In an editorial, Jersey City Ward D council candidate Jake Ephros, a member of the Hudson County Democratic Socialists of America, responds to criticisms about renters from Jersey City weighing in on Hoboken’s rent control situation.
Hoboken’s rent control laws are under attack by landlord and real estate lobbyists like the Mile Square Taxpayers Association.
As one of the priciest cities to rent a home in New Jersey—even the country—working people in Hoboken cannot afford to have existing rent control laws rolled back.
Renters across Hoboken are joined by those of us in Jersey City in urging Hoboken City Council to vote against the ordinance coming up Monday evening.
The landlord lobby has dismissed this backlash against vacancy decontrol as outsider socialists causing distraction.
But there is good reason for Jersey City renters to support the vocal renters of our nearest neighbor on the Hudson: an injury to one is an injury to all, and attacks on rent control there are threats to rent control here.
The landlord and real estate lobby is threatening through a ballot referendum this November that would allow them to hike up rents however much they want once a tenant vacates a unit, all for a $2,500 payment to the city.
Hoboken City Council is weighing a compromise that would avoid the referendum but, nonetheless, “let landlords increase rates for incoming tenants in rent-controlled units by up to 75% more than currently allowed,” Teri West notes in The Jersey Journal.
Hoboken residents with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have helped lead the effort in putting up posters and getting the word out about this dangerous vacancy decontrol.
The fact that some vocal opponents of this attack against rent control are socialists has enraged the landlord and real estate lobby.
The executive director of the Mile Square Taxpayers Association (MSTA), Ron Simoncini, emailed the Hoboken Council President this past Friday warning that the fight to save rent control “is being directed by the Democratic Socialists of America.”
He charged the organizing effort with being full of outside agitators, including the Portside tenants, whose war against illegal rent hikes has garnered them well-deserved local clout.
Hoboken rent-controlled tenant and DSA organizer Nate Hutchinson says that “tenants in Hoboken are rejecting this ‘compromise’ ordinance because we were completely shut out of the process of drafting it. We represent a majority of Hoboken residents and we want a chance to vote down the landlords’ referendum in November. As a socialist I understand that all struggles are connected, so beating the landlords here will discourage them from trying the same tactics in neighboring cities, where many of my friends and family live.”
DSA member and rent-controlled Hoboken tenant Anthony Spirito notes that “the people behind MSTA, Ron Simoncini in particular, have been attacking tenants in several New Jersey cities. If they succeed here, there’s no reason they won’t attack our neighbors in Jersey City, the rest of Hudson County, or the rest of NJ.”
Indeed, Simoncini argued against the successful tenant’s Right To Counsel (RTC) in Jersey City—which establishes an office to empower renters with legal defense in housing court—and his Jersey City Property Owners Association even sued JC over the legislation.
I am proud to have led the RTC campaign as a DSA member, and to have stood with scores of tenants from JC and beyond to pass RTC despite Simoncini’s antics.
While Ridgewood resident Simoncini calls foul on tenants supporting each other across city limits, he clearly has no issue with landlords working together across borders.
Our capitalist economic system is set up this way. The owning class get to move their money, their businesses, and themselves wherever they please. But the working class is restricted by borders, locally, statewide, and nationally.
Just look at the national Democratic Party, running to the right of Trump and the Republicans on the US Southern Border and immigration.
Whether workers are hoping to find a new country for greater social and economic security, or crossing city limits to stand in solidarity against rent hikes, capitalists will police free movement and expression.
That’s why I support the DSA-led Votes For All campaign to expand municipal voting rights for residents who don’t have citizenship, so more of our neighbors who live, work, and pay taxes in our communities have a say in local issues like rent control and housing affordability.
The landlord and real estate lobby wants to kill solidarity among working people across cities, so they can kill tenant protections across cities.
As a democratic socialist, I believe that an injury to one is an injury to all. Hoboken renters have the full support and solidarity of renters in Jersey City and beyond.