NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: NYC’s Rent Hike Explained, Parks Advocates Say Mayor Adams’ Budget Falls Short and Clubhouses for New Yorkers with Mental Illness

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board approved a 4.5% hike for nearly a million rent stabilized apartments. Plus, Mayor Eric Adams is calling the city's $116 billion spending plan "the best budget ever," but parks advocates disagree. And finally, we visit a new mental health community center that aims to help people with serious mental illnesses avoid social isolation.

New York City's rent hike explained. Parks advocates say Mayor Adams' budget falls short and clubhouses for New Yorkers with mental illness. From WMYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Jene Pierre. As you've probably heard by now, the city just approved a rent hike up to 4.5% for nearly a million New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments. This year, the vote felt more political than ever. tenants are calling for a freeze. Landlords say their costs are rising,

and now mayoral candidates are jumping into the fight. So what is this board that makes the call, and why has it become such a political flashpoint? Joining me to answer those questions and more is WMYC's housing reporter, David Brand. So David, remind us what the Rent Guidelines Board is and how it decides rent changes. All right, so there are a million apartments in New York City

where rents are based on this vote by this nine-member board. So it makes their decision so consequential. And I always come back to like a million apartments. That's almost hard to imagine. But that's how many places and more than two million tenants living in those apartments who are affected by this board's decision, not to mention their landlords. So this nine-member board, everyone is appointed by the mayor. They consider a number of reports like financial situation facing tenants, unemployment.

Social Safety Net Program applications, so like Medicaid, food stamps, cash assistance, median rents for tenants. They also consider expenses for landlords, so they're operating costs. How much does labor cost? How much is material and fuel for heating a building as well as landlord profits? After that, they take testimony from members of the public, tenants, landlords, elected officials, housing experts at a series of public hearings. right up until this big vote that just happened Monday night. I also got to say on top of the reports, the data, the testimony, there's also some political pressure that they face.

Yeah, definitely. And I want to talk more about that because at the top, I mentioned that, you know, this entire process has become so politicized. Why is that, David? Well, there's a lot at stake here. We talked about how many apartments this affects, how many people. and for landlords who own rent-stabilized apartments, this is a way for them to try to get more money.

So there's a lot of wrangling. There's people on the tenant side and elected officials who want to appeal to tenants by showing that they're calling for a rent freeze or a small rent hike. And then you have industry groups and other elected officials who want to side with the landlord's side.

And then people who are kind of splitting the difference and saying, well, this is important for the future of our housing stock. So it's always a big political, moment leading up to that final vote. But this year, things really leveled up here. So last year, Assembly member Zoran Mamdani, who has built his career on advocating for tenants, he was at the vote last year. He actually got arrested protesting an increase of about 2.75 percent. Flash forward a year later, he's the now Democratic nominee for mayor, and he built much of his campaign and momentum

him off calls for a rent freeze. A number of other Democratic candidates for mayor kind of jumped on the bandwagon also called for a rent freeze. It became a huge political issue to the point where Brad Lander, the city controller, he was there at the vote on Monday demanding that the board freeze the rent and became something of a kind of political rally more than just a rally for a rent freeze or lower rents. At the same time, other candidates, Eric Adams, the current mayor, Andrew Cuomo, former governor who finished second to Mamdani. They call that kind of talk political pandering. They want to appeal to tenants, but are also siding with the landlords. And especially they'll cite the experience of small landlords saying that we need rent increases so that

landlords can continue making money and fixing up their buildings. Yeah. We all know that rent in this city is already among the highest in the country, right? and the people hit hardest by this increase are the ones making far below the median income. I'm wondering what does this mean for New Yorkers if this trend continues? So there's going to be people with a range of experiences. There's people who are earning pretty decent salaries, people who are relatively wealthy. Then there's going to be people who are extremely low income. But overall, the median income for a household and a rent-stabilized apartment is about $60,000.

and that's pretty far below the citywide median of $80,000. They also have lower rents than the median, so it's about $1,500 for tenants in rent-stabilized apartments versus closer to $2,200 overall. The increase will have a particularly tough impact on tenants who maybe their wages aren't keeping up or they lost their job and are facing other financial hardships. Yeah. So what about landlords? Are they happy about this increase? What are they saying in response? Well, here's something that landlords and tenants do have in common.

