Speaker Quinn Urges Overhaul of Rent Board
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The speaker of the City Council, Christine Quinn, is seeking an overhaul of the Rent Guidelines Board, calling the nine-member panel, which sets annual rent increases for almost 1 million rent-stabilized apartments in the city, a “sideshow.”
The board voted 5-4 last month to set preliminary increases of 3.5% to 7% for one-year leases and 5.5% to 9.5% for two-year leases for rent-stabilized apartments in 2009. Although the rates are similar to earlier increases, Ms. Quinn says they are a threat to the character of the city.
“I am here because the city that gave me a home, that gave me the opportunity to pursue my dreams, is disappearing before my very eyes,” Ms. Quinn writes in a letter that she will enter in as testimony today at a Rent Guidelines Board meeting.
“The RGB has become a sideshow, a predictable and silly display that holds no regard either for the residents or their circumstances. And that must change,” she writes.
The director of government affairs for the Rent Stabilization Association, Frank Ricci, said the increases announced last month are modest and do not compare to the rising costs of utilities and increases in property taxes incurred by landlords.
“It is the property taxes that have been imposed by the City Council and the mayor that are driving the rents up,” Mr. Ricci said. “If she wanted to help renters, she would make sure that there would be a reduction in the tax rate.”
Between 2005 and 2007, rents on unregulated apartments in Manhattan increased 16%, a Citi Habitats report found.
The Rent Guidelines Board is composed of nine members appointed by the mayor, with two members representing tenants, two representing landlords, and five representing the general public.
Ms. Quinn is supporting a bill before the state Legislature that would restructure the board, deny rent increases for one year on any unit with serious violations, and require the use of a tenant’s income and expense information in determining whether a rent increase is warranted, she writes.
Mr. Ricci said the legislation succeeds only in “pandering to tenants” and does nothing to solve the housing crisis.
