Tenant filing disputes landlord claims in NYC rent freeze case

New York City tenant advocates aren’t sitting out the legal battle over a rent freeze. They came off the sidelines and entered the courtroom fray to ensure the freeze stays in place. In a Thursday court filing, Tenants and Neighbors and the Metropolitan Council on Housing pushed back against landlords who sued in a Staten Island court over a rent freeze for stabilized apartments. The city’s Rent Guidelines Board decided in June to set a 0% increase on one- and two-year lease renewals starting October 1. The decision gave Mayor Zohran Mamdani a victory, as he won office on a promise to improve housing affordability. Landlords argue the board’s decision was unlawful and ignored data showing a rent increase was warranted. They also say Mamdani stacked the board with people who “agreed with his vision of a freeze.” The tenant groups agreed that the board must consider hardships facing both landlords and tenants. But they argue that landlords “wrongly assume that as long as any landlords face hardship, the RGB must increase rents, even if the increase worsens tenant hardships.” Tenant groups interpret numbers their way Line by line, the tenant group’s response parses the landlords’ 356-...