A curated, public-facing collection of memos, testimony, research, and reporting supporting Commercial Rent Stabilization in New York.

Last updated: 2026-03-03
Contact / submissions: contact@FairRentNYC.com
Note on scope: This page hosts or links only to materials that are already public or explicitly “public-share OK.”
If you’re a coalition partner and you’re unsure whether a document is public-share, please assume internal and email first.

Start here (2–5 minutes)

If you’re new to Fair Rent NYC or Commercial Rent Stabilization, we recommend starting with:

1. TakeRoot Justice — Testimony on Commercial Rent Stabilization + Storefront protections (Sept 17, 2021)
   A clear legal/policy framing of why commercial tenant protections are urgently needed, and how they can be designed to serve low-income communities, immigrants, and communities of color.
   PDF: 2021.9.17-Commercial-Rent-Stabilization_TakeRoot.pdf
   Citation: Segal, Paula Z. (Senior Staff Attorney, TakeRoot Justice), 2021-09-17.
2. TakeRoot Justice — Legal memo on CRS legality / Home Rule (July 6, 2022)
   A NYC-specific legal memo concluding that the City has authority to regulate rent increases for non-residential spaces under Home Rule and police powers, and that commercial rent regulation is not an unconstitutional Taking (while noting end-of-tenancy regulation would raise different preemption issues not present in Intro 93).
   PDF: 2022.7.6-City-Right-to-Enact-Commercial-Rent-Stabilization_TakeRoot.pdf
   Citation: Segal, Paula Z. (Senior Staff Attorney, TakeRoot Justice), New York City’s Authority to Regulate Rents of Non-Residential Spaces (legal memo), 2022-07-06.
3. ANHD — The State of Storefronts 2023: Beyond Recovery (Summary)
   A concise, credible snapshot of storefront conditions and why “recovery” has been uneven—especially in communities of color and immigrant neighborhoods.
   PDF: state_of_storefronts_2023_summary.pdf
   Citation: ANHD, 2023.
4. Explainer / campaign hub (Action Lab / Small Business United)
   Website: https://smallbizunited.com/
   (If you’re a small business owner and want to get involved, start here.)

Legal + policy memos and testimony (public)

TakeRoot Justice

• Testimony: Intro 1796-2019 / Intro 2299-2021 (Sept 17, 2021)
  PDF: 2021.9.17-Commercial-Rent-Stabilization_TakeRoot.pdf
  Use for: legislative conversations, legal framing, narrative grounding.

Legal scholarship (law review articles)

• Julian M. Hill — "Commercial Rent Stabilization: One Local Response to Skyrocketing Rents" (NYU Journal of Legislation & Public Policy, Vol. 25)
  A detailed legal + policy analysis of Commercial Rent Stabilization as a local response, including design considerations and common legal questions.
  PDF (publisher): JLPP-25.3-Hill.pdf
  Use for: legal alignment conversations, home rule / preemption analysis, briefing legislators and counsel.
  Citation: Hill, Julian M., Commercial Rent Stabilization: One Local Response to Skyrocketing Rents, 25 N.Y.U. J. Legis. & Pub. Pol’y 603 (2023).
• Guy Yedwab — “The Stable Legal Foundation of Commercial Rent Stabilization” (Rutgers Journal of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 20, Fall 2022)
  A focused legal argument for the constitutional and statutory footing of CRS, addressing common objections and litigation posture.
  PDF (publisher): yedwab_final_formatted.pdf
  Use for: concise legal defense, Q&A prep, and countering opposition legal narratives.
  Citation: Yedwab, Guy, The Stable Legal Foundation of Commercial Rent Stabilization, 20 Rutgers J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 1 (Fall 2022).

Additional legal/policy items (to be added)

We are actively collecting other public legal memos and testimony (including historic City Council legislative analyses and coalition partner memos) and will add them here as permissions are confirmed.

Official legislative record (bill text + actions)

Use these official pages for the definitive bill text, sponsor lists, actions/history, and attachments.

NYC Council (Legistar — official record)

• 28 NYC Council Co-Sponsors
  Int 1796-2019 (Intro 1796): “Regulation of commercial rent” (Commercial Rent Stabilization)
  https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?GUID=B2FF2D24-F642-42A1-BEBB-D8D59E079D99&ID=4230081
• 25 NYC Council Co-Sponsors
  Int 0093-2022 (Intro 93): “Regulation of commercial rent” (Commercial Rent Stabilization)
  https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?GUID=0FA34310-33D2-4090-9A39-2396910C9EB5&ID=5534186

New York State (official bill pages)

• NYS Senate — S8319 (2025–2026)
  Carried by NY Senator Julia Salazar
  https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/S8319
• NYS Assembly — A05568 (A5568A) (2025–2026)
  Carried by NY Assembly Member Emily Gallagher
  https://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=&leg_video=&bn=A05568&term=2025&Summary=Y

