Tenants Ask: Why Aren't Hudson County Towns Enforcing Rent Control?

HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — A health care worker told the Jersey City council on Monday night that when she got hit with a surprise rent increase of more than 20 percent this year — after working in the ICU during the COVID pandemic — she didn't feel she had the resources "mentally, physically, and emotionally" to move.

But without time to ask questions or go to court, she wasn't sure whether the steep increase was legal.

She was among a growing group of tenants in Jersey City and Hoboken who are in a tough place when facing a high rent increase: Should they spend time researching whether their building falls under rent control, seek a lawyer to help, or move?

A phalanx of tenants from Portside Towers in Jersey City, owned by national firm Equity Residential, attended Monday's regular City Council meeting in Jersey City to ask city officials to do a better job of enforcing existing laws.

They said their landlords had proposed rent hikes this year of as much as 34.5 percent.

In the 1970s, New Jersey towns passed their own rent stabilization laws in order to ensure that after a tenant gets settled in a building, they aren't subject to sudden increases. Today, New Jersey has more town-by-town rent rules than any state in the nation.

The laws have been fine-tuned over time — both to help landlords make enough money to maintain the buildings, and to ensure that tenants aren't harassed out.

Rent control laws in towns including Jersey City and Hoboken apply to many buildings more than 30 years old, but also apply to newer buildings whose developers never filed for a state exemption when constructed.

Some landlords have skirted the laws for at least a year, but recent large increases prompted tenants to ask questions.

This year, tenants in buildings in both Hoboken and Jersey City have asked town officials to step in when they received rent increases higher than what was allowed, but had to seek out tenant advocates or the media to help before a ruling was issued.

READ MORE: Rivington Rent Hikes Reduced

What's Happening Now

At Monday night's Jersey City meeting, a group of residents at Portside Towers held up newspaper articles about their rent increases, referring to recent stories in the Wall Street Journal and Patch.

"What good is a Jersey City ordinance that isn't enforced?" asked health care worker Alissa Ladas on Monday. "Why have landlords in Jersey City been given unchecked power to cause harm when there are laws to prevent that harm?"

Tenants at the meeting asked the city to do more to hold landlords to the current laws, and they requested documentation on what the city has done to protect tenants so far.

"What will you do from this point forward to address the enforcement of rent control where I live?" asked Portside resident Kevin Weller.

He noted that some landlords are now saying they used software to determine how to raise the rents, rather than consulting local laws.

Tenant and mother Jessica Rasulo read a list of buildings in Hudson County — including 801 Madison St. and the Rivington in Hoboken, and Willow Ridge in Union City — that were eventually determined by courts and local officials to be subject to local rent control, but only after a fight by tenants. READ MORE: Hoboken, Jersey City Rents Highest In Nation, But Are They Legal?

"Jersey City is well aware of these cases but they're attempting to ignore the law," she said, asking, "Why is Jersey City supporting corporations rather than your constituents. No filing, no exemption."

Besides local rent control, the state of New Jersey prohibits rent increases that are "unconscionable," leaving the actual numbers to courts to decide. Local advocates say that past case law has put the state limit at around 25 percent.

Happening All Over

This week, a tenant in workforce housing in Jersey City contacted Patch to say she had been hit with a 37 percent rent increase. She told Patch she wasn't sure it was legal — but also has to make a decision on moving soon.

She said she had called a number on a federal HUD website to get more information, but the number no longer works.

How To Get Free Help

Both Hoboken and Jersey City have officials whose job is to help tenants with rent determinations for free. The Waterfront Project, a nonprofit group based in Jersey City, also helps tenants with legal issues.

Get links to those officials and groups in this story.

READ MORE: Longtime Hoboken Tenant Fights Court Case