Press Release: RGB Reports Make the Case for a Rent Freeze

Press Release

RGB Reports Make the Case for a Rent Freeze

New data on tenants' economic conditions, compiled and released today by the Rent Guidelines Board staff, offers a stark contrast to the Board's previous report on landlords' economic conditions. Taken together, the Income and Affordability and Income and Expense studies form a clear case for a rent freeze in 2025.

The New York City Rent Guidelines Board's 2025 Income and Affordability Study reports that consumer prices, unemployment rates, utility bills, and personal bankruptcy filings are all rising, while real wages are falling. In each of these categories, the findings for New York City are worse than those for the country as a whole.

This puts tenants in a terrible bind. The Board's report cites the Community Service Society's 2024 Annual Survey of Housing and Economic Security, which found that one quarter of New Yorkers had to cut back on necessary household goods, 14 percent skipped meals or went hungry, and 8 percent postponed medical care. Meanwhile, more and more New Yorkers simply cannot afford housing and are falling into homelessness.

Contrast this with last meeting's presentation on record high Net Operating Incomes for rent stabilized landlords, rising rent collection rates, and declining rates of distress, and we see a picture of economic polarization, brutal inequalities, and a dire need for relief. As we continue to push for expanded rental assistance, property tax reforms, and social housing production, the Community Service Society of New York calls on the Rent Guidelines Board to freeze rents in the rent stabilized housing stock, the largest source of housing for low-income New Yorkers.

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