Metro

Rent board goes easy on city tenants’ wallets

One million rent-stabilized city tenants caught a break last night when the Rent Guidelines Board voted to hike rents by 2.25 percent and 4.5 percent for one- and two-year lease renewals, the lowest increases since 2002.

“They threw a bone to the tenants and threw the owners into the water,” fumed Jack Freund, executive vice president of the Rent Stabilization Association, which represents 25,000 landlords.

Despite their seeming victory, tenant leaders, too, were up in arms.

“It’s a disgrace,” complained veteran tenant advocate Michael McKee. “There should have been a rollback. At a minimum, there should have been a rent freeze, and the numbers show that.”

McKee and other tenant leaders pointed to the rent freeze imposed in Westchester and the near-freeze in Nassau County — zero percent the first year and a half percent the second year — as proof they had gotten a raw deal.

The increase passed by a 7-2 vote, the first time in memory that the board’s two tenant members joined the five public ones to approve higher rents. Two landlord representatives voted no.