Overview
- The Rent Guidelines Board heard heated testimony at a Brooklyn public meeting Thursday as tenants and landlords traded boos and charged remarks about affordability and building costs.
- Board options under consideration range from a one-year freeze to a 0–2% increase for one-year leases and 0–4% for two-year leases that would affect about one million rent-stabilized apartments.
- Tenant organizers have mobilized to fill hearing time with personal testimony about rent burden and displacement while landlord groups staged theatrical 'zombie' demonstrations to highlight vacant or 'warehoused' units.
- Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed a majority of the nine board members, a fact that tenants cite as a reason to expect a pro-freeze outcome and that critics say raises questions about independence.
- Reporters differ on the schedule for final action with two outlets saying a June 25 vote will follow a Manhattan hearing on June 16 and one outlet reporting a June 15 decision is planned, leaving stakeholders awaiting a clarified final date.