Adán Soltren, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society and member of the New York City Rent Guidelines Board, has penned a new op-ed in City Limits, decrying a recent vote by the board to increase rents on vulnerable New Yorkers.

Soltren explains that the majority of the board, appointed by Mayor Eric Adams, are voting in the interest of the real estate industry and not tenants. This is counter to the Board’s mandate, which is to “forestall profiteering” to try and preserve affordable housing and to prevent rent adjustments that cause “severe hardship.”

“This was not a consensus choice,” Solten writes of the recent vote. “The mayor deliberately stacked the deck in favor of landlords and at the peril of tenants. My vote was one to mitigate the suffering and both the mayor and RGB deserve the public scorn for this unconscionable increase and the inevitable harm it will cause to those, who, if anything else, need our care, empathy and assistance.”

Read the full piece here.