The Economic Challenge for the Rent Guidelines Board: Balancing Long-Term Affordability in Rent Stabilized Housing
NYU Furman Center, April 13, 2022
In this blog post, the authors lay out the long-term relationship between net operating income (NOI) and the sustainability and quality of rent stabilized apartments in New York. They examine how best to use the tools and data available to the state's Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) make its determination. Finally, they suggest two ways that the RGB could adapt to the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA) era when setting guidelines for annual rent increases (or possibly even decreases in a deflationary world).
Emergency Rental Assistance Has Helped Stabilize Struggling Renters
Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, April 6, 2022
In this blog post, the authors analyze new Household Pulse Survey from the Census Bureau to assess current disbursement of emergency rental assistance. About 13 percent of renter households applied for emergency rental assistance to cover unpaid rent or utility bills between August 2021 and February 2022, including about two-fifths of the 10 percent of renters who reported being behind on their rent at the time of the survey. Among those who applied, over one-third of applicants (37 percent) reported receiving assistance, with the share reporting receipt trending up over time. From August through October of 2021, about 33 percent of renters on average who applied for rental assistance had received it, compared with 41 percent from December 2021 through early February 2022.
