angryjew

According to The Yeshiva World , the public got a chance yesterday to sound off on potential rent hikes at a Rent Guidelines Board hearing in Brooklyn.Last month, the board suggested hikes of 3.5 to 7 percent on one-year leases, and 5.5 to 9.5 percent on two-year leases.

Landlords had been calling for rent hikes of 10 to 15 percent, citing the rising price of heating oil, property taxes, and other costs. Tenants argue that landlords will still make a healthy profit, but worry higher rents will force people out of the city.

The next hearing is set for Monday at Cooper Union in Manhattan.

The board will announce the rent hikes next Thursday.

(Source: NY1 / YWN Desk)

OK, I understand cost of fuel and everything is rising astronomically but the problem is like this. To live with even a semblance of decency in a Brooklyn apartment that isn’t a basement will cost, for example, $1200 for a two-bedroom, if one is lucky enough to find such a bargain. The basements themselves nowadays can run upwards of $700 easily. One of my best friends decided she’d had enough of paying a fortune for a hole-in-the-wall apartment and went to live in Lakewood, NJ of all annoyingly far and New Jerseyish places, in a big house far away from her entire family.

And it’s not like a lot of the people are making the salaries they need to afford a decent standard of living even without the rent hikes. Generally speaking, many of the people I know there are living with their parents’ help because salaries of the regular non-professional bent are so ridiculously low that people are lucky if they can afford to put food on the table.

There’s actually a parallel to this abounding in Jerusalem, but that’s another story.

In any case, unless they want to make Brooklyn for anyone who isn’t either filthy rich or a welfare junkie, a rent hike is not the best idea.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS