After months of deliberation, the final vote of the city’s Rent Guidelines Board is planned for Wednesday June 21. The board determine rent increases for roughly 2 million New Yorkers living in rent stabilized apartments.
Here’s what you need to know.
How much are rents going up?
The Board will vote Wednesday night on proposed rent hikes of between 2% and 5% for one-year leases and 4% and 7% for two-year leases.
Those ranges were approved 5-4 during a chaotic preliminary vote on May 2 when a number of progressive elected officials and housing activists made headlines by taking to the stage in protest over the hikes.
It’s not certain where within those ranges the board will land.
After the preliminary range was announced in May, Mayor Adams released a statement criticizing the proposed numbers, saying “a 7% rent increase is clearly beyond what renters can afford and what I feel is appropriate this year.”
Citywide, the average rent-stabilized unit goes for $1,495 a month, according to the most recent Board data from 2021. By that standard, a 2% bump would mean about an extra $30 a month, and 7% would be nearly $105.
What are tenants saying?
Since the initial vote the Board has held a number of public meetings across the city, and one virtually, where they’ve heard testimony from the public. The overwhelming sentiment at those meetings has come from tenants asking the board to hold off on raising rents.
Last year the panel voted for the biggest rent increase since the Bloomberg administration, increasing rents 3.25 percent on one year leases and 5 percent on two-year leases.
Tenants and advocates have been fighting for a rent freeze or a rollback amid an ongoing housing and affordability crisis. The Board’s own research found that more than half of rent-stabilized households who didn’t have housing subsidies spent about a third of their income on rent last year, making them rent-burdened. It comes as evictions are skyrocketing and a recent study found that half of New Yorkers are struggling to afford basic necessities.
“Asking people to choose between rent and food and medicine is beyond unfair, it’s obscene and amoral and [a] driving force in the housing crisis today,” said one man at a hearing in Queens last week. “If I get squeezed any more I’ll be living out of a cardboard box on the street.”
The new rates would take effect least October 1.
What are the landlords saying?
Landlords have in turn been calling for major rent increases in response to inflation, rising maintenance costs, property taxes and other expenses.
Inflation has driven up costs across a wide range of goods and services, with the consumer price index increasing 4 percent over the last 12 months.
When and where is the final vote, and what we can expect?
The final vote will be held in Hunter College’s Assembly Hall at East 69th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues in Manhattan starting at 7 p.m. Wednesday. Doors open at 6 p.m. but attendees are encouraged to arrive earlier. Those who can’t be there in person can watch a livestream on the Board’s YouTube channel.
If you do plan on showing up, best leave your drums and boombox at home: the Board has banned “noisemakers” ahead of Wednesday, following the raucous first vote and subsequent public hearings.
That likely won’t stop tenants and their supporters from expressing themselves during what is usually a tense and emotional night.
What is the Rent Guidelines Board?
The Rent Guidelines Board is a nine-person panel that sets rent rates for approximately one million rent-stabilized New York City apartments every year. It does not decide rents for market-rate or subsidized housing.
Who is on the Board?
The Rent Guidelines Board has nine members, all mayoral appointees. There are two tenant and two owner advocates who represent the interests of renters and landlords, respectively.
The five remaining members represent the general public and are akin to swing voters in the final rent determinations. There is also a four-person team of support staff and researchers.
The Board considers research from their staff as well as testimony from tenants, landlords, advocates and others during a series of public meetings ahead of the final vote in determining the annual rates.
Mayor Eric Adams has named six of the board’s current members, with three holdovers remaining from the de Blasio administration.