Freeze NYC Rent: Advocates Tell Board After ‘Dire’ New Study

NEW YORK CITY — A rent freeze is the only solution to help New York City’s one million rent-stabilized tenants who already fork over an eye-watering percentage of their incomes on housing, advocates said Thursday.

The call by The Legal Aid Society came in response to a study by the city’s Rent Guidelines Board that detailed dire challenges for tenants.

Chief among the study’s findings was that rent-stabilized tenants in the city typically paid spent roughly 33 percent — and sometimes much more — of their incomes on housing. Housing is generally considered affordable if it costs no more than 30 percent of a renter’s income.

“From historically high inflation, rising rents that demand more than 30 percent of a tenant’s monthly income, stagnant wages, the increased need for SNAP and cash assistance benefits - coupled with New York’s skyrocketing cost of living - tenants are clearly at the brink,” advocates with The Legal Aid Society said in a statement.

The study comes as the board — which sets rents on rent-stabilized apartments — weighs potential rent increases.

Landlords have called for increases after another study by the board showed their expenses rose 3.2 percent and their income fell 9.1 percent during the pandemic, Brick Underground reported.

The new study found half of tenants in rent-stabilized home pay more than 34 percent of their income in gross rent.

“Furthermore, more than a third (36.6%) of rental households pay more than 50% of their household income in gross rent,” the study states.

Read the full study here.