New York City rent regulations set to expire Monday; Residents, especially seniors, on edge

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The rent regulations program designed to keep New York City apartments affordable is set to expire Monday, and without an extension, upwards of two million residents could be affected.

And senior citizens, many of whom are on a fixed income, could be among the most impacted.

"Sure, it's going to be very hard," 70-year-old renter Carlyle Bernard said. "I don't know how much it will go up. The power would be in his hands."

Bernard is able to pay $925 a month for his rent-regulated apartment in Crown Heights, but if the law expires, he thinks his rent would almost double.

He has joined forces with New York Communities for Change in hopes of convincing Albany lawmakers to extend the rent laws, even making them stronger if possible.

"We need to make sure tenants are protected in New York City and across the state if we are ever going to be able to provide families with a sense of security," said Jonathon Weston, of the Alliance for Tenant Power.

The mayor's office says that two million people live in one million rent-regulated apartments. And in a quarter of those, there is a senior who has lived there, on average, for 23 years. Their median income is little more than $24,000 a year, and 30 percent of it goes to pay the rent.

"If all those went to market rate in the next year or two, the level of displacement would be like nothing we have ever seen before," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "It would be devastating to working people in New York City, and it would be the end to New York City as we know it as a place for everyone."

The mayor and other city officials are trying to ease people's concerns, but they are preparing for the possibility that renters might have to rely on legal services.

"We want tenants to know that they will have legal protections and recourses to stay in their apartments," Public Advocate Letitia James said.