The Rent is Too Damn Nigh! When, Where and How to Testify to the City’s Rent Board

For the second year in a row, the New York City Rent Guidelines Board is contemplating a freeze on the monthly charges for nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments in the five boroughs. Some tenant advocates believe a rent rollback is justified. Landlords think the range under consideration by the RGB—0 percent to 2 percent for one-year leases starting after October 1 of this year, and 0.5 percent to 3.5 percent for two-year leases—is too low. Those opinions and more will be displayed at the upcoming public hearings:

• Monday, June 8, 2015 2:00 P.M. – 6:00 P.M. Elebash Recital Hall, The Graduate Center, CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue (Between 34th and 35th Streets), Manhattan. B/D/F/M/N/Q/R to 34th Street-Herald Square, 6 to 33rd Street. MAP
• Thursday, June 11, 2015 5:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M. / Bronx Museum of Art, Lower Gallery, 1040 Grand Concourse, Bronx. B/D/4 to 167th Street. MAP
• Monday, June 15, 2015 5:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M. Queens Borough Hall 120-55 Queens Boulevard, Room 200, Kew Gardens. E/F to Kew Gardens-Union Turnpike. MAP
• Thursday, June 18, 2015 5:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M. Brooklyn Borough Hall, Court Room, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn. 2/3/4/5 to Borough Hall, N/R to Court Street, A/C/F to Jay Street-Metro Tech. MAP

The RGB’s final vote will take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24 in the Great Hall at Cooper Union, 7 East 7th Street at the corner of 3rd Avenue (6 to Astor Place, N/R to 8th Street [Map]).

You can submit testimony to the board via website, email, fax (212-385-2554) or mail (NYC Rent Guidelines Board, 51 Chambers Street, Room 202, New York, NY 10007). The deadline for written comments in June 18.

Or you can speak for up to two minutes at a hearing. You have to register to speak, and you can do that by calling 212-385-2934 or mailing a request to the RGB at 51 Chambers Street, Room 202, New York, NY, 10007; those requests must be received by the board by 1 p.m. on the business day before the hearing. You can also register to speak at the hearing locations on the day of the hearing but RGB notes that speakers “will be heard in the order of their registration.”