(Photo: Luisa Rollenhagen)
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Rent Freeze Leaves Some Tenants and Owners Feeling Left Out in the Cold
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nyc rent guidelines board
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As Vote Looms, Tenants Ask Rent Guidelines Board to Give Them a Break
RGB public hearing attendees protest embattled landlord Steven Croman. (Photo: Karissa Gall)
How many landlords does it take to change a lightbulb? Metropolitan Council on Housing volunteer Mary Crosby posed the rhetorical question to members of the Rent Guidelines Board at last night’s public hearing at Cooper Union. “None, because everyone knows landlords don’t do repairs anymore,” she said. Here’s another one for you: how many owners does it take to change a lightbulb? You’ll never guess… it’s also “none,” she said, “because the owners have removed the light sockets during an eviction.”
Rent Guidelines Board Weighs Rollbacks: ‘Oh Where, Oh Where Has Our Affordable Housing Gone?’
Tenants protesting sale of a Mitchell-Lama building (Photo via Flickr, Angela Radulescu)
The Rent Guidelines Board met last Thursday ahead of voting to determine the maximum allowable rent increase for rent regulated apartments throughout New York City. The same review happens annually, but this year there’s a special sense of urgency as rents continue to rise amidst falling incomes and a precipitous drop in rent regulated housing stock, which account for some 1 million homes in the city. Proponents of rent regulation agree that the system is badly in need of reform, but it remains to be seen what exactly that might look like when Albany revisits the rent regulation laws, which expire on June 15. Many affordable housing advocates are worried that powerful real estate interests might prevail. But for now, it’s up to the RGB to decide whether or not to continue on a course of raising rents for rent regulated tenants or take the advice of some lawmakers and freeze rents.
Jimmy McMillan Couldn’t Stop the Rent From Going Even Damn Higher
(Photo: Anna Silman)
Among the usual protesters who turned up outside of the meeting at Cooper Union’s foundation building was Jimmy “The Rent Is Too Damn High” McMillan.
The mayor of Papaya King wasn’t impressed with last night’s actual-mayoral debate. “They’re talking about stop and frisk, gun control,” he told us. “I’m talking about landlord control.”
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