Every year in the spring, the New York City Rent Guidelines Board puts out a series of reports meant to help the board members decide whether, or more typically, how much, to ramp up the rent in about one million rent-stabilized units across the five boroughs.
This year, the reports so far are grim, at least for New York City renters: Grocery and utility bills are up, evictions are up, wages are falling, and more people are filing for bankruptcy.
Those were some of the findings in the RGB's 2025 Income and Affordability Study, which dropped yesterday. First, some of the good news—the poverty rate decreased in 2023 by (a measly) 0.1 percentage point to 18.2 percent, or almost one in five New Yorkers.
The bad news:
- Average wages went down in 2024 by 0.4 percent, adjusted for inflation.
- More people relied on public benefits than in the prior year, including a 16.2 percent spike in people depending on SNAP.
- The unemployment rate went up for the first time since 2020. The rate rose 0.3 percentage points from 2023, to 5.3 percent.
- The average daily number of people in New York City homeless shelters increased by 8.6 percent in 2024.
- Residential evictions went up 22.6 percent compared to 2023. Personal bankruptcy filings increased by 13.7 percent.
The board also cites the Community Service Society's 2024 Annual Survey of Housing and Economic Security in its latest report, which found that one quarter of New Yorkers had to cut back on necessary household goods, 14 percent skipped meals or went hungry, and eight percent postponed medical care last year.
"This is a stark reminder that more and more New Yorkers simply cannot afford housing and are falling into homelessness," CSS Vice President Jeff Maclin told Hell Gate.
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