NYC’s Rent Guidelines Board approves new hikes for stabilized units for second year in a row

For the second year in a row, millions of New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments will face new rent hikes after the board tasked with setting rates approved increases during a raucous Wednesday night meeting.

The Rent Guidelines Board voted 5 to 4 in favor of a 3% hike for one-year leases. Two-year leases got a 2.75% increase in year one and 3.2% in year two. The vote came amid chants, boos and the shrieks of whistles.

The crowd of over 100 said they represented the roughly 2 million New Yorkers living in the 1 million rent-stabilized households citywide who will be impacted.

Much of the tenants’ ire was directed specifically at Mayor Adams, who appointed six of the nine board members.

“Finding the right balance is never easy, but I believe the board has done so this year — as evidenced by affirmative votes from both tenant and public representatives,” the mayor said in a statement.

But on Wednesday night, attendees drowned out the board members with deafening chants of “rent rollback” and “shame on you” as they attempted go through the formalities of the vote. The board was on a stage that was rows removed from the public and surrounded by NYPD after a chaotic preliminary vote last month.

“If he raises rents, then he’s evicting us,” Shu Zhen Liu, 70, said of Adams through a translator. “He’s not standing for us.”

Her retirement only covers a fraction of her $1,675 monthly rent, she said.

“This impacts my life in every way,” she said of the increases. “In Chinatown, all of us tenants are working class and poor. Every single year we’ve been at these actions at the RGB. … Year after year, increases after increases.”

Gabriella Murillo, 36, of Richmond Hill, Queens, brought her four children with her to the vote. The Marine veteran was distraught at the prospect of even a small rent increase.

“Where am I going to go with my kids? It’s going to break us,” she said. “Before it was a struggle for food. Now it’s a struggle to keep a home for my children.”

“We don’t want to become another statistic,” said her eldest daughter Samantha Almanzar, 16. “It’s our right to have a home, and they don’t have a right to take it away from us.”

But the new hikes did not satisfy the landlord lobby, either.

“Every year, we see the same drama unfold, and nothing ever changes,” said Jay Martin, executive director of the Community Housing Improvement Program.

“The [board] puts data out there which is largely ignored, tenant advocates and politicians scream and shout, and rent-stabilized housing gets defunded. If we continue on this trajectory, there won’t be any rent-stabilized housing left for people to live in.”

Wednesday’s vote was the culmination of weeks of heated public meetings in which tenants from across the city testified against increased rents, many visibly emotional as they begged not to be priced out of their homes.

Last month, the board gave preliminary approval for rent hikes of 2% to 5% for one-year leases and 4% to 7% for two-year leases.

Adams had been critical of the initial numbers, saying at the time that 7% would be “clearly beyond what renters can afford and what I feel is appropriate this year.”

The new rates will apply to leases effective between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30, 2024, per board rules.

But tenants were already expressing dismay at the news.

“The way I see it, I’m going to end up in the street,” said Nelia Ruiz, 60, a school aide who lives near Grand Concourse. “The shelters are full already. There’s no space for us.”