Dear Mayor De Blasio,

 

First and foremost, we would like to say thank you for taking time off from your schedule to listen to what we have to say. As concerned citizens of New York City, one of the many issues and I can’t stress this enough is HIGH RENT. As citizens of New York City, rent prices are extremely ridiculous. We can’t get a decent apartment for an affordable price and the apartments that are affordable are not sanitary or big enough for families. A lot of these buildings are heavy populated with rodents such as rats, mice and roaches. Not to mention that the ceiling is broken, there’s no heat or any hot water. All of these factors included, and we still have to pay close to $2000 in rent and that’s just Queens, which is the cheaper price. In other boroughs like Brooklyn and Manhattan the same apartment goes for $2500 which is the Brooklyn and the Manhattan which is completely a different story: rent is already over $3000. This is Ludicrous. For a one-bedroom apartment it’s $2100 and for a two bedroom it’s $2500. The reason why this is an issue is because citizens aren’t paid enough to keep up with the rapid increase each year. I earn $15 an hour and after my check 25% goes to taxes. Also, did you know that depending on your lease your rent increases by a certain percent. For one year leases your rent will increase by 1.5% while two year leases increase by 2.5%, that means that each year or two that rent goes up more and more and moving is a hassle because it’s nearly impossible to find a much more affordable apartment with enough space to hold our families. When my parents first came here from Haiti, the rent in our apartment was $500. Now it’s 2100. Some families double up in a small apartment, meaning that there’s 3-4 people sleeping on one bed. Some families work more than one job just so that they can pay rent and not to mention have enough money to pay bills. Statistics show that rent rates are increasing twice as fast as the income of workers. In other words, the rent rates are increasing so fast that citizens aren’t able to keep up with it since their income isn’t increasing as a fast which could result in homelessness or moving to another state. Another issue that affects the rent rates is gentrification. There are areas that used to be majority African American but due to high construction costs which apparently affects the amount of Rent you pay in New York are causing them to move out the high-class citizens to move in and take over and make changes within the neighborhood. Gentrification brings a lot of social problems and discomfort to communities. Residents move into populated areas without knowing the community and then begin to make changes that other do not agree with. That is not the only problem with gentrification; it has been a constant issue which builds a lot of financial conflict within urban communities. One example is the Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush.  According to other citizens it’s is dramatically gentrified. Residents shouldn’t have to leave their neighborhood just because the government feel they can “recycle” the neighborhood. Currently we are at the point where rent is almost tripled compared to the old days and it is only impacting all the communities in a negative way. We do not know what can be done to resolve this issue, but we do hope that you are able to come up with something to lessen the burden on the citizens of New York.

 

Thank you,

Sincerely the citizens of New York City.

 

Essay Orchestrated By Jay and Stanley