NYC Rent Guidelines Board approves increase for 2024: Here's the cost
NEW YORK - New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments must dish out more each month.
New York City's Rent Guidelines Board approved increasing rent to as much as 2.75% for one-year leases and 5.25% on two-year leases.
"Our volunteer Rent Guidelines Board members are charged with a vital but challenging task: protect tenants from unfair rent increases while also protecting the future of rent stabilized homes. The data reviewed by the board this year makes clear that our city’s tenants are facing a severe housing and affordability crisis, and that the quality of our city’s rent stabilized homes is threatened by growing operating and maintenance costs for owners," NYC Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.
The final vote on 2024 increases happened on Monday at Hunter College.
"It's so hard because everything is going up including the supermarket. Oil was $6 or $7, now we pay up to $21," tenant Jesus Ramos said.
According to the NYPD, several people have been arrested for disorderly conduct as protests were underway while the voting happened.
The outrage came down to financial struggle tenant representative Adam Soltran on the Rent Guidelines Board said.
This is my third year serving on the board and seems like the goal post shifts each year. Every time we are looking at the data and trying to explain the suffering of a landlords business and a human being is not the same," Soltran said.
Policy analyst for the Rent Stabilization Association, Kelly Farrell says owners need even more increases.
"We appreciate that the board looked at data and tried to come up with a fair increase. It's not enough," Farrell said.
NYC rent prices
Rent stabilization is a form of rent regulation that helps to combat the housing crisis, according to city government.
NYC tenants constantly struggle to keep up with the cost of living, due to inflation and congestion pricing.
Last year, they dealt with a 3% increase on 1-year leases and a nearly 3% increase on two-year leases.
Apartment Buildings along the East River in New York, US, on Sunday, May 28, 2023. Rental prices are growing at nearly twice the rate of entry-level salaries, so young newcomers are doing "whatever it takes" to live the lifestyles they've always aspi
Landlords, on the other hand, continue to argue that they desperately need the money to combat rising property taxes, insurance, building repairs and other hefty costs across the board.
Kelly Farrell a policy analyst for the Rent Stabilization Association, echoes that concern, "to run these buildings takes income, and that income needs to be adjusted by the board to keep these buildings afloat," she says.
One New Yorker tells FOX 5, "I definitely think upkeep is important," "But no, I don't think it should go up that much," she added.
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How do I know if my apartment is rent stabilized?
- It may be written on your lease.
- Your rent amount might not be a round number (for example, your rent might be $2176.43 instead of $2100).
Rent-stabilized apartment rights:
You can request your rent history to find out if your apartment is rent-regulated, or to prove that it is.
There is a legal limit to how much you can be charged in rent. Your rent can only be increased by a percentage that is decided on each year by the Rent Guidelines Board.
In the Spring of 2023, the Rent Guidelines Board decided on rent changes that apply to rent stabilized leases starting on or after October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024.