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The DOF Queens Business Center is located at 144-06 94th Ave. in Jamaica.
By Forum Staff
The City Department of Finance on Monday released its 2022 Annual Report on the New York City Rent Freeze Program and announced expanded outreach efforts to enroll more eligible seniors and New Yorkers with disabilities in the Rent Freeze Program, which protects eligible tenants living in affordable housing from future rent increases.
Beginning in November, DOF’s Outreach Unit will hold walk-in enrollment hours weekly at DOF’s five Business Centers located in each borough in addition to continuing its regular enrollment services. New Yorkers can also schedule an appointment at https://www1.nyc.gov/site/finance/about/make-an-appointment.page to visit a DOF Assistance Center. Virtual appointments will also be made available.
Starting in November, DOF staff will be at each of the DOF Business Centers weekly to assist with enrolling or renewing rent freeze benefits. The DOF Queens Business Center is located at 144-06 94th Ave. in Jamaica; DOF staff will be available on Mondays, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The NYC Rent Freeze Program, which includes the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) Program and the Disability Rent Increase Exemption (DRIE) Program, helps those eligible stay in affordable housing by freezing their rent, potentially saving them hundreds of dollars a month as long as they remain in the program. The longer the individual remains in the program, the higher their benefits will be over time, due to increases in what the landlord could legally charge per the NYC Rent Guidelines Board. This makes renewing rent freeze benefits crucial to the success of the program and ensure New Yorkers receive their maximum possible benefit, City officials noted.
Per the 2022 Rent Freeze Report, on average, SCRIE and DRIE recipients who have been enrolled in the Rent Freeze Program for five to ten years save between $176 and $191 a month respectively. For recipients in the program for ten to fifteen years, that benefit increases to an average of $307 for SCRIE recipients and $340 a month for DRIE recipients.
The number of SCRIE and DRIE recipients had been increasing steadily since 2014, with the number of recipients growing by 6.9 percent from 2014-2020. While pre-pandemic outreach efforts had gone a long way toward enrolling more New Yorkers in the program, enrollments declined in 2020 following the significant disruptions and hardships rendered by COVID-19.
Between 2016 and 2019, the number of Rent Freeze households in New York City increased each year, from 72,299 in 2016 to a high of 75,515 in 2019. In 2020, the total number decreased by 5.1 percent to a total of 71,665 households, 59,862 of which received SCRIE benefits and 11,803 of which received DRIE benefits. For 2019, the most recent year for which eligibility estimates are available, a total of 135,111 households were eligible for the Rent Freeze Program. The average age of benefit recipients in 2020 was 77 for SCRIE and 62 for DRIE, and average household size was 1.5 persons for both SCRIE and DRIE. The average number of years that recipients stayed in the program ranged from 7.2 years on Staten Island to 8.5 years in the Bronx and between 9.0 and 9.6 years in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. A higher number of years in the program correlates with a higher average monthly benefit amount.
