New Yorkers are in trouble right now. They’re facing stagnant wages and rising costs for food, transportation and childcare. Then there’s rent. The fact is the New Yorkers who make this city work are being priced out of their own homes.
This year, when the Rent Guidelines Board sets rents on stabilized leases for the next two years, it has the opportunity to side with millions of tenants who urgently need financial relief by approving the first-ever rent freeze on both one- and two-year leases. (The RGB approved rent freezes on one-year leases in 2015, 2016 and 2020, but has never approved a rent freeze on two-year leases.)
Rent is the largest monthly expense for roughly 70% of New Yorkers who rent their homes. Half of the 2.4 million rent-stabilized tenants report struggling to make ends meet, and most lack emergency savings. Even a small increase can push a household into crisis. A two-year rent freeze would keep money in people’s pockets. It would collectively save tenants billions of dollars and provide each of them an average of hundreds of dollars in monthly relief. That money would go toward groceries, childcare, transportation and local businesses across the city…