The Apartment Owners Advisory Council is urging apartment building owners to speak out about the challenges they are facing as property owners at a public hearing and meetings to be held throughout June.
The group is preparing to present its case for what it believes are justified rent increases before the Westchester County Rent Guidelines Board, which sets rent adjustments for renewal and vacancy leases in apartments covered by the Emergency Tenant Protection Act of 1974.
Carmelo Milio, chairman of the apartment owners council and an owner and manager of buildings in Westchester, is calling for building owners to show up and speak out with personal stories of the challenges the county”™s aging rental housing supply has posed.
“Everything has become more costly and complicated in the ownership and management of apartment buildings in Westchester,” Milio said. “Leases used to be simple and straightforward, water rates used to be low, major capital improvements ”“ once approved and properly made ”“ were never subject to retroactive scrutiny and challenge. These are among a litany of other concerns. Coupled with annual rent guidelines that often do not even meet the increases in the consumer price index, you have a recurring crisis in housing, year after year.”
Milio said it has been an uphill battle for rental owners over the years as the board tends to base the decision of how much to raise rents on “emotional and political” grounds rather than on financial data.
“Unfortunately on an annual basis the decision tends to be made on an emotional basis as opposed to looking at the figures and the consumer price index and really giving us a rental increases based on what the numbers say,” he said.
A public hearing before the board will take place at 7 p.m. June 8 at the White Plains City Hall, 225 Main St.
Public meetings will take place on June 16, 7 p.m., at the White Plains Public Library meeting room at 100 Martine Ave., and on June 22, 7 p.m., at White Plains City Hall.
