Testimony of Helen Rosenthal Candidate for NYC Council, District 6 June 17, 2013 Thank you Chairman Kimmel

and members of the Rent Guidelines Board for giving me the opportunity to submit testimony for your June 13, 2013 public hearing. And, thank you for YOUR public service by being a member of this Board. My testimony calls for a rent freeze for all tenants. As I listened to the testimony presented on June 13, it became clear that there is a fine line between providing affordable housing as a public service or as an investment. Landlords who think of rent stabilized apartments as investments object to fines imposed for not meeting DHCR standards and additional costs for water and other taxes. Most of these landlords appear to be represented by lawyers and management firms whose job it is to protect their clients investments. They have endless resources to fight DHCR fines, ignore tenants who ignore tenants who speak up when they dont have heat, and employ both aggressive and subtle harassment to undermine the security of tenants whom largely are unaware of their rights as renters. On the other hand, the tenants have very few resources or tools to find their way through the maze of DHCR. Providing accessible legal advice is left to a handful of nonprofits and vigilant public officials. For the more complicated cases the cost of retaining private representation is beyond the means of many rent-regulated tenants. Language barriers present another obstacle which make the DHCR guidelines and protections not accessible for these tenants. On the other hand, the tenants have very few resources or tools to find their way through the maze of DHCR. There are often language barriers. The DHCR guidelines and protections are not accessible for these tenants. Governments job and the job of a public servant is to ease the burden of those who need government services the most. Please look at the larger economic picture to see that the City is losing affordable housing at a time when residents need it most. By imposing a rent increase you are further widening the yawning divide between rich and poor. Instead, we need to look for every opportunity to stabilize the middle class and empower working people. It is for these reasons that I ask you to please impose a freeze on all rents with no provisional add-ons. The financial burden on the tenants is already overwhelming.

1 2 7 W e s t 8 3 r d S t r e e t , # 3 1 4 N e w Y o r k , N e w Y o r k 1 0 0 2 4
P r i n t e d i n - h o u s e