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Top Pols Call for Rent Freeze—

At Met Council’s May 8 press conference at the City Hall rotunda, we called for a rent freeze at the next day’s Rent Guidelines Board preliminary vote—or a delay of the vote, given the inexperience of the RGB’s three new members and the cancellation of the invited expert testimony on April 30.

“The lack of affordable housing is driving working families out of the city. If rents continue to skyrocket, New York’s middle class will soon be a thing of the past,” Public Advocate Mark Green said. “There should be no rent increase in 2001.”

Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields agreed, saying “the recent resignation of the Rent Guidelines Board chair, as well as two as yet unfilled vacancies on the board, will mean that three new Board members will not have an opportunity to thoroughly review the many issues related to rent stabilization by the scheduled preliminary vote on May 9th. As a result, I join Metropolitan Council on Housing in calling for a rent freeze over the coming year.”

On April 22, City Comptroller Alan Hevesi wrote to then-RGB chair Ed Hochman that he was “shocked” that the board “may be considering rent increases of up to 13%. At a time when landlords are reaping record profits, such an enormous increase would be grossly unfair.” The comptroller added that the RGB should “take into account not just landlord costs, but also profits,” and “should determine if landlord costs have indeed risen as much as the rate increases granted. If the true cost increases in past years have not equaled the rent increases—for example, if costs only increased 2% but rates increased 4%—then the RGB should consider granting rebates to tenants for the difference, or deducting that difference from any increases which might be considered for this year.”

Joining the May 8 press conference were council members Steven DiBrienza, Bill Perkins, Margarita Lopez, Christine Quinn, Guilllermo Linares, Eva Moscowitz, Stanley Michels and Ken Fisher, as well as representatives from the Coalition for the Homeless, SRO Tenants United, Latino Officers Association and other groups.