Brooklyn Electeds Protest Potential Rent Increase On Stabilized Units

BED-STUY, NY — Brooklyn Council Member Chi Ossé joined protesters who protested the NYC Rent Control Board's preliminarily approval of increases for rent stabilized units Tuesday.

Over a dozen protesters stormed the stage at Tuesday's Rent Guideline's Board chanting "shame on you" as the board preliminarily approved up to a seven percent rent increases on rent stabilized units.

The room was packed with organizers and electeds, who also rallied outside the meeting in Manhattan.

Brooklyn representatives included Ossé and Council Members Sandy Nurse, Alexa Avilés and Shahana Hanif.

"Any rent hikes on rent-stabilized units would pull the rug out from working families across New York City,” said Council Member Lincoln Restler in a statement. “We need the Rent Guidelines Board to recognize the affordability crisis and spare any more New Yorkers from being forced out of their homes."

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Protesters jumped onto the stage almost an our into the meeting and stayed, overpowering the board's discussion for about 40 minutes holding banners and signs that read "housing over profit" and "fight back against rent hikes."

Thursday's vote is not final — it will be considered more definitively on June 27. If approved, the new rates would apply to any rent-stabilized leases signed between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024.

The new rates would allow maximum rent increases between two and five percent on one-year leases and four and seven percent on two-year leases.

The increases would be the highest in a decade and mark the second rent hike approval in two years, The City reported.

Some two million NYC renters live in rent stabilized units, according to the Rent Justice Coalition.

“Renters are being bled dry at each and every corner. We need to get organized, fight back, and win a rent freeze for rent-stabilized tenants. Our city and neighbors cannot afford for us not to,” said Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan in a statement.