Denisa Rodrigo, who lives in a rented studio in Sunside, Queens, said any increase would be “unsustainable”. Ms. Rodrigo, 56, lost her job as a medical assistant when the private doctor she worked for closed her office in 2020, during the worst of the pandemic. She said she was still looking for a new job.
Ms. Rodrigo’s monthly rent is $ 1,050, which she has barely been able to pay since April 2020. A pandemic rent relief program covers about $ 9,000 she owes, but she still has about $ 10,000. for repayment, she said, and any further increase allowed by the council could leave her still in debt.
“I paid what I could from my savings and exhausted almost everything I had,” she said.
She said she was worried she would be fired and wanted the board to vote instead to reduce the rent.
The rent stabilization system, established in 1969, has become a huge and important source of affordable housing in one of the most expensive places to live in the country. The average monthly rent is about $ 1,269, compared to $ 1,700 in unregulated homes.
More than one million stabilized rental apartments make up approximately half of the city’s rental housing stock.
Just over 40 percent of these tenants are Hispanic or Latino, and more than 20 percent are black, according to city estimates, while the average income of tenant-stabilized tenant households is about $ 44,000, more than 33 percent lower. from the figure in unregulated apartments.
The nine board members, all appointed by the mayor, include five members of the public, as well as two for owners and tenants. The annual votes on the board are one of the few ways in which the mayor can directly deal with the city’s housing costs, and Mr Adams named three nominees since taking office. The other members were appointed by Mr de Blasio.
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