Research + data (public)

• ANHD — The State of Storefronts 2023: Beyond Recovery (Summary)
  PDF: state_of_storefronts_2023_summary.pdf
  Use for: baseline context on storefront vacancy, recovery, and neighborhood impacts.
• Neighborhood commercial district needs assessments (CDNAs)
  We will add public CDNAs (by neighborhood/borough) as we confirm which reports are public-share OK.
  Submit a CDNA: contact@FairRentNYC.com

Reporting + narrative context (public links)

• The New York Times — “Small Businesses Helped New York Rebound. Their Rent is Surging.” (May 8, 2023)
  By Stefanos Chen.
  Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/08/nyregion/small-businesses-rent-hikes-nyc.html
  Use for: mainstream narrative and public-facing messaging.

(We prefer linking to publishers rather than hosting full article PDFs, to respect copyright.)

Coalition references (public)

• Fair Rent NYC Coalition
  Link: https://FairRentNYC.com
• Action Lab — Partners & supporters list (context on infrastructure partners)
  https://www.actionlabny.org/partners-and-supporters

How to cite these materials

If you’re preparing a one-pager, testimony, or press pitch, include:

• Title, author/organization, date
• A stable link
• A one-sentence description of why it matters

What we are not posting here (by design)

• Internal strategy documents, draft bills, working memos, or anything not explicitly public-share OK.
• Materials shared “in coalition confidence” unless permission is confirmed.

If you’re a coalition partner and want access to internal working docs, request access via: contact@FairRentNYC.com

In March 2022 #FairRentNYC bill Intro 93 was introduced. With the clock ticking the organizations featured below call on Speaker Adams and Committee Chair Menin to pass commercial rent stabilization in 2023:

Dear Speaker Adrienne Adams and Committee Chair Julie Menin:

We write today to urge you to schedule a hearing for a strengthened version of FairRentNYC, Intro 93, which was introduced by Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala exactly ten months ago on March 24, 2022.

We plead with you to prioritize passage of FairRentNYC, which will create Commercial Rent Stabilization for NYC in this session and finally grant small businesses a basic—but fundamental—protection. We thank you for your tireless work in tackling New York’s affordability crisis and supporting small businesses. All this, however, will be for naught if we do not address the issue of unchecked commercial rent increases.

Predatory landlords’ doubling and tripling of rents has been displacing small businesses and exacerbating gentrification for decades. The commercial rent challenge has become more and more critical across the five boroughs. Small businesses and nonprofits that were there to support New Yorkers during the worse months of the pandemic are now struggling even more to plan for their future with inflation, minimum wage increases, and the added handicap of back-rent and other accrued debt.

Today, businesses have no idea how much their current space will cost them once their lease ends. Every day longstanding treasured businesses that are otherwise thriving are shuttered due to rent hikes, and we all suffer for it. We lose affordable, essential services. We lose jobs, livelihoods, and community hubs. For example, Joeal's Cleaners in Bed Stuy was forced to close after 50 years of service when the landlord said the rent would increase from $5,300 to $12,000; clients of the longtime community anchor were incredulous and dismayed.

Another 50 year-old business, Pearl River Mart in lower Manhattan—where in January 2022 Mayor Adams signed an executive order focused on cutting red tape and fines to help small businesses—was displaced five times in five decades due to rent hikes, as business owner Joanne Kwong shared during that executive order signing.

The precariousness that rent unpredictability creates is felt even more from newer businesses and/or entrepreneurs considering opening a new business. In the words of Rachel Nelson, a small business owner, an artist, and a parent who testified on September 19th, 2021 at a City Council hearing on Commercial Rent Stabilization: “I've been in Williamsburg since 1999. In that time I've moved my business four times and my rent has increased 600% (...) As an artist I've not been able to stay here, and as a parent I'm basically at the whims of 10-year lease renewals. So, you know (...) for those of you who are parents trying to plan the future of your children, you get to do 10 years at a time (...) So I think the issue here is rent stabilization is a thing that helps stabilize communities.”

Another small business owner who was completing a five-year lease when the pandemic hit—an African hair braider renting a salon in Harlem—agreed to a rent increase from $1,100 to $2,800 just four months after the pandemic emergency was declared so that she could stay in the neighborhood where she had developed her business with a stable clientele. She had negotiated her original lease with a family that owned the building, but by the time she had to renegotiate the lease the building was sold to a hedge-fund-backed portfolio. When she agreed to this new rent, she knew that she would be cutting wages, raising prices, and cutting into her own proceeds from the business, on which her family relies for its survival.

There are countless heart wrenching predatory rent hike stories like those above, and there is a clear solution. In fact, in 2022, the NYC Speaks Survey found commercial rent regulation to be one of the most popular measures to support small businesses.

