{"id":4473,"date":"2022-05-20T21:40:07","date_gmt":"2022-05-21T01:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/?p=4473"},"modified":"2022-05-23T12:24:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-23T16:24:51","slug":"hunter-community-struggles-with-increased-rent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/2022\/05\/hunter-community-struggles-with-increased-rent\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunter Community Struggles with Increased Rent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nick Adams, a full-time student and athlete, pays $900 to rent an apartment with two other roommates. They signed a 13-month lease last October, with two months off as a concession at the end of the lease. They don\u2019t know if they\u2019ll be able to afford their apartment when they renew their lease.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s getting nerve-wracking to see how high the prices are,\u201d said Adams. \u201c I\u2019m concerned to see what will happen at the end of September.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Adams\u2019 last rent payment will be in July, and from then on, he will start to save up as much money as he can. He doesn’t know if his rental price will go up. They still haven’t been told, but he’s preparing just in case.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many landlords <\/span>lost a lot of money<\/span><\/a> throughout the pandemic. In 2020-2021 rents dropped by 12%, according to <\/span>streeteasy<\/span><\/a>, and a large number of apartments were left empty. In 2022 as the city continues to bloom in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, leases have increased by 33%. The sharp rent increase has many Hunter students worried about what it could mean for their upcoming leases.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to one landlord on Orchid Street, one incentive to keep apartments rented was to lower rents and give leasers concessions. He dropped the rent<\/span>al fee from $2,000 to $1,500 in<\/span> 2021 and offered to pay the agent’s fee instead of the renters. In 2022, he raised the monthly fee to $2,100 and has not included paying the agent’s fee to make up for what he lost in the pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas Knapp, a senior, lives with two roommates and rents out a three-bedroom apartment in Bushwick. Knapp pays $850 plus utilities, and they pay a combined $2550 in rent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy neighbors who have a three-bedroom recently got an email saying that their rent was going to be increased, when their lease is up in March of next year,\u201d<\/span> said Knapp<\/span>. \u201cThey also pay $2550 now, which will increase to $2750-2950. They will each have to pay a hundred dollars more to make that up\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Knapp says he\u2019s in a very privileged position that he has a full-time job lined up as soon as he graduates. They still haven’t gotten word about any rent increase, but it’s scary.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m a dishwasher for $30 an hour. That\u2019s a blessing. I only work about 20 hours a week.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Knapp says that one of his roommates is transient and doesn\u2019t know if he will be there in September when the lease expires.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy student debt monthly payment will be about $550 a month, on top of rent, so my monthly budget will be about $3000,\u201d<\/span> said Knapp.<\/span> \u201cThese are consistent anxieties.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tamara Morales, a sophomore, lives with her mom. Morales can see that her mom is worried and stressed. Her mom suffers from knee problems and doesn’t have a well-paying job. She has two older siblings that help pay the rent. They pay over $3000 in rent in Bushwick.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy siblings feel a lot of pressure,\u201d says Morales. \u201cThere are times my mom doesn’t have the rent, so my siblings have to cover my mom’s portion. We rely on each other\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>Morales\u2019 family is waiting for her to graduate from Hunter, so they can all leave New York for another state. They are happy in the house they live in, but they can\u2019t afford to buy their own home here.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rents in New York have increased by 33%. Hunter students feel anxious about the possibility of having their rents increased.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":4474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1,324],"tags":[279],"class_list":["post-4473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-column","category-news","category-student-life","tag-huntercollege-hunterstudents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4473"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4476,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4473\/revisions\/4476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brie.hunter.cuny.edu\/hunterathenian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}