There is no free lunch. Someone always pays for it. That’s true of housing as well. Freezing rent for all rent-stabilized tenants, who make up 40% of renters, will have two main consequences. First, 60% of renters won’t see a freeze but will likely see higher rents. Second, the 40% getting a rent freeze will be at risk of worse living conditions.

Let’s tackle the first group. Most renters in New York City do not have rent-stabilized leases. Roughly 500,000 apartments are in buildings that have rent-stabilized units, and the higher rents that these tenants pay subsidize the lower rents of their neighbors.

One East Village building illustrates this. On the same floor, there’s a rent-controlled unit at $502 (only about 20,000 of these remain), a rent-stabilized unit at $906, and a free-ma

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