Landlords proposed increases of up to 8 percent for the city’s one million rent-stabilized apartments during a hearing Thursday at the Rent Guidelines Board.
Citing the board’s own study that landlord expenses climbed 6.2 percent last year, landlord representatives called for a rent hike of 4 percent for new one-year leases and 8 percent for two years.
But they weren’t too hopeful.
“This year’s numbers clearly demonstrate justification for a rent increase, but it’s an election year and [Mayor} de Blasio controls all nine members of the RGB,” said Joseph Strasburg, president of the Rent Stabilization Association, which represents 25,000 landlords.
Under de Blasio, the board for the first time in its history froze rents for one-year leases in 2015. Then it did the same in 2016.
Tenant advocates said the shaky finances of many rent-stabilized tenants suggest a third year’s freeze is warranted.
Tom Waters, a housing policy analyst for Community Service Society of New York argued for a third year’s freeze.
“Given the likelihood that tenants’ finances have not fully recovered since the recession, we believe it is prudent to continue to bend towards tenants for another year,” said Tom Waters, a housing policy analyst for the Community Service Society.
Tim Collins, a former executive director of the Rent Guidelines Board in the early 1990s, told the board the landlords’ 6.2 percent cost increase was eclipsed by the substantial raises they received during the Bloomberg administration.
“During the Bloomberg years, the board was engaged in a march to the market,” Collins told reporters.
Following more public hearings, the board will take a preliminary vote on the new rates April 25 and its final vote June 27.