Hoboken Councilman Phil Cohen’s Statement on City Council’s Unanimous Rejection of Proposed Amendments to Hoboken’s Rent Control Ordinance

Hoboken City Councilman Phil Cohen issued the following statement after the City Council unanimously voted against the proposed amendments to Hoboken’s Rent Control Ordinance last evening:

At a time when renters in Hoboken are facing unprecedented pressures and rent increases, Hoboken’s Rent Control Ordinance provides critical protections and reliability for current tenants as to their anticipated housing costs, and offers Hoboken tenants an inventory of below-market rentals in the Mile Square City.  

Last night, my Council colleagues and I unanimously said “no” to proposed amendments to Hoboken’s rent control ordinance and stood with Hoboken’s tenants. The voices of our community were heard loud and clear.  

I thank the many residents — landlords and tenants — who reached out and spoke out.  I thank the more than 50 people who spoke at our Special Meeting last night and the more than 200 people who attended our meeting.  I also want to thank the more than 100 people who emailed me their views in advance of our meeting.

I call on the many, many Hoboken residents who reached out to me expressing their strong opposition to these amendments to prepare for battle in November to crush the Mile Square Taxpayer Association’s referendum question that is poised to gut Hoboken’s Rent Control protections. We need to stand up to bullies and call out the lies. That’s what I have done since MSTA’s vacancy decontrol petition first surfaced in April — deceptively pitched to me by a young man with a clipboard on Washington Street — as a petition supporting “affordable housing in Hoboken” — and that’s what I will continue to do until this toxic Referendum is defeated.