Dear Neighbor,
“Will you sign a petition for affordable housing in Hoboken?”
The problem? Signing this petition would place a referendum on the ballot that, if adopted, will remove hundreds of rent control-protected, below-market residential units from Hoboken’s housing market. If this referendum makes it to the ballot, I urge you to vote No.
At our last Council meeting, I introduced a resolution condemning the referendum sponsors’ deceptive practices, tricking people into supporting the dismantling of our existing rent-control protections by allowing all rent-controlled apartments to reset to market rate after they become vacant (a huge incentive for landlords to want tenants to leave) for a one-time $2500 fee (less than an average Hoboken month’s rent). According to the petition, the $2500 fee will be devoted to acquiring land and building affordable housing. If we lose 1,000 reduced-rent apartments, the City nets $2.5 million that, at best, would create a handful of affordable units. Does losing 1,000 under-market, rent-controlled units to add maybe 5 affordable units sound like affordability progress?
Three of my Council colleagues (Doyle, Jabbour, and Quintero) joined me in voting for the resolution condemning the deceptive tactics employed by the referendum's organizers and supporting our Rent Control Ordinance’s tenant protections. Although the resolution failed 4-5, we brought important attention to the deceptive signature collection effort.
After the Council meeting, folks reached out and said they’d been tricked into supporting a so-called “affordable housing” referendum — not realizing they signed onto a vacancy decontrol referendum, and wanted their signatures removed from the petition.
If you think you were tricked, or know someone who regrets signing the petition that supports gutting Hoboken’s Rent Control Ordinance, contact me at hobokenphil@gmail.com so I can help you remove your signature from the petition.
Phil Cohen
Hoboken City Councilman
Hoboken, New Jersey
HobokenPhil@gmail.com
(862) 234-9053
P.S. You can learn more about me and my ideas for Hoboken (as well as read this newsletter and prior newsletters) on my website philcohen.org.
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Paid for by Phil Cohen for Hoboken City Council |
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