With nearly 100% of the votes counted, Hoboken residents overwhelmingly defeated the city’s rent control referendum, 72.95% to just 27.05%, a margin of approximately 10,000 votes.
The amendment, if it had passed, would have changed the current law, meaning the City’s Rent Control Code would allow landlords to increase the rent upon any vacancy to whatever the market would bear without any limitation.
But because it was defeated, it means the public supports maintaining the current Rent Control Code and its current limits on permitted rent increases upon a vacancy – to 5% or the Consumer Price Index (CPI), whichever is lower; or to a maximum of 25% after a vacancy by a tenant that lasted three years or more. There would be no option for an unlimited rent increase upon vacancy coupled with a $2,500 fee paid to the City of Hoboken to be deposited in the City’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
The “NO” vote was supported by the Hoboken Fair Housing Association.