The train slowly crawls out of the tunnel, finally seeing the light of day for the first time since it’s entered Manhattan. Out of the window, the Manhattan city skyline becomes visible and the train moves farther away from the skyscrapers and closer to the plateaus of the apartment buildings of Astoria, Queens. The deeper the train dives into Astoria, the more homogeneous the riders become, losing its diversity with the riders that get off the train every stop along the route before meeting the heart of Astoria.

“I really used to enjoy living there.” high school student, Debbie Santiago states. Debbie and her family recently moved out of Astoria due to increases in their monthly rent that soon became a payment that was too costly to live by.

Santiago and her family, a family of five, lived in Astoria for about ten years before they had no choice but to move out. There was no limit to the rent price Santiago’s landlord could put on her family’s apartment rent ever since the removal of the rent price ceiling by Governor George Pataki.

The removal of the rent ceiling pricing policy allows landlords who previously owned apartment buildings with a rent ceiling to apply to have the it removed. When removed, landlords were given the freedom to raise rent as frequently as they wish, and by as much as they want. This is something that jeopardizes diversity and pushes out poorer tenants who cannot keep up with increasing prices.

Astoria was recognized for it’s diverse demographics, and has even been named one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the world. 54% of Astoria’s demographics consist of minority races, diverse demographic in Astoria is at risk as rising rent prices push out minorities of lower income (2010 Census). Astoria seems to be progressively becoming a neighborhood for upper-middle class and upper middle class residents.

“I usually set up my tenant’s payments so that a majority of them pay at the first of every month,” Peter Blidy, the landlord of an apartment building on Newtown Ave states. “I do have a rent ceiling on my building, so my rental prices never really leave the $1500-$1600 monthly rate.”

Peter Blidy has owned his apartment building for about twenty years and faces less tenant turnover because of the rent ceiling. The stabilization of rent pricing meaning that his tenants can afford to live in his building for longer periods of time due to very little changes in rent. Blidy notes that he has a diverse range of tenants living in his building, something that he takes pride in.

“In the building next to me, I see more people move out than actually move in.” Blidy comments when asked about his knowledge of rentals and tenants in nearby apartment buildings. The building that he is referring to is one that does not have a rent ceiling pricing policy.

Blidy’s building (left) and the building with no rent control policy (right)

When comparing the two buildings visually, there appears to be no difference between Blidy’s apartment building and his neighbor’s. However, there appears to be a stark difference in pricing. According to a local real estate agency, apartments in the neighboring building have an average monthly rent price of $2300, an amount that is almost $1000 greater than that of a rent controlled apartment. The real estate agency also confirmed that most of the apartments that are rented in Astoria have decontrolled rents.

For landlords, rent ceilings allows for more freedom in the leasing and governing of their apartments and who lives in them. Rent ceilings do allow landlords to quickly evict tenants who are consistently behind on rent, so that they do not lose out on rent money they were supposed to receive.

Nick Gayle, the landlord of the apartment building in which there is no rent control comments, “Not having a ceiling on my rent allows me to adjust the rent I need in order to fund the buildings maintenance costs, which do increase from time to time.”

However, it’s interesting to see that there are such large price differences between neighboring apartment buildings, buildings surrounded by exactly the same resources as each other in the neighborhood.

The after affects of the rent ceiling removal is actively affecting families like that of Debbie Santiago, in that more minorities are being driven out of their homes due to uncontrollable increasing rent.