Thursday, June 20, 2013

Final Vote: Tonight, 5:30

After four months of presentations, analysis, testimonies, and hearings (formal and otherwise), the Rent Guidelines Board will vote tonight on a rent adjustment for over one million stabilized apartments and SROs. We hope they have listened to the many tenants who testified that the RGB's proposed rent increases are simply too high. We hope they remember the invited guests who testified that New York is facing a severe affordability crises. We hope they recall the analysis presented on this blog, arguing that the Board's own data supports the case against another high rent increase.

We hope we have cogently and persuasively made the case that tenants cannot afford the kinds of rent increases proposed by this Board, and that the hikes demanded by owner advocates are unwarranted. Countless households throughout the city are already forced to choose between basic necessities- such as food and medicine- and making the rent. These increases could push many over the edge, and into chaos. At the same time, property ownership in New York City continues to be an extremely profitable enterprise, despite the endless protestations of the landlord lobby.

For all these reasons, and for the reasons elaborated on this blog many times before, we urge the board to reject the proposed increases.

The final vote of the New York City RGB will be held tonight at 5:30 PM in the Great Hall at Cooper Union, located at 7 East 7th Street. We urge tenants to be there, bear witness, and speak to reporters after the vote about how the final guideline will affect you.

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