Rent Control Surprise: Hoboken Landlord Group To Push For Referendum

HOBOKEN, NJ — A longtime taxpayers' group in Hoboken made a surprise appearance at Hoboken's City Council meeting Wednesday evening to say they want a public vote — otherwise known as a referendum — on a proposal they've created to modify rent control.

In essence, the measure would allow a landlord in Hoboken to get a one-time vacancy decontrol (raising the rent as high as they want) when a tenant moves out voluntarily. In exchange, the landlords would pay $2,500 per unit to an affordable housing trust fund.

Right now, landlords of (mainly) older units in Hoboken are limited in how much they can raise the rent, to the cost of living increase, currently around 5 percent. But they can also get a 25 percent vacancy decontrol every three years if a tenant leaves voluntarily. They can also spread certain increases, like water and tax bills, among tenants.

The landlord group, known as Mile Square Taxpayers Association, said that mom-and-pop landlords are suffering financially as they try to maintain their units without getting market-rate rents.

They also said that the city has not created any affordable housing in years, and new arrivals to Hoboken can't find an existing affordable unit.

Rent control is meant to stabilize rents so that an existing tenant doesn't get a surprise increase. Some newer buildings recently have seen increases of 20 percent or more.

Rents in Hoboken have become among the highest in the nation. READ MORE: Are 25 Percent Rent Increases Legal?

Last year, local rent control advocate Cheryl Fallick worked with MSTA head Ron Simoncini to present what they said was a compromise proposal to the City Council, but it failed to get the approval of the current administration.

The public question would read like this: "Initiative and Referendum Petition Question Should Chapter 155-31 of the Ordinances of the City of Hoboken, Rent Control Ordinance ("RCO") be amended to provide an option to landlords to pay a fee of $2,500 to the Hoboken Affordable Housing Trust Fund in order to lease voluntarily vacated apartments at a freely negotiated rent, which thereafter remain subject to the provisions of the (“RCO”) including limitations on annual rent increases."

(UPDATE: Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla called the proposal "offensive." Read more here.)

How To Prevent Intimidation?

Hoboken has a grim history of tenant displacement.

One proponent of the ordinance suggested at Wednesday's meeting that tenants are no longer forced out of their homes in Hoboken like in the past. However, tenants have told Patch of other methods landlords have used to trick them into leaving (See a story about teardowns of rent controlled properties, and a tenant claiming her landlord tried improperly to push her out, here.)

Other proponents said landlords would have to testify that the unit was vacated voluntarily in order to get the decontrol. However, it was unclear whether the tenant would also testify or sign paperwork.

The last time MSTA brought a rent control amendment came to a public vote, over a decade ago, the matter was very narrowly defeated. MSTA, which had been hoping to institute a vacancy decontrol, challenged the election results in court, then dropped their claim in 2014.

Tenant advocates feel that this time around, they may have more trouble marshaling support among the city's newer population to fight the decontrol.

• See MSTA supporters advocate for the ordinance at Wednesday's council meeting here.
  
• See the full text of the ordinance here.
  
• See a story about teardowns of rent controlled properties, and a tenant claiming her landlord tried improperly to push her out, here.