'Misleading' Hoboken Rent Control Referendum Ballot Statement Gets New Wording

HOBOKEN, NJ — Hoboken's City Council voted at its meeting Wednesday night to add language to the public explanation ("interpretive statement") of a rent control vote appearing on the November ballot.

Council members have complained that the original language, crafted by a landlord group, makes it seem as though the measure is meant to add affordable housing in Hoboken.

In fact, voters will be considering whether to allow landlords to pay a one-time $2,500 fee when a current tenant moves out of a rent-controlled unit, in order to get an unlimited rent increase for that unit.

The fee will go into a fund for affordable housing at some time in the future.

Tenant groups have said they fear that landlords will push longtime tenants out of their units and thus, force them out of town, if they can potentially get a large increase.

They also say the change could slowly phase out rent control in Hoboken altogether.

Hoboken's rents have risen in the past few years faster than almost anywhere in the country. READ MORE: Hoboken Had Highest Rent Increases Of All Cities In NYC Area

Changes In Language

Hoboken has a Rent Control Ordinance that keeps rent hikes in most older buildings to the cost of living increase, allowing tenants to plan for gradual rises each year — but the referendum up for a vote in November could help slowly phase out those units.

This past May, a landlord group run by public relations professional Ron Simoncini — who has fought to amend rent control in Hoboken for decades, and recently fought rent control in other towns in New Jersey — acquired signatures in Hoboken to put the decontrol measure Hoboken's public ballot in November.

You can read the original referendum language here.

Council members argued that the language does not make it clear what the measure is really about. Residents of Hoboken have already said that they didn't understand the language when they originally signed a petition to put the measure on the ballot. READ MORE: Did You Sign 'Affordable Housing' Petition? Here's What It Was

The council voted on this new resolution Wednesday.

It states, in part, "Their proposed statement is misleading and frames the issue from a particular viewpoint, namely, it emphasizes the benefit of the amendment providing funds for affordable housing, without mentioning the potential negative impact the amendment would have on rent control; and ... the City Council believes it has an obligation to adopt the Interpretative Statement in accordance with DeSanctis v. Borough of Belmar, particularly where the Statement proposed by the Committee is misleading in nature..."

See the full text of the new interpretative statement below.

After the council's vote Wednesday night to add language about rent control, Mayor Ravi Bhalla released a statement:

"I commend the City Council for taking a stand and adopting a transparent interpretive statement for the upcoming rent control referendum. This action is essential to ensure that Hoboken voters are not deceived by the original statement, which was crafted by corporate landlords and lobbyists with a blatant intent to mislead and misinform.

"With this new statement, we are ensuring that residents can make informed decisions based on facts, and not self-serving misinformation from those who will realize massive profits from the abolishment of rent control.”

Property owners have said that the proposed change would allow landlords to have more money for upkeep on their properties and other costs.

(Note that there's also a New Jersey law applying to all rental units — whether rent controlled or not — that states that rent increases toward an existing tenant can't be "unreasonable." However, it doesn't define the amount, which means tenants often must end up at an eviction hearing before they can make their case to a judge.)

Further Reading

• Tenants have recently have told Patch, NJ.com, and other outlets that Hoboken landlords have found ways to subtly pressure them out, without reprisal.
• Several neighboring cities recently passed measures to protect tenants amid rents that are spiking nationally, but Hoboken has not passed similar tenant protection measures. READ MORE: 5 Recent Tenant Protection Measures That Other Towns Took, And Hoboken Hasn't
• The current city administration has acknowledged that it's been taking months for residents to get answers regarding legal rents in their buildings, when fighting unexpected increases.
• The cities of Hoboken and Jersey City recently passed resolutions to ask the state to ban use of the software in setting rents, but notably did not ban the software in their own communities.

The New 'Interpretive Statement' About The Upcoming Vote

Here is the statement, verbatim:

Hoboken's City Code, Chapter 155, controls how much landlords can raise rent for residential units, both while a tenant is living there and when a new tenant moves in. Currently, annual rent increases are capped at either 5% or the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate, whichever is lower (excluding certain surcharges). However, when a unit has been occupied for three years or more and becomes vacant, landlords can raise the rent by up to 25%—a process known as "partial vacancy decontrol." This increase can only happen once every three years for the same unit. The proposed ordinance would allow landlords to increase rent to market rates without the 25% limit when a unit becomes vacant. In exchange, landlords would pay a $2,500 fee to the City of Hoboken, which would go into the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to support affordable housing initiatives in the city.

A “Yes” Vote Means: You support an amendment to the City’s Rent Control Code to allow landlords to increase the rent upon any vacancy to whatever the market would bear without any limitation (i.e., without the three year/25% increase restriction) if they pay a fee of $2,500 per unit, which would be deposited into the Hoboken Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Thereafter the unit’s rent would be subject to the Rent Control Code’s limitations. This would replace the current restrictions in the Rent Control Code, which caps rent increases upon vacancy to a maximum of 25% and only between vacancies after three years or more.

A “No” Vote Means: You support maintaining the current Rent Control Code and that vacancy increases would remain limited to the above-referenced "lesser of the 5% increase or to a maximum of 25% if no 25% had been charged in the prior three years, or longer; there would be no option for an unlimited rent increase upon vacancy coupled with a $2,500 fee paid to the City of Hoboken to be deposited in the City's Affordable Housing Trust Fund.