Christina Smyth has resigned from the Rent Guidelines Board just hours before Thursday night’s final hearing and vote.
Last month, the board set a range of 0% to 2% for a hike on one-year leases and 0% to 4% on two-year leases for the city’s 2.4 million rent-stabilized tenants.
A rent freeze is still on the table and was a campaign promise by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The mayor was being interviewed by News 12 as the resignation news broke.
He said, “I’m aware of the resignation and this Rent Guidelines Board is an independent board that has been conducting a process over the last many months, that it includes both fact finding as well as testimonies, and I look forward to the outcome and the decision they will make. It’s an independent board. We trust them to make the decision they will make."
The Small Property Owners of New York said it is concerned the final vote will be held without what Ann Korchak, the group’s board president, called, “the veteran, strong, and only meaningful voice representing the interests of financially struggling small property owners and distressed rent-stabilized housing.”
Korchak also said, “More disturbing is the reason for her resignation. If the vote is already predetermined by the majority Mamdani-appointed RGB, then this independent board would be acting illegally by injecting political influence into its objective decision on rent adjustments.”
