NYCs rent board must ignore the politics, obey its own math and OK a hike

When the city’s Rent Guidelines Board votes Monday on adjustments for one- and two-year leases of rent-stabilized apartments, it must tune out the politics — and increase rents at the highest end of the preliminary range they set last month.The math, and the health of New York City’s housing stock, demands it.The RGB’s own research data and reports show that a minimum rent increase of 6.3% is necessary for small-property owners to meet their increased operating costs and expenses.But the board ignored its own math last month when it set a preliminary adjustment range of 1.75% to 4.75% for a one-year lease.They have a chance to make it right — by voting for the higher number.Independent housing policy experts at the Citizens Budget Commission and NYU Furman Center warn that decades of rent adjustments failing to keep pace with inflation and rising costs have taken a heavy toll, and the pattern is no longer sustainable.Too many buildings, they say, are in economic distress. Just look at the staggering number of mom-and-pop, family-owned buildings in last month’s Department of Finance lien sale.Those buildings are now in danger of foreclosure, abandonment or takeover by corporate landlords and predatory profiteers. It’s simple math.When property taxes, water and sewer rates, insurance, utilities, labor, construction materials and every other cost needed to maintain and operate rent-stabilized housing go up, rents should increase commensurately.But with a cap on rent increases, and no ceiling on taxes and expenses, small rent-stabilized building owners are pushed off the cliff — leaving less affordable housing for NYC families. Our lawmakers have worsened the problem.Albany saddled small rent-stabilized buildings with the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, which effectively made upgrades unaffordable by severely limiting rent increases to recoup costs. The City Council continually adds burdensome and costly government mandates — mos...