Tonight: Elected Officials and Tenants Call for Rent Control Reform
New York, NY – May 15, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — This evening, Tenants & Neighbors and Goddard Riverside Community Center will be co-hosting a forum on ways to improve New York’s rent control laws. In attendance will be:
- State Senator Adriano Espaillat
- State Senator Brad Hoylman
- Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal
- City Council Member Gail Brewer
- and many other state and city-level elected officials
Background: Most of New York’s rent controlled tenants are elderly people living on fixed incomes. When their rents rise, they can jump precipitously, compromising the affordability of many senior citizens’ homes and forcing them to chose between medicine, food, and shelter. Under the current system, many rent controlled tenants have seen their rents increase by 7.5% every year for decades. On top of that, many are forced to pay fuel and labor “pass-alongs,” extra charges per room for fuel and labor costs that are not charged to rent stabilized tenants or coop/condo shareholders. Under the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB), rent stabilized tenants have generally seen significantly lower annual increases; last year, stabilized rents rose 2%. Tenants & Neighbors is working with rent controlled tenants and elected officials to promote reforms that would slow these precipitously high rent increases and help keep rent controlled seniors in their homes.
What: Rent Control Forum
Who: Tenants & Neighbors and Goddard Riverside Community Center
Where: 593 Columbus Avenue at West 88th street
When: May 15, 6:00 pm
Contact:
Sam Stein, 
