In a NY1 interview last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio called charges he interferes with the Rent Guidelines Board 'ridiculous.' | Getty Judge sides with de Blasio, tenants on rent freeze

A rent freeze on one-year leases for New York City's rent-stabilized apartments will remain in effect, after a judge on Tuesday dismissed a landlord-backed effort to overturn it.

State Supreme Court Judge Debra James ruled against the lawsuit by the Rent Stabilization Association, an organization of landlords, which argued the city's Rent Guidelines Board acted inappropriately by instituting flat rents last June.


The organization had argued the law governing the board requires it to account for the finances of a building — not tenants' rising costs. In her determination, the judge cited a prior court case she believes supports the tenant advocates. She also noted the board's longstanding, unchallenged practice of considering tenant affordability.

"We're glad that the tenants had a say in this and that the board can continue to consider tenant affordability in setting the rent adjustments for the city of New York for rent-stabilized tenants," said Matthew Longobardi, attorney for Goddard Riverside Community Center, which intervened on behalf of the board.

Dozens of elated tenants poured out of the Lower Manhattan courtroom to celebrate the news.

"Thrilled. Thrilled. I was really worried. Most of us can't afford anymore than we're paying. We're really struggling and we try to be good tenants and the rent just keeps going up," said Sharon Canns, a tenant association president for a building on West 93rd Street.

Canns, who is 68, pays $1,300 for a two-bedroom she shares with her daughter — a struggle given her $800 per month income based solely on Social Security, she said.

"Your food budget isn't as large and it might be. And you have to pay Con Ed of course, which is sizable," she said.

She and other tenants said they plan to call for a rent reduction when the board begins preliminary hearings on Thursday, ahead of a June ruling. The board determines each year whether, and how much, landlords can increase the rent on one- and two-year leases on the city's roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments.

Joseph Strasburg, president of the landlord organization, said he "strenuously disagrees" with the ruling and noted Mayor Bill de Blasio's recent comments that he "instructed" the board, whose members he appoints, to account for tenants' concerns when ruling on the freeze.

In a NY1 interview last year, the mayor called charges he interferes with the board "ridiculous."

"It's disappointing that this court didn't see that de Blasio's political influence resulted in the Rent Guidelines Board using a parameter — tenant affordability — that is now allowed by law," Strasburg said. "The RGB process which is supposed to be independent of City Hall influence, has been corrupted by a mayor that puts politics ahead of sound affordable housing policy, which is bad for tenants, affordable housing and the owners of 1 million rent-stabilized apartments — the largest providers of affordable housing."

Strasburg, who plans to appeal, also called de Blasio hypocritical for raising rents on his own properties while calling on the board to freeze rents.

The mayor owns and rents two Park Slope row houses, which are valued at nearly $1.7 million and almost $2 million.

He raised the rent on one unit in his two-family house by $50 or $75 a year from 2009 through 2014 for improvements, a spokeswoman previously told POLITICO. The unit went from $2,400 in 2009 to $2,750 in 2014. He raised the rent on the other unit by $25 in June of 2015 — the same month he celebrated the board's rent freeze.

He rented his primary residence for $4,975 when he moved to Gracie Mansion in 2014.

His press office, which previously released his rents upon request, has reversed course. A spokesman told POLITICO on Tuesday the mayor's properties are now considered a "personal" matter and he refused to say what de Blasio charges his tenants. The properties are not large enough to be subject to the Rent Guidelines Board determinations.

"Working people have beaten the landlord lobby," the mayor said in a prepared statement after the judge's ruling.