“The rent freeze fix was in from the get-go; tonight’s vote was merely a formality, as confirmed by outgoing board member Christina Smyth, who resigned this morning. In her resignation letter, Smyth made clear that the RGB was ‘required to deliver a rent freeze,’ adding that ‘the hearings, the reports, the public comment, the data – none of it was ever going to change the result.’
“The board should apologize for wasting the time of New Yorkers who tried to participate in what was billed as a democratic process but was in truth just a cover for legitimizing a political ideology in the name of affordability.
“The reality is that a rent freeze will only impact some 1 million tenants in rent-regulated apartments – about 44 percent of all rental units across the five boroughs – and do nothing to help the more than 1.3 million other renting households. In fact, this rent freeze could exacerbate the ongoing housing shortage by pushing already financially struggling building owners who are unable to maintain or invest in their properties into taking even more units offline or going under entirely.
“The intent of this administration’s housing plan is to take those failing properties out of the hands of private owners and turn them over to nonprofits, even though, as our recent research has shown, many of those organizations already face difficulty making ends meet – thanks to the city’s consistent inability to pay its own bills.
“New Yorkers suffering most from the affordable housing crisis need real solutions – not a fixed process that, as one of its now former members made clear, was nothing but theater.”
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