It is official. Rents are going up. The city's Rent Guidelines Board voted in favor of hikes Tuesday night that will impact nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments. KevRincon has the story.
The city's Rent Guidelines Board voted in favor of hikes Tuesday night that will impact nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments.
The board meeting was contentious from the start. Through the noise, the Rent Guidelines Board ultimately voted 5-4 in favor of a rent increase. That hike starting later this year will be 3.25 percent for one-year leases and 5 percent for two-year leases. said, in part,"This system is broken, and we cannot pit landlords against tenants as winners and losers every year.
To give an idea of the raw emotion, the proposals for the vote were being read with folks turning their backs in a sign of disrespect, a feeling that they were not being listened to, Rincon reported. Several small landlords were in the room, including Lincoln Eccles, who has a 14-unit building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He said things need to change to prevent even more friction between the two sides.