The tenants of the Clinton Tower complex at West 54th Street and 11th Avenue are against the planned rent hike of 20 percent that could increase their rents by as much as $300 per month.
The property is part of the Mitchell-Lama program of the city which provides affordable housing to moderate-to-middle-income families. Clinton Towers is home to working class residents that cannot afford the 20 percent increase proposed by the owners.
According to The Real Deal report, in a letter last month to the Department of Housing Preservation and Development written by Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, it said: "They are tenants that have a wide range of needs, yet have managed to find stable housing through Clinton Towers."
The proposed rent hike would see the rents jump by 15 percent in the first year and five percent the following year. The management of Clinton Towers increased the rents in 2010 by seven percent.
The letter with a rent hike proposal that was sent to the residents by Clinton Towers Housing Company Inc., the nonprofit that owns the apartment complex, proposes a rent increase by 15 percent in the first year and five percent in the second year.
The tower complex includes a studio, one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom apartments with prices based on the income of the tenants.
Residents currently living on a studio apartment, pay a basic rate ranging from $577 to $628 a month or a market rate ranging from $765 to $833 each month. Under the proposed rent hike, studio rents would jump to between $691 and $751 for the basic rate and $915 to $996 for the market rate, as reported by the DNA Info news.
Renters currently occupying four-bedroom apartments paying up to $1,624 at the market rate will spend an additional of $300 per month under the plan.
Also opposing the proposed rent hike is city councilwoman Helen Rosenthal who sent a letter to HPD assistant commissioner Julie Walpert.