Rent-Stabilized Tenants Won a Much-Deserved Break
David R. Jones, La Nueva Mayoria / The New Majority
It is not uncommon to see hundreds of New York City tenants shouting during a Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) vote. In fact, it happens every single year. What is unusual, however, is hearing them cheer instead of protest. On June 25, for the first time since the de Blasio administration, the RGB voted to freeze the rent for approximately one million rent-stabilized apartments in New York City for both one- and two-year leases.
Rent-stabilized apartments are home to the largest share of low-income households of any housing type in New York City, housing more than three times as many low-income households as public housing. They also represent the largest source of housing for Black and Latino New Yorkers.
According to the RGB, 62 percent of all evictions last year occurred in rent-stabilized buildings, with the highest concentration in the city's poorest borough: the Bronx. According to CSS’s 2025 Annual Survey of Housing and Economic Security, 67 percent of low-income tenants living in rent-stabilized apartments are unable to meet their basic needs or are just barely getting by, and 83 percent have little or no emergency savings.
The Board considered these facts during its final deliberations. Nevertheless, some landlords argue that it did not, claiming the vote reflected the mayor's campaign slogans more than the evidence. Those making that argument should listen to the Board's current landlord representative, Maksim Wynn.
Wynn correctly pointed out that while a rent increase may seem attractive to a financially struggling landlord, in practice it could result in a net loss of income. Why? Because if tenants are already struggling to pay their current rent, raising it will cause a significant number of them to fall behind on their rent payments.
Instead of raising rents and creating both an eviction crisis for tenants and a nonpayment crisis for landlords, Wynn proposed a series of public policy measures designed to reduce the costs landlords face rather than passing those costs on to tenants. He identified three major factors squeezing the margins of rent-stabilized building owners: property taxes, fuel costs, and insurance.
On property taxes, the city and state should pursue comprehensive property tax reform to fix a deeply regressive system—one that has allowed owners of the most expensive rent-stabilized apartments to avoid paying property taxes for 40 years while overtaxing the owners of the least expensive—and generally oldest—rent-stabilized apartments.
On fuel costs, we should continue supporting the transition to cleaner, more sustainable energy sources to reduce both building emissions and operating expenses, including the installation of heat pumps and induction stoves.
On insurance, the Zohran Mamdani administration is already advancing a city-backed insurance program for rent-stabilized buildings. This could go a long way toward slowing the unchecked growth in property insurance costs, which have become by far the fastest-growing expense for landlords.
But even before these reforms take effect, the RGB’s data has been clear: the majority of landlords remain in a strong financial position. Net Operating Income (NOI)—income minus expenses—increased by more than 6 percent last year, following increases of 12 percent the year before and 10 percent the year before that.
The rent freeze was fully justified and will have an enormous impact on the lives of millions of tenants in the years ahead. We must all work together to ensure this is not the end of the story, but the beginning of a much broader effort to advance affordability, sustainability, and fairness.
David R. Jones, Esq., is President and CEO of the Community Service Society (CSS), New York's leading advocate for low-income New Yorkers for more than 175 years, and a member of the MTA Board. The views expressed in this column are solely those of the author. The New Majority is available on the CSS website at www.cssny.org