Housing rights advocates are bracing for a fight following the release this week of the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) yearly Income and Expense report, according to Curbed.

Many fear that the report – which indicates a rise in operating expenses for landlords of rent-regulated buildings – may prefigure a third rent increase in as many years for NYC’s nearly one-million rent-regulated apartments.

Advocates fear an increase would result in massive displacement of New Yorkers struggling to survive in a city already rocked by the COVID-19 outbreak.

“[The RGB report] provides further evidence that a rent freeze is warranted,” Robert Desir, a staff attorney at The Legal Aid Society said in a statement. “While owners have seen increases in rental and total income, tenants who are already on the margins due to stagnant wages and increasingly unaffordable housing, now face the additional burden of a historic unemployment crisis.”