Despite Pleas for a Freeze, Stabilized Rents to Go Up
Wednesday, Jun 24, 2009
Despite Pleas for a Freeze, Stabilized Rents to Go Up
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
(The New York Times) The board that regulates rents for New York City’s one million rent-stabilized apartments ignored pleas from tenants and elected officials to freeze rents for the first time in its 40-year history and approved a set of modest increases on Tuesday.
The nine-member board, known as the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, authorized rent increases that were lower than last year’s, approving increases of 3 percent on one-year leases and 6 percent on two-year leases.
Last year, the board approved its highest set of increases since 1989, 4.5 percent on one-year leases and 8.5 percent on two-year leases. That meeting was disrupted by tenants who blew on plastic whistles at an ear-ringing volume.
On Tuesday evening at the Great Hall at Cooper Union in the East Village, the board’s deliberations were marked at times not by noise but by virtual silence.
After a motion for a rent freeze that was put forward by a tenant representative on the board was struck down, dozens of tenants walked out in protest. Earlier, some had waved pieces of paper reading “O%” and chanted, “Zero! Zero!” Others placed tape across their mouths in a silent demonstration.
“This is a severe recession,” said Ronald S. Languedoc, the board member who put forward the motion for a rent freeze, adding, “This is not the year to have a rent increase.”
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