MARKOWITZ URGES RENT GUIDELINES BOARD TO MINIMIZE INCREASES

“I am disappointed that the Rent Guidelines Board is on the verge of issuing the greatest increase in more than a decade for rent-stabilized apartments in New York City. One month ago I urged the board to vote down any and all rent increase proposals. I still believe that the call made by landlords this May for yet another increase far beyond the rate of inflation was unfounded.

The Rent Guidelines Board saw fit to take steps toward an increase that, if adopted, would impose an unnecessary hardship on working people with modest incomes when revenues for landlords again far outpaced costs in every borough last year.

No one disagrees that a landlord who properly maintains a building has the right to a fair return and there are adequate procedures in place for individual landlords who are experiencing hardships to apply for rent increases. As rents across New York City approach the $2,000 ceiling, “the promised land” which removes rent-stabilization for landlords, we will see a shrinking pool of rent-stabilized apartments, accelerating the loss of affordable housing bringing tenants a step closer to being rent poor and at the mercy of the most competitive real estate market in America.

As I submitted in my testimony to the New York City Rent Guidelines Board, I never want to see a New York that is home only to the very rich and the very poor.”