Adriene Holder, Chief Attorney of The Legal Aid Society’s Civil Practice, has authored a joint op-ed in the New York Daily News with David R. Jones, President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York. The piece calls on the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) to freeze or lower rents for people living in rent-stabilized units.

Holder and Jones argue that the board is failing to protect New York City tenants by acting as a rubber stamp on behalf of landlords, proposing a third straight year of increases.

“Considering that 71% of the rent-stabilized households are headed by people of color, it is hard to see the actions of the board as anything other than deeply classist, discriminatory, and unjust,” they write.

“The impact of the RGB’s systemic rent increases on our clients and all New Yorkers is dire,” they continue. “Rent increases on already struggling tenants directly contribute to more evictions, homelessness, gentrification, food insecurity, and to the destabilizing and destruction of low-income households — primarily households of color.”

Read the full piece here.