Rent Board Approves 2.75% Hike on 1-Year Leases and 5.25% for 2 Years in Contentious Vote

In a vote affecting the roughly million New York households in rent stabilized apartments, the New York City Rent Guidelines Board voted Monday night to allow rent increases of 2.75% for one-year leases and 5.25% for two-year leases beginning Oct. 1.

The five-to-four vote capped a contentious voting session, part of an annual process in which the city board weighs landlord and tenant economics in setting permitted rent hikes.

A crowded tenant group on the Park Avenue sidewalk outside Hunter College calling for a rent freeze preceded the vote inside. Eleven demonstrators were arrested after police ordered them to step away from the entrance.

The final decision comes after a volatile few months of meetings, including a preliminary vote April 30 during which two tenant members of the board walked out in protest. In that earlier meeting, the board decided on a potential range of rent adjustments of between 2 and 4.5% for a one-year lease and 4 to 6.5% for two-year leases.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, a former tenant organizer, spoke at the protest, calling on the board to decide on the “lowest rent increase humanly possible.”

“Raising rents on tenants does not help landlords that are suffering,” Williams said to the crowd. “You can’t raise rent on people that do not have it.”

Landlords and their representatives assert larger increases are necessary to help them maintain buildings and afford taxes.

“Rent is income that buildings need to meet escalating costs, and we are hoping for an upward adjustment that recognizes the need to maintain buildings that are at and approaching 100 years old,” Michael Tobman of the Rent Stabilization Association told THE CITY.

According to an annual report the Rent Guidelines Board produces on building operating costs, buildings that contain rent stabilized apartments had expenses projected to increase 3.9% this year. Meanwhile, tenant advocates generally argue that raising rent to make up for operating expenses will only result in more evictions and homelessness.

“There are small landlords that are dealing with issues and need assistance,” Williams told THE CITY. “But we need the landlords to get help from the state and the city, and not from tenants who can’t afford it.”

Many of the protesters called for Mayor Eric Adams to step in and help facilitate a rent freeze — an action that former Mayor Bill de Blasio directed the board to take twice.

“So many people will have to choose between food and rent or a doctor and rent because of Eric Adams, ” said Ana Maria Archila of the Working Families Party to the crowd. “There’s one person in the city that can choose to freeze the rent — Eric Adams — but today chooses real estate instead of real people.”

The meeting itself was contentious, with tenant advocates yelling loudly at the board as they voted on adjustment ranges.

Adán Soltren, a lawyer appointed to the board as one of its two members representing tenants, both of whom walked out of the meeting in May, called for more public hearings in future years before the adjustment range has been decided, and having more board members represent the public.

Currently, two members of the board represent tenants, two represent landlords, and the other five, including the chair, represent the general public. All nine members are appointed by the mayor.

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“If we keep approaching the problem the same way,” Soltren said, “rent stabilized tenants, the majority of which are Black and Brown low-income working class folks, will not be able to stay in their homes.”