Rent Controlled Buildings Face Wrecking Ball In Hoboken: Will Policies Change?

HOBOKEN, NJ — Two years ago, a developer applied to the city of Hoboken to demolish three rent controlled buildings on the west side of town.

There was a hindrance, according to tenant advocates — renters still lived in the buildings at the time.

Where would those tenants go?

In multifamily buildings in New Jersey, landlords usually need "just cause" to evict tenants, and selling the building doesn't count if it has more than a handful of units.

Landlords have been known to tell tenants they must leave in order to bypass the legalities, hoping tenants will move without asking questions.

Landlords also must renew a tenant's lease if there is no "just cause" to fail to do so. State policy says, in part, "No residential landlord may evict or fail to renew a lease, whether it is a written or an oral lease without good cause."

Advocates who came to the City Council in April 2024 argued that the city wouldn't benefit from the demolition of rent-controlled units, especially with rents in the mile-square city among the highest in the nation, averaging $4,200 a month.

And what exactly was the city doing to make sure the tenants knew they didn't have to leave right away?

April 2023

The proposed demolition of 325-329 Grand St. was first approved by the Zoning Board in January 2024, but the City Council had to sign off in April 2024.

That's when Michael Evers and other residents got involved, mounting an effort to oppose the demolition.

Tenant Advocates Appeal

Evers told Patch he was simply a concerned homeowner who'd taken up various causes since volunteering with people with disabilities in the late 1970s.

He and others argued before the council in April 2024 that the city wasn't doing enough to protect tenants who lived in buildings that were marked for demolition.

The developer, Toresco Holdings, planned to include affordable housing in the new buildings at the site, they said — proposing two units of government-designated affordable housing in addition to 18 market-rate units.

But the tenant advocates argued that it wasn't enough.

They said the existing tenants might feel pressured to leave without having a similarly priced unit to move to, or without being offered adequate relocation help.

Tenants told Patch at the time that they had difficulty finding similarly priced units in the mile-square city. READ MORE: Longtime Tenants In Hoboken Fear Demolition, Displacement

Rent Control Provisions

Many older buildings in Hoboken are subject to the city's 1973 Rent Control Law, meant to keep tenants from constantly having to move. Each year, the increase is limited to the federal Cost of living Increase — usually less than 5 percent — with several exceptions.

Landlords can get a vacancy decontrol of 25 percent once every three years. Landlords can apply to the city to pass along water and tax charges, and to ask for a higher increase based on rehabilitating the buildings.

Government-regulated affordable housing is different, determined by various factors, and can range from very low-income to moderate.

The state has no specific rent control laws of its own, but it does say rent increases in all types of apartments must be "reasonable," leaving tenants and landlords to argue the matter in court if necessary. The state also has various laws to prevent unjust evictions.

Tenants Concerned

After two City Council hearings about the Grand Street project in April 2024, the council voted 5-1 to approve the demolition — with some officials saying they had no legal standing to oppose the Zoning Board's ruling.

But — they said — perhaps it was time to propose rules to protect tenants in advance of more demolitions.

No rules have been proposed publicly since then.

Several council members did not respond by press time when asked about the matter. Patch will follow up on this story in the future.

Demolitions Scheduled

Cheryl Fallick — the vice chair of the city's Rent Leveling and Stabilization Board and head of the Hoboken Fair Housing Association — has been posting news stories on social media this year about sales of Hoboken apartment buildings, asking where or how the tenants left.

"One of the challenges is that demolition applications are often evaluated through the lens of land use and redevelopment, while the impacts on existing tenants ... receive far less attention," Fallick told Patch for this story.

She said, "There does not appear to have been a serious effort by the city to develop additional protections specifically addressing the demolition of occupied rent-controlled buildings."

Last Tenants Leave

It was only this year that the last two tenants to stay in the Grand Street units finally moved elsewhere in town.

Michael Evers told Patch that he had filed a legal appeal of the city's ruling back in 2024.

As a result, he said, the developers came to an agreement with him about how to fairly relocate the existing tenants, and he dropped the suit.

Evers showed Patch a grateful letter from one of the tenants, saying that she was given a comparable unit with several years' free rent. Evers said this may set a precedent for future negotiations.

However, tenant advocates say more needs to be done to address what happens when older buildings are bought by new owners in Hoboken, leaving tenants to confront what can be an expensive change.

The city has "anti-warehousing laws" put in place during the city's gentrification in the 1980s, to stop landlords from holding units vacant for long periods of time in order to eventually sell them. Fallick said she's unsure how diligently the city has been enforcing those laws.

"X" Marks The Spots

In June, work began to take apart some of the buildings at Third and Grand streets.

An anonymous person wrote in a Hoboken Facebook group this week. "Between 3/4 [Third to Fourth Street] Grands smells like Hoboken in the 1980s IYKYK."

"Sad 3rd and Grand St..almost half of the block will be knocked down," wrote another person on June 12. "Hoboken is not going to be Hoboken no more."

Evers told the council at the April 2024 meeting that it should be "a condition of completion of the application...demonstrating that you have gotten the tenants out voluntarily."

Landlord Maintenance

When Zoning Board members decide on variances, they're instructed to ensure that the good to the community outweighs the detriment.

Evers said in 2024 that the board has been "failing to address the destruction of rent-controlled housing as a negative criteria in making their decision."

However, proponents of landlords note that they need to be able to earn enough money to keep the buildings well maintained and viable.

This past Wednesday, workers were seen at the Grand Street buildings beginning demolition.

Patch has reached out to several council representatives, Mayor Emily Jabbour, and a representative from Toresco Holdings for comment on the issue of tenant protections in buildings marked for demolition.

Watch for future news stories on this topic.

READ MORE: Longtime Hoboken Renters Fear Displacement, Demolition

READ MORE: Last Tenant In Ill-Fated Hoboken Rent Control Building Speaks Out