Clinton Towers tenants fight back against planned rent hike

Tenants at a Hell’s Kitchen apartment complex are none too pleased at their landlord’s plans for an “enormous” proposed rent increase at the property, and have enlisted the help of politicians to fight back.

Residents of the Clinton Towers complex, located at West 54th Street and 11th Avenue, are facing a 20 percent rent hike over the next two years that could increase some tenants’ rents by more than $300 per month.

The property is part of the city’s Mitchell-Lama program, which provides affordable housing to moderate-to-middle-income families, according to DNAinfo. Tenants and politicians have blamed the proposed rent increase on poor management practices by the owners, the nonprofit Clinton Towers Housing Co. Inc.

“Clinton Towers houses a working- and middle-class population that cannot afford a 20 percent increase over the next two years, as proposed by the owners,” Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer wrote in a letter last month to the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development.

“They are tenants that have a wide range of needs, yet have managed to find stable housing through Clinton Towers,” Brewer wrote.

The nonprofit’s proposed rent hike would see tenant rents jump by 15 percent in the first year and 5 percent in the first year. Clinton Towers’ management last raised rents in 2010, when tenants saw a 7 percent increase. [DNAinfo] – Rey Mashayekhi