The rent got too damn higher

Queens Chronicle 

According to multiple reports, hundreds of tenants were outside Hunter College in the Upper East Side jeering at members of the Rent Guidelines Board after the group voted 5-4 last Wednesday night to move forward with a 6 percent rent hike over the next two years.

Mayor Adams thanked members of the RGB after the vote on June 21 for protecting rent-stabilized tenants from unsustainable rent increases, while also ensuring small property owners have the necessary resources to maintain their buildings and preserve high-quality and affordable homes for New Yorkers.

“Finding the right balance is never easy, but I believe the board has done so this year — as evidenced by affirmative votes from both tenant and public representatives,” Adams said in a statement.

Rents on one-year leases will go up by 3 percent, and there will be a bifurcated increase of 2.75 and then 3.2 percent on two-year leases.

Earlier this year, the RGB also released a report that it wanted to increase rent by up to 15.75 percent over two years because of rising of fuel costs and inflation. Last month, it approved hikes up to 7 percent in a preliminary vote before going down to 6 percent as a final increase.

Jeremy Maldonado, a tenant activist from South Ozone Park, who also works as a community organizer in Far Rockaway and Flushing for New York Communities for Change, a progressive nonprofit, was disappointed in the mayor.

“By vetoing critical reforms to the city’s voucher program and raising rents for rent stabilized tenants, Mayor Adams has turned his back on tenants,” Maldonado said via email. “Thousands more New Yorkers will face homelessness and eviction because the Adams administration is failing to take the housing crisis seriously.”

City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (D-Jamaica) said that while the rent increases were on the lower end of what was proposed, the hikes will further exacerbate the homelessness and housing crisis at a time when New Yorkers can least afford it.

“As our city grapples with a record-high shelter population, an affordable housing shortage that remains unabated, and rising costs, New York City tenants increasingly struggle to make ends meet,” Speaker Adams said in a statement.

The speaker also said the rent hikes will deepen the lack of affordability and make it more difficult for New Yorkers to remain in their homes and work in the city they love.

She said there needs to be action on the state level to address the housing crisis.