Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that he’s “very sensitive” to the needs of tenants, but stopped short of endorsing the rent freeze he called for when running for City Hall last year.
He named four members Thursday to the nine-member Rent Guidelines Board, which sets increases for about 1 million rent-stabilized apartments every June and has never delivered a freeze in its 44-year history.
Last year, the board enacted hikes of 4 percent for one-year lease renewals and 7.75 percent for two years, the highest since 2008.
De Blasio indicated tenants would get a more sympathetic ear this year but didn’t mention a freeze.
“I’m very sensitive to what all tenants, all working people have gone through in the last few years of this economy, so that’s going to be a major factor in how we weigh the final decisions on the rent situation,” he said.
He added he’ll get into specifics once he names a chairman for the board.
Tenant advocates praised the change in tone.
“The new members understand that the job of this board is to keep rents affordable, whereas the Bloomberg board felt it was their job to protect landlords’ profits,” said Michael Mckee, treasurer of the Tenants Political Action Committee.
Landlord reps questioned how the mayor could ask property owners to help build and restore 200,000 units of affordable housing while freezing rents.
“I think he can have one or the other but not both,” said Jack Freund, executive vice president of the Rent Stabilization Association.
“I don’t think he can get the involvement of the real-estate industry to help him, which he needs, and they can’t do that with a zero rent increase.”