The New York City rent crisis is just one in a long line of other travesties affecting residents of a city that has seen some pretty nefarious recent atrocities. Right now, NYC landlords are protesting subsidized housing by … keeping the units empty.
As reported by Vice, the renting situation in NYC is so bad that tenants have started organizing protests against it. Back in May, tenants managed to shut down the Brooklyn Bridge completely. They were chanting expletives aimed at mayor and political failson Eric Adams.
NYC has next to no rent control. The scant rent stabilization that does exist has experienced rent hikes of up to five percent, as voted on by the Rent Guidelines Board. This, on top of the homeless crisis exacerbated by Adams himself, has created an atmosphere of tension between ruthlessly greedy landlords and people who don’t want to die on the streets.
That same subsidized housing is often kept in squalid conditions. According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, a fair chunk of public housing is besieged with dangerous mold responsible for numerous hospitalizations. They are often also built next to toxic industrial zones, and frequently inhabited by marginalized folks. The city does not care to correct this problem in any capacity.
If that wasn’t, landlords of rent-stabilized units are refusing to lease them out to tenants. As reported by Gothamist, NYC’s Independent Budget Office conducted a review and found that more than a staggering 13,000 low-rent units are sitting empty, solely because landlords want to maximize profits.
Landlords inherently hate the idea of poor people getting housing, so they would rather lose money on empty units as a form of protest, in hopes of getting housing laws changed. Current state laws regulate how much rent a landlord can charge for subsidized housing. The excuse here is that they won’t be able to afford maintenance costs to units if the rent is at a reasonable price. It’s a big lie. And even if it was true, surely our great and fair free market, which these parasites love to appeal to, will simply find new landlords who can afford the maintenance. That’s capitalism, sweety.
Currently, NYC policymakers are deciding on legislation to force landlords to start leasing these apartments out again. It is quite hilarious though that their utmost concern is funding grant programs for ‘struggling’ landlords and not the many low-income residents who need help with rent.
(featured image: Wil540 art/Wikimedia Commons)
