Rents to rise for more than a million New Yorkers in rent stabilized apartments

The RGB, which regulates rent stabilized apartments in Manhattan, voted 5 to 4 on Tuesday to approve raising rates on one-year leases by 3.25% and by 5% on two-year leases.

The move comes as rents in New York City hit a record high in May for the fourth consecutive month. Median rent for an apartment in Manhattan climbed to $4,000 a month in May, surging 25% from a year ago, according to a monthly report from brokerage firm Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers and Consultants.

The Legal Aid Society condemned Tuesday’s vote, calling it “a shameful vote, one which was likely predetermined, to increase rents on our most vulnerable neighbors,” the group said in a statement.

The non-profit legal aid provider said the decision mostly impacts renters are from communities of color who have been affected by the pandemic and inflation and “barely scraping by.”