If you live in a rent stabilized apartment in New York City, get ready to pay more for your pad.
As usual, tempers flared over the Rent Guidelines Board’s decision which impacts more than a million people.

Eyewitness News reporter Lucy Yang has the story.

Maxine Zeifman is not like her Upper East Side neighbors. She does not have unlimited funds. In fact, this feisty 79-year-old is anxious about how much longer she can afford to live in the city she loves.

“It’s terrifying because you know I’m on a fixed income,” Zeifman said.

She joined about hundred other rowdy tenants in the East Village Tuesday night to fight for zero percent increases — only to witness the Rent Guidelines Board approve:
# 3 percent hike for one year leases
# 5.75 percent hike for two year leases

Tenants cried it was too much, landlords argued it wasn’t enough.

Arnold Fine owns just a few apartments in the Bronx and East New York says he can’t afford to own his buildings any more.

“It’s a joke. It’s a joke … what I’m going to get five percent on $800 dollars?” he said.

Traditionally, neither side leaves these meetings victorious. But for the first time ever, the chairman of the board acknowledged that this one size fits all policy really doesn’t work — and that government subsidies or tax breaks need to make up the difference for those at the bottom of the ladder.

“There are people who don’t have the ability to pay the rent increases. We understand that. We’ve always understood that. We don’t have the tools to address that issue, hence the frustration,” Marvin Markus said.

The increases will take effect October 1st.

Source

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007 at 3:06 pm and is filed under Apartments, Real Estate. Tags: ABC Lucy New York New York City Village . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.