“For the 2.4 million people in rent-stabilized apartments, every rent increase is a crisis,” said Kathryn Marrow from Community Voices Heard Power, who called on the city’s next mayor to enact a rent freeze. “A rent freeze matters to me, because it’s about affordability, respect, and compassion for your fellow New Yorker.”
“For years, the Real Estate Board of New York and the landlords who are its members have campaigned for policies and tricks which they have used to price us out, and to evict tens of thousands of New Yorkers from their homes,” said Naithlyn Flowers, a VOCAL Action Fund member.
Flowers, who lives on a fixed income, was forced out of her apartment of 32 years and became homeless because of her landlord’s refusal to maintain livable conditions. She denounced legal loopholes that allow landlords to keep tens of thousands of rent-stabilized units vacant, so they can later convert full buildings to luxury apartments.
“These loopholes incentivize these slumlords and landlords to neglect housing into unlivable conditions,” said Flowers. “People should not be working two and three jobs, as she said, choosing between the rent and food, or your medicine and the rent, and making your life miserable.”
“New Yorkers are tired of leaving their city because the rent is too doggone high,” said Jamell Henderson, a CANY member who lives in the Kingsbridge Houses, a public housing complex in Brooklyn. “We want you all to invest. Let’s take care of this.”
The three groups, who represent tenants in all five of the city’s boroughs, called on incoming officials to triple the amount of capital funds available for building new affordable homes, to build 200,000 new units for low-income households, seniors and working families. They also called on the city’s Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) agency to expand its programs for Senior Affordable Rental Apartments (SARA) and Extremely Low and Low-Income Affordability (ELLA), both of which can significantly expand housing affordability for NYC residents.