Citizens of Hoboken, At the last City Council meeting, proposed Rent Control amendments passed First Reading.At the last City Council meeting, proposed Rent Control amendments passed First Reading. The amendments are up for a final vote this Wednesday night at City Hall. The lawyer who wrote the proposed amendments claimed that “all the amendments do is bring certain exempt housing under rent control” and that “the amendments must be enacted immediately to protect tenants.” Not true. Most of the proposed law refers to government-financed housing, such as Applied Housing and Clock Towers, which for a limited time is subject to rent subsidy and regulation contracts with federal or state government agencies. Lawyer Hugh McCluskey claimed that this housing is exempt from the existing rent control law. The existing law lists all exemptions and government-financed housing is exempt. However, while rent regulation by a government agency may preempt regulation by Hoboken rent control, the preemption ends when the government rent regulation ends. McCluskey cited no law or court ruling that supported his contention that government-financed housing becomes exempt from local rent control when the preemption period ends. Secondly, bringing government-financed housing under rent control is not all that these amendments do. They also create two new ways that landlords can jack up rents to today’s astronomical free-market levels. Both involve “Vacancy Decontrol,” which allows an unlimited rent increase when the existing tenant vacates his unit. VD appears to protect the existing tenants, since no rent decontrol can happen until the existing tenants vacate. But actually VD encourages the landlord to see if he can evict their existing tenants to obtain a vast increase in rent. The first VD amendment allows the vacancy decontrol of the rental unit in an owner-occupied two family house. Since in such a building the tenant is not protected from eviction by NJ Law, the landlord can merely evict the tenant to obtain the much higher decontrolled rent. The second VD amendment allows vacancy decontrol of at least 30 percent of government-financed housing units when the government agency contract expires. The decontrolled units house the most vulnerable tenants: low-income tenants receiving rent subsidies. The amendments contain no protections for these subsidized tenants. To the contrary: if the landlord refuses to accept the subsidy voucher, he can evict the tenant for non-payment of rent and get a much higher decontrolled rent from the new tenant. Again, VD provides an incentive for a landlord to evict his tenant. There are also several other unrelated rent control changes that I have no space here to discuss. But that’s my point: too much is being done too fast. If the Council is really sincere about protecting tenants, they should do the following: 1. Table and then rewrite the proposed amendments to add a paragraph to section 155-2, following the list of exemptions, to merely clarify what is true already: that government-financed housing is always under rent control except during legitimate regulation by a pre-empting government agency. 2. Remove any sections that provide for vacancy decontrol of any units. 3. Remove any sections that contain any other changes. This would accomplish what McCluskey claims he was trying to accomplish: making sure that tenants in government-financed housing are protected when government agency rent regulation ends. I urge all tenants and fair-minded citizens to call your council representatives and demand that these amendments be tabled and rewritten. I also urge you to come to City Hall this Wednesday to speak on these amendments. Arrive before 7 p.m.and sign up to speak at the front of the room. Sincerely, Dan Tumpson