Landlords and Tenants Duke It Out, Westchester Rent Board Approves Increases

After a contentious meeting of the Westchester County Rent Guidelines Board Monday that required court officers to restore order on two occasions, the board voted five to two to raise rents on rent stabilized apartments under the Emergency Tenant Protection Act.

Rents will increase 2.5 percent for one-year lease renewals (or a minimum of $25 for those who pay under $1,000 per month in rent), and 4.0 percent on two-year lease renewals (or $40 a month for those who pay under $1,000 in rent per month).

The overwhelming majority of the approximately 27,000 rent stabilized apartments in Westchester are located in Yonkers, New Rochelle and Mount Vernon. In White Plains, there are 3,014 units in 166 buildings.

The rest are scattered in other municipalities that opted into the 1974 Emergency Tenant Protection Act, including the City of Rye, the towns of Eastchester, Greenburgh, Harrison and Mamaroneck along with the villages of Croton-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Mount Kisco, Pleasantville, Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown.

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Tenants attending the raucous gathering, sported yellow and orange buttons while landlords brought in red and blue signs reading “Fair Raises to Lower Real Costs” and “Keep Up With the Large Cost Increases.” A contingent from Mount Vernon United Tenants wore buttons that read, “Join the Tenant Movement.”

The board is comprised of two tenant representatives, two landlord representatives, three public members (though a fourth has not been seated) and a chair.

Both sides presented a blizzard of statistics and figures to back their positions: tenants seeking no increase and landlords proposing figures in the range of 5.75 percent for one year leases, and as much as nine percent for two years leases with a minimum of $50 and $100 monthly rent increase respectively.

“A $100 increase would put me right out on the street,” said Tony Losee, who lives in Dobbs Ferry. “I’m on total disability; I can’t afford to go to Staples and print up signs.”

Janet Kelly, who lives on Quaroppas Street in White Plains, lives on her social security income—which did not rise this year and is slated to go up nine-tenths of one percent next year.

“I’m worried,” she said. “I pay half my income on rent.”

Landlord representative Kenneth Finger claimed that last year's zero percent increase was unfair, and that expenses for landlords had gone up.

“Profit is not a dirty word,” he said.

Part political theater and part revival meeting—the proceedings at the Westchester County Courthouse became unglued when tenant representative Genevieve Roche exceeded her allotted ten-minute time limit to speak by another twenty minutes and refused to stop after Chairman Joseph Whelan whacked the table with his gavel and told her to sit down because she was out of order.

The 35 landlords in attendance tried to shout her down. The 45 or so tenants on erupted in her defense.

Two landlord representatives went to get the court officers, who defused the situation temporarily. As Roche continued, calling for no increase in the rental rate, tenants egged her on as if she were preaching with cries of “that’s right” and “let her speak,” while landlords yelled “sit down” and “tell her to get her facts straight.”

Chairman Whelan then called for a five-minute recess, saying, “I’ve never had this kind of disrespect before.”

During one break, he joked with another board member that he thought his gavel was going to break. Chaos reigned again when tenant representative Emma-Jean Loftin Woods, a reverend, channeled Martin Luther King, Jr. and exceeded the two-minute limit on her remarks.

“You are the chairman of the board,” she told Whelan, “but you are not my God.”

He replied, “Your comments are way off base.”

Court officers again entered the room to restore order.

“If we have to clear the room, we will clear the room,” said one of them. “We can’t have this.”

After landlord representative Eliot Cherson presented the landlords’ point of view, Woods made a motion to adjourn, which was not seconded. The board reluctantly moved toward a vote, although they retained the option of recessing until the next evening. As they conversed among themselves, Whelan admonished them for engaging in “crosstalk.”

Public board member Ian Joseph requested that the law governing the board’s decision be read aloud. After another recess, the board took its vote, which sailed through with the two tenant representatives voting “no.”

“I’m disappointed,” said Dennis Hanratty, executive director of Mount Vernon Tenants United. “They made a deal to get out of here and go home.”

Landlord Lisa De Rosa, who owns three buildings on Lake Street in White Plains consisting of 400 units, said that the result was better than last year’s zero/zero decision, but that “it’s not as good as we would have wanted.”

Her company renewed its union contract for its workers, which included raises and said that her older buildings required repairs and maintenance. Heating costs went up and “the snow killed us this year,” she said.

“I’m a single mom, so I’m suffering in this economy, too,” she said. “Over time, rent stabilized tenants become artificially low and it’s a burden on us. This system has created a situation where you have one tenant paying $500 for a one-bedroom apartment and another in the same building paying $1,200 for the same space. It’s an artificial law that’s not fair to anyone.”