Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 16:23:28 EDT
Subject: [orgs] yesteday's RGB meeting - articles in English
To: reysmont@hdfccentral.org
Ax rent hikes, tenants howl
Calling affordable housing in New York City "a crisis," hundreds of city tenants urged the Rent Guidelines Board yesterday to reject a proposed rent hike between 3% and 8.5% for rent-stabilized apartments.
"We cannot afford another increase," said Ursula Morgan of Norwood, the Bronx, during a public hearing at Hostos Community College. "If you want to see a city full of homeless people, keep raising the rent, and that's what's going to happen."
The board is considering raising rents between 3% to 6.5% for one-year leases and between 5% to 8.5% for two-year leases. The board will vote June 27 on any increases, which will take effect Oct. 1.
The board entertained comments from the public for several hours at a sometimes raucous hearing. Tenants chanted, "Freeze the rents" while holding signs that read, "We have to survive. Zero increase" and "Landlords don't need big rent hikes."
Audience members hissed Eamon Toscano, a landlord in the north Bronx, who asked the board for a 10% rent increase to help cope with rising costs for oil and insurance.
"When we pay all the bills, there's not much left," Toscano said.
According to the Rent Stabilization Association, a landlord group, the average rent in the Bronx is $674 a month - nearly $200 below the city average.
But Adele Bender of Queens argued that tenants shoulder much of the burden.
"I know the landlords talk about their expenses, but what about our expenses?" she said.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) denounced the proposed hikes and urged the board to "dramatically reconsider."
The board will hold another public hearing from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday at the Great Hall at Cooper Union in Manhattan.
Tracy Swartz
Originally published on June 20, 2006
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