Oppose Unjust Rent Increase!

We are writing to inform you of the Real Rent Reform Campaign’s (RRRC) rally on the steps of City Hall to take place on October 1, 2008 at 12:00 noon.

The RRRC strongly opposes the rent increases approved by the Rent Guidelines Board that will take effect on October 1, 2008. These new guidelines will grant "landlords who don’t charge their tenants for heating" the right to "hike the rents 4.5 percent on a one-year leave and 8.5 percent on a two-year lease" for stabilized apartment dwellers. [1]

For tenants that do pay for heat, rent increases would fall between 4-8%. "New Yorkers with smaller rents, like $450 a month, would pay a flat increase of $45 a month."[1]

The rent increases that are to become effective on October 1st will be the largest rent increases since 1989. The City approved rent increases of 3% on one-year leases and 5.75% on two-year leases, and 4.25% on one-year leases and 7.25% on two-year leases, in 2007 and 2006, respectively. [2]

As New York’s renters continue to struggle to pay rents that absorb the bulk of their salaries, it seems unfair to place the highest rent increases in almost two decades on the backs of stabilized rent dwellers.

Please join us in opposing this unjust rent increase.

Thanks,
teamtish
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1 WNBC. Rent Stabilized Apartments Get Rent Hikes. 20 June 2008. http://www.wnbc.com/news/16658708/detail.html
2 Seifman, David. New York Post. Rent Boost Adds to ‘Hike" Cost of Living. 27 June 2007. http://www.nypost.com/seven/06272007/news/regionalnews/rent_boost_adds_to__hike_cost_of_living_regionalnews_david_seifman.htm