Tenant Fights Back Against Manhattan Rent Increase

Carmen León talks about the moment when the new owner of the building located at 192 Knickerbocker Avenue in Bushwick said that he would increase her rent by $800 per month.

“I feel sad the days go by too fast. I feel sad, I don’t know what to do,” León said.

Carmen has lived in the building for 26 years with her husband and two daughters. In 2019, the landlord raised $500 a month and she signed the contract.

This time she went to court with a lawyer to make the increase less, but she says the landlord asked her to move out of the apartment if she couldn’t pay.

“We would like the landlords to put their hand on their chest and try to solve something for all of us,” Carmen added.

León is one of dozens of tenants who marched alongside elected officials and members of the Make the Road organization asking them to pass the Good Cause bill.

“Give protections to tenants who live in small buildings so that they don’t get evicted without cause, right, so they don’t get their rent raised to very high numbers, so people can stay in their homes more than anything,” Yatsiri said. Tovar, from Make the Road.

In New York City, tenants living in private or unregulated buildings face huge rent increases and little guarantee of lease renewal.

According to data shared by the Make the Road organization, about five million homes in New York state lack guaranteed lease renewals.

The participants of this march hope that the bill will be approved before the end of the last sessions of the legislature in Albany before the month of June since Governor Kathy Hochul did not approve this law in the state budget during the month of April.

“It is very important that the state do what is correct in passing Good Cause because otherwise they will find more and more families in our shelters in our shelters that you already know that we cannot accept more and more families and the apartments will not going to the families here, unfortunately, is an income that is too high for anyone,” said Councilwoman Jennifer Gutierrez.