenues decline in the face of rising property taxes insurance utility and maintenance costs These include aging -percent rent regulated buildings they argue will further deteriorate without more substantial rent increases Failing to address such costs will outcome in more vacant units and more buildings in greater financial and operational distress a lose-lose-lose proposition for tenants owners and the City James Whalen head of the Real Estate Board of New York testified last month Housing advocates however point to other promising interventions for those distressed properties like greater city expenditure in preservation initiatives like the Neighborhood Pillars scheme They say the city s affordable housing predicament is already squeezing tenants fueling displacement and rising homelessness function use strict window addEventListener message function a if void a evidence datawrapper-height var e document querySelectorAll iframe for var t in a statistics datawrapper-height for var r r