The mission of the New York City Rent Guidelines Board is to oversee the residential rental units in the city that are subject to restrictions rent increases that landlords are permitted to charge. Dating back to the post-World War I era, laws to make rental housing affordable in New York City continue to offer almost a million apartment dwellers rents that remain dramatically below current market rates.
History of New York City’s Rent Increase Restrictions
New York City experienced dramatic rent increases in the years following World War I. According to Bill Mulrow, former chairman of the New York City Rent Guidelines Board, the number of eviction proceedings reached an all-time high in 1919 as landlords tried to evict tenants who could not afford the dramatic rent increases that swept through the New York City rental market.
Tenant-led rent strikes resulted in the city’s mayor asking the state legislature to put a halt to out-of-control rent increases with laws designed to control rents in New York City. The legislature responded with the passage of the Emergency Rent Laws of 1920 that gave judges the authority to cancel rent increases considered unreasonable. Once the housing shortage diminished in New York City, the Emergency Rent Laws of 1920 were allowed to expire in 1929.
According to Bill Mulrow, housing conditions worsened following the Great Depression. But it was not until World War II that rent control returned to New York City, thanks to the federal government. The Emergency Price Control Act of 1942 created a wartime price-control system through the United States on goods and services including apartment rents. The result in New York City was a freezing of all residential rents as of March 1, 1943.
The state legislature enacted laws in New York in 1946 to continue rent control in the event of the expiration of the federal price control act. Under the state legislation, a commission was created to oversee rents charged to more than 2 million apartments. Landlords were limited to rent increases of less than 4 percent, and only if they could prove hardship in paying building expenses.
Eventually, authority for controlling rents was transferred from the state commission that had been overseeing it to the New York City government. Seven years later, New York City created the Rent Guidelines Board in 1969 to oversee rents in the city. The Rent Stabilization Law enacted by New York City in 1969 created a bridge between rent control and landlord self-regulation of rents. Former board chairman Bill Mulrow recalls that the composition of the board did not include positions for tenant and owner representatives, but this oversight was corrected by the addition of two positions for owners and two positions for tenants in 1974.
Today’s Approach
Bill Mulrow notes that the Rent Guidelines Board of today remains concerned with protecting the rights of tenants to adequate housing. However, new legislation has authorized rent increases or destabilization of rents in buildings in which landlords complete improvements to individual housing units. This new approach is in keeping with a recognition that building owners should be compensated for work that benefits tenants.
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