Good morning. I am Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal and I represent the 67th Assembly District, which includes the Upper West Side and parts of Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan. As a member of the New York State Assembly Committee on Housing and a longtime advocate for tenants’ rights and affordable housing, I urge the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) to forgo imposing any rent increases this year and to roll back the rents of rent-stabilized tenants.

The RGB is currently considering increasing rents on one-year leases by up to three percent, and by up to 4.5 percent on two-year leases. Last year, the Board hiked rents 4 percent on one-year leases and 7.75 percent on two-year leases. While I am pleased that RGB is also considering a rent freeze for one-year leases and a 0.5 percent increase for two-year increases, the countless unwarranted, extortionary increases approved by RGB under the previous administration have threatened the economic and cultural diversity of this City. Tenants need and deserve a rollback of rents to help undo the damage already done to affordable housing in New York City.

My district is home to nearly 44,000 rent-stabilized tenants, and this Board’s decision each year is the primary factor in whether or not my constituents – and nearly two million tenants statewide – will be able to remain in their homes. Many of these people are living on low, fixed incomes like Social Security, which increased a paltry 1.5 percent this year—just half of the three percent increase these tenants may soon be facing. Too many rent-regulated tenants already devote more than 30 percent of their income toward paying rent, and many in my district have seen their rent-stabilized rents exceed their fixed incomes and are burning through their savings in a desperate attempt to avoid homelessness.

Throughout this process, those representing landlords have argued that rent increases are necessary to keep pace with rising fuel costs, and that landlords depend upon the income generated from their buildings. For those who argue that these increases are reasonable, one need only look at the exorbitant rents paid by chain stores, banks and drug stores in storefronts in apartment buildings throughout the City. In addition, the RGB also includes the cost of fuel in its rent calculations. Using a calculus that considers the shifting fuel prices and the number of rooms in each building, 75 percent of the annual fuel cost per room is passed along to the tenant.

What’s more, the smaller landlords who serve as the public face of these arguments represent only a tiny fraction of an industry that is, in actuality, dominated by wealthy landlords and faceless corporations who control the vast majority of properties. Year after year, we’re seeing landlords’ profits skyrocketing even as their tenants are twisting themselves in knots, scrambling to pay all their bills. Ensuring that housing remains affordable for average families is also key to our economic recovery – a strong middle class has always been the engine that drives robust economic growth. It is unacceptable to consider placing the burden of any increased costs onto the backs of New Yorkers who are already using nearly half their salary to pay their rent, even as landlords add insult to injury by barring rent-regulated tenants from building amenities. In my district, I see buildings where rent-stabilized tenants struggle to make ends meet while their landlord converts the tenants’ basement storage room into a pool, forbids the rent-regulated tenants from using the pool and then claims to RGB that he cannot possibly maintain his building without astronomical rent increases.

Though the increases under consideration by RGB are far more moderate than those that the Board has approved in past years, anything short of a rent freeze on both one and two-year leases will only further harm New York’s dwindling middle class. To repair the damage of so many exorbitant rent increases, I am calling on RGB to do the only reasonable thing and enact a rent rollback this year. Thank you.