John Petro

A Tale of Two Cities: Rent Stabilization

On the same day that New York City's Rent Guidelines Board approved rent increases on rent stabilized apartments of three percent for one-year leases and six percent for two-year leases, San Francisco was taking bold action to strengthen renter protections.

New York's increases will seriously hurt low-income renters that are already suffering from the highest rate of unemployment in this economic recession. But that doesn't matter to the Rent Guidelines board which also approved extraordinarily high rent increases last year.

Several New York City officials - Speaker Christine Quinn and mayoral candidates William Thompson and Tony Avella - supported the efforts of tenants to freeze increases this year because of the increasing hardships being faced by low-income renters.

Mayor Bloomberg, who could have also stood up for these tenants, decided to keep silent on the issue, saying that he would leave the decision to the board (the mayor appoints the members of the board).

In contrast, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a series of laws that will protect low-income renters in rent stabilized apartments. One of the law states that a landlord cannot increase a household's rent above 33 percent of that household's income. The law applies to households that are experiencing hardship, defined in the law as those who are unemployed, whose wages have fallen by 20 percent or more over the past year, or whose sole income is from government assistance.

Another law allows these same renters to add roommates to help them pay for their rent, even if the tenant's lease forbids it. Lastly, the law prevents landlords from "banking" rent increases, in which allowable rent increases are saved up over time and then imposed all at once.

Rent stabilized apartments in San Francisco make up 88 percent of the total. In New York, it's 52 percent.

Supervisor Chris Daly, the sponsor of San Francisco's legislation, stated, "This legislation makes sense give current economic conditions. These times are unprecedented. If the legislation is unprecedented, it is legislation for unprecedented times."

San Francisco's time of glory may be short lived, however. Their mayor, Gavin Newsom, seems to be as unsympathetic of the plight of low-income renters as New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. The new laws are likely to be vetoed by Newsom.

John Petro: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 2:58 PM, Jun 25, 2009 in
Permalink | Email to Friend | Comments (1)