They all hate the rent guidelines board decision. You know, we talked about the tenants saying it's too high. The landlords say it's not high enough given their own rising costs. And there's state laws that really limit their ability to raise rent any other way. At the same time, they also have to say they just hate that system overall. Many landlords don't believe rent regulations should exist in the first place and they should be able to set their own prices. So I wonder even if there was a massive increase,

if there would still be cause for complaint because they don't like rent regulations. That's WMYC's David Brand. In other local news, Mayor Eric Adams is calling the city's $116 billion spending plan the best budget ever. But Parks Advocates disagree. WMYC's Elizabeth Kim has more.

Although spending on Parks has increased, advocates point out that roughly 700 positions lost to attrition and budget cuts were never restored. The jobs cover a wide gamut of roles from trash collection to public safety to tree care. City council member Shakar Krishnan, who chairs the Parks Committee, blames the mayor. As we fight hard, on the other side, we have encountered resistance after resistance. Administration officials point to new spending, like a swim safety program, and a newly built recreation center in East Flatbush, Brook. Adams, who's running as an independent in November, says he plans to increase park staffing in the, quote, next term.

New York City is launching new clubhouses for people with serious mental illness. More on that after the break. New mental health community centers are opening across New York City and others are expanding with the help of millions of dollars in city funding. They're called clubhouses, and they aim to help people with serious mental illnesses avoid social isolation. Clubhouses have been around for decades, but many New Yorkers are still unfamiliar with the model. WMYC's Caroline Lewis takes us to Elements House, which opened on the Lower East Side back in January. I'm in the Clubhouse Common Space, where a handful of members are conducting a Zoom interview with a potential staffer. Claire, nice to meet you all.

Nice to meet you, too. Hi! Clubhouse member Gerald Sutton has this question for the job candidate. Do you have some kind of feeling about maybe you may have to go wash some dishes or even pick up a broom? I mean, you know, that's what the clubhouse is about teamwork. At clubhouses, people can get a meal, participate in activities, and go on trips. But what sets them apart is that members help run the centers alongside staff, working the front desk, planning projects, cooking lunch. You know, we're learning. We're learning together, and that's what I love about clubhouses at.

Rich Osoria is the assistant director of elements, which is run by the non-profit New York Disaster Interfaith Services. It's one of 13 clubhouses across the five boroughs that are either opening or expanding through new contracts inked with the city health department last year. Osoria and the clubhouse members have big plans for the space, which is still under renovation. And soon, you know, this one will be padded, it'll be renovated, and it'll be a really nice state-of-the-art podcast studio. Clubhouses also connect members with outside employment and social services, and studies show they can help keep people out of the hospital. Temes Moe is new to elements, but spent 20 years as a member of a different clubhouse in Queens. I got a piece of mind to come to a place that I enjoy, and I get to socialize with other members, and I get to have jobs.

Under Mayor Adams, clubhouse funding has doubled to about $30 million a year, But with a catch, the City Health Department wants to expand enrollment from about 5,000 to 15,000 New Yorkers over two years. Elements has about 30 members so far, but it's striving for 600. Historically, most clubhouses have been much smaller. So now, Elements is casting a wide net. It's a very slow process, of course, in the beginning. Peter Gudaitis is the executive director and CEO of New York Disaster Interfaith Services. We've been getting increasing numbers of referrals from, you know, hospitals and community health centers and LGBT organizations, veterans organizations.

But some smaller clubhouses balked at the new membership requirements. They lost their contracts with the city health department and faced closure. After members protested, the city council stepped in to save five of those clubhouses, furthering the city's investment in the model. and the council included $3 million for those clubhouses in the new budget. Top clubhouse, tucked into a church on the Upper West Side, is one of those five. On a recent afternoon, Charles D. San Pedro Jr. is taking requests for songs to play during lunch. All right, so Angela wants any Ziggy Marley's song. He's been a member of Top for six years.

I love this place. I feel at home here. And if it was to ever close, I'd be, there'd be a void in my heart. City Council funding is year to year, so the future is still uncertain. But DeSan Pedro Jr. says he hopes it sticks around. That's WMYC's Caroline Lewis. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. I'm Junae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.