Low-Income NYC Tenants Sue to Repeal “Supplemental Rent Increase,” Calling it a “Poor Tax” Aimed at Eliminating Rent-Stabilized Apartments
Legal Services E-lert
Bibliographic Info:
Author: Manny Fernandez
Source: New York Times
Date: September 17, 2008
The New York Times reports: "Tenant lawyers and the City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, announced the filing of a lawsuit on Tuesday [September 16, 2008] against the Rent Guidelines Board, which regulates rents for the city's one million rent-stabilized apartments. The lawsuit alleges that the board, which authorized rent increases of 4.5 percent on one-year leases and 8.5 percent on two-year leases in June, exceeded its authority when it also approved a supplemental rent increase that is the center of the lawsuit. The supplemental rent increase, which outraged tenants, applies to renters who have lived in their units for six years or more . . . . For some tenants who pay less than $1,000 in rent, the supplemental increase raises their rents by percentages that exceed 4.5 or 8.5 percent, said Judith Goldiner, a supervising attorney with the Legal Aid Society, which filed the lawsuit along with [LSC-funded] Legal Services NYC. Opponents of the supplemental increase described it as a ‘poor tax' against low-income tenants and held a news conference on the steps of City Hall . . . Ms. Quinn, a rent-stabilized resident and a former tenant organizer, said in an interview: ‘It's really a tax that is a target on low-income tenants in gentrifying neighborhoods. We've lost 300,000 rent protected units in the past decade. This "poor tax" is a clear attempt to get that number up.' The lawsuit was filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on behalf of two rent-stabilized tenants and the New York State Tenants and Neighbors Coalition. It asks the court to overturn the supplemental increase."