Board Votes In Favor Of Rent Hikes For New York City Tenants

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Despite a boisterous plea for a freeze, New York City's Rent Guidelines Board voted for an increase on Thursday.

Tenants shouted and chanted through most of the hour-and-a-half meeting at Cooper Union, but in the end, they were disappointed.

1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria Reports

The board voted 5 to 4 to hike one-year leases by 2 percent and two-year leases by 4 percent.

One senior citizen who spoke with 1010 WINS' Carol D'Auria said the board was always catering to landlords.

"This board is fixed. I mean they're endlessly greedy," she said. "You don't need to kill the middle class."

"It's very, very clear that this is a plot worthy of Hitler to throw out the poor and let them die in the street," another tenant said.

However, landlords argued the argument was nonsense.

"The increases of 2 percent, which comes out to approximately $240 a year for a one-year lease is going be eaten up immediately the first time many of these owners have to pay their water or sewer bills," one landlord said.

One landlord said the numbers just don't add up.

"Taxes are the largest single cost of running a rent-stabilized building. So if taxes go up 15 percent and the rent goes up by 2 percent -- how does that work?" he asked.

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