Amid an auditorium of screaming housing activists, the city’s Rent Guidelines Board made its preliminary vote in an attempt to acknowledge the widespread affordability crisis impacting New Yorkers. It wasn’t exactly the rent freeze that many demanded, but they counted it as a tentative win.
“New Yorkers are being crushed by the cost of living, and they need real relief. I’m encouraged to see the board taking seriously the data around affordability, operating expenses, and the pressures facing both tenants and small property owners as it sets this preliminary range,” said Mayor Zohran Mamdani on the vote.
One of the key parts of Mamdani’s affordability agenda was a rent freeze for over 2 million rent-stabilized tenants, which he pushed often during his mayoral campaign.
The board agreed to a 0-2% increase for rent-stabilized one year leases and 0-4% for two year leases after October 1, 2026. Though a ‘rent freeze’ and a negative adjustment range of -3-0% for one-year leases and -4.5-0% for two-year leases were proposed, the RGB voted them down.
“As the RGB begins its public hearings, tenants, owners, and New Yorkers from every borough should make their voices heard and speak directly to what this housing crisis looks like in their lives,” said Mamdani in a statement. “I’m confident the Board will weigh those perspectives carefully and arrive at a decision later this summer that reflects the urgency of this moment.”
About five million New Yorkers do not meet their true cost of living (TCOL), according to the city’s Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice 2026 report. Hispanic New Yorkers face the highest TCOL rate at 77.6%, followed by Black New Yorkers at 65.6%.
Darryl Randall, a Metropolitan Council on Housing member and long-time Bed-Stuy resident, attended the press conference ahead of the vote.
“This isn’t rocket science. I live on a fixed income, and each rent hike puts more pressure on my already limited budget,” said Randall. “I’ve lived in Brooklyn for 40 years, and I’ve never been robbed. But I feel like I’ve been robbed by landlords and policies that take money out of my pocket and force me to make decisions about what to eat in a day so that I can pay rent.”
During the board’s meeting, housing organizers relentlessly chanted about the previous rent hikes under former Mayor Eric Adams. Rent went up by 12.6% under Adams over the last four years. They added that the Trump administration has initiated cuts to critical social supports including SNAP, housing aid, healthcare, and childcare, while ramping up ICE raids in sanctuary cities and inflation costs for groceries and gas, which is only compounding the need for a rent freeze.
The biggest opposition to a rent freeze is real estate entities, like the Real Estate Board of New York and New York Apartment Association (NYAA).
“This range is an example of politics over people. The final vote impacts hundreds of thousands of tenants and owners. Politics has pitted the two groups against each other as if they’re not all New Yorkers who are investing in their communities and seeking the same thing: the means to live,” said NYAA CEO Kenny Burgos in a statement. “An owner’s ability to pay for operating costs should matter to every tenant. Rent isn’t going into the pockets of rent-stabilized owners, it’s going into keeping the buildings standing. This threat of a rent freeze nearly guarantees our owners and tenants will live in declining conditions for years to come.”
Several speakers at the rally described the long-term neglect and disrepair in their homes under bad landlords in the past four years, insinuating that rent hikes don’t result in better living conditions.
The next step is a series of Rent Guidelines Board public hearings on the preliminary vote on May 21, June 4, June 8, June 11, and June 16.
The final board vote to cement the rent adjustments will be held on Thursday, June 25, at El Museo del Barrio in Manhattan.