The Rent Guidelines Board is preemptively cracking down on protests ahead of a highly anticipated vote next week at which the panel could raise rates for the city’s one million rent-stabilized households by as much as 7%.
In a memo released Tuesday the board announced a venue change for the June 21 vote as well as a ban on “items that are reasonably likely to disrupt the proceedings, such as noisemakers and drums” — a move ridiculed by advocates.
“The rule against noisemakers is as pointless as it has been year after year,” said Esteban Girón of the Crown Heights Tenant Union.
“We don’t need noisemakers when we have hundreds of tenants chanting and stomping and clapping. Telling working class Black and brown tenants to politely allow ourselves and our neighbors to be evicted is shameful.”
It comes after a raucous preliminary vote last month when a number of progressive politicians and tenant activists loudly took to the stage with chants, banners and demands for a rent rollback. Attendees were able to make plenty of noise on their own, clapping, chanting and drumming on their wooden seats to contribute to the din.
The panel ultimately endorsed hikes of 2% to 5% for one-year leases and 4% to 7% increases for two-year leases in a 5-4 vote. A final vote is set for June 21.
Board chair Nestor Davidson expressed “strong concerns” following the meeting, saying in a letter to the mayor that the protest “went beyond the bounds of public participation and created a chaotic environment that raised serious concerns for me about public safety.”
The landlord group the Rent Stabilization Association decried what they described as “intimidation and fear tactics” at the meeting and advised their members not to participate in person at recent public hearings.
“This will guarantee that their testimony will not be disrupted, silenced and drowned out,” Michael Tobman, the association’s director of membership and communications, said in a statement. “All voices must be heard in this process – especially the voices of small building owners, the largest providers of affordable housing in the five boroughs.”
Many landlords testified at a virtual meeting on Tuesday, citing rising costs as they pressed for rent hikes.
But the new rules are unlikely to stop tenants from making themselves heard one way or another. At a public hearing in Queens on Monday dozens of New Yorkers wielded homemade signs and chanted “Rent rollback!” and “Fight, fight, fight, housing is a human right!”
The single landlord who testified was met with derision by other speakers, one of whom suggested he “go get a job.”
Attendees had to enter through a metal detector and there was a police presence outside the auditorium.
Girón, one of those who took to the stage last month, was defiant in response to the new rules.
“We can have decorum when we aren’t being priced out of our own homes,” he said. “If tenants fighting for their homes and community make board members uncomfortable, good! Maybe feeling some small version of the discomfort tenants have to deal with will help this board understand the stakes. But I’m not holding my breath.”
The final Rent Guidelines Board vote will be held on Wednesday, June 21 at the Assembly Hall of Hunter College in Manhattan. Doors will open at 6 p.m. ahead of a 7 p.m. start.