Commercial rent stabilization would provide stability for small businesses and the people who depend on them. The system suggested by Intro 93 builds on generations of know-how. (2.5 million New Yorkers already have rent stabilization in their apartments.) Setting guidelines on the rent increases ensures that small businesses can responsibly plan for the future.

Although the city has only recently started gathering information on commercial rent and has not published data that shows rents today, a nationwide survey of small businesses in 2022 found that they were facing rents 50% higher than before the pandemic. The same study found that New York led the nation in small businesses unable to pay their monthly rent. This data reinforced recent local surveys that have found commercial rent to be the top concern of small businesses in New York City, as well as news reporting that retail rents in many shopping corridors have remained high throughout the pandemic.

Although banning unregulated commercial rent hikes is a common-sense measure, New York’s leaders have failed again and again to meaningfully tackle the commercial rent issue. The pandemic has not reset the market for commercial spaces, but with commercial rent stabilization we have an opportunity to completely re-align the power structure and finally give small businesses a chance.

We invite you to join our organizations on a rally at the City Hall steps on February 2nd, to hear more about this issue from small businesses.

Thank you,

A.R.T. New York
Chhaya CDC
Cooper Square Committee
League of Independent Theater of New York
The Legal Aid Society
NYC Artist Coalition
NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives
Street Vendor Project
TakeRoot Justice
Volunteers of Legal Service

Co-signing:

Art Against Displacement
Artist Studio Affordability Project
Custom Collaborative
Dance/NYC
East New York Restoration LDC
East Village Community Coalition
LES Small Business Alliance
Music Workers Alliance
New Yorkers for Culture & Arts
SaveNYC
Save Our Storefronts
Western Queens Community Land Trust
Yemeni American Merchants Association

CC:
Honorable Diana Ayala
Deputy Speaker
NYC City Council
250 Broadway, 1880
New York, NY 10007

Commercial rent stabilization provides an important tool to protect New York City small businesses and nonprofits from predatory rent hikes. Currently, there is no system in place to prohibit a landlord from raising the rent by 500%, or harassing one commercial tenant to end their lease to rent to a higher-paying tenant. Commercial tenants make up our neighborhoods: they are the restaurants, bodegas, laundromats, bookstores, after-schools, venues and all local shops that make each neighborhood distinct and uniquely New York; yet, our current commercial rental market is based on individual profit incentives, not on what is in the best interest of the neighborhood or needed for businesses and residents to thrive. Establishing rent regulation means that the local market and community needs determine rent rates, not the other way around.

Commercial tenants have rights and deserve basic protections to be able to maintain their businesses through fair contracts. A regulated system for commercial spaces would set a reasonable and proportionate rate across the board for rent based on the need.

Learning from Residential Rent Stabilization: Commercial rent stabilization will protect commercial tenants from displacement due to exorbitant rent hikes and unregulated fees. It will provide stability for small businesses and the people who depend on them. This system builds on generations of know-how: 2.5 million New Yorkers already have rent stabilization in their apartments.

One Lease / One Number: Commercial rent stabilization would also ensure that pass-alongs like taxes and utilities are included in the rent, so that businesses can clearly predict the total cost of renting a space over time and are not hit with surprising bills that put their business at risk.

Planning for the Future: Today, businesses have no idea how much their current space will cost once their lease ends; many are operating in spaces where they are month-to-month because renegotiating the rent after a lease expires comes with a huge risk of a rent hike. Many others have closed or moved because landlords demanded high rents when leases ended. Setting guidelines on the rent ensures that small businesses can responsibly plan for the future, knowing how much they’ll need to pay for use of the location their business needs to operate.

Level playing field: By ensuring that covered commercial spaces are regulated the same, regardless of who is renting them, ensures a level playing field for small businesses, rather than allowing chain businesses to out-bid them by agreeing to exorbitant rents.

The #FairRentNYC bill for Commercial Rent Stabilization was originally introduced as Intro 1796 in 2019. Despite 28 co-sponsors, then Speaker Johnson didn't give it a vote. Read HERE about our campaign's history. We are now fighting to pass in 2023 a strengthened version of what is now billed as Intro 93

Call 212-788-7210 or email Speaker Adams and ask City Council to hear & pass Intro 93. Find your Council Member and ask them to sign on Intro 93. Here is a script you can use:

New Yorkers lose affordable and essential services; jobs; livelihoods & community hubs because thriving & treasured small businesses are shuttered by rent hikes every day. Sharing your personal story, the story of a small business lost in your neighborhood or of a landlord that doubled/tripled your store's, studio's rent is the best way to explain why passing #FairRentNYC must be a priority in 2023.

Thank you for doing your part as a #FairRentNYC champion!