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It's cute when sensationalist know-nothings toss around terms they don't understand in their quest to sound edgy.

Essential to capitalism is the principle that you get what you pay for, and the bargain prevails. What the landlord who bought this building paid for was a building subject to rent control laws. Factored into this transaction was a price adjustment reflecting the restrictions.

The landlord is now looking to have the City give him something he didn't pay for. That's not Capitalism, it's welfare.

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JClist doesn't like capitalism, take your views to the suburbs. City life is reserved for Obama voters only.

Maybe you can rent-out a place with this guy and his vases.
Socialism for all! go Obama!

And the property owner knew full well he was buying a building subject to rent control. Where's proof of this hardship?

The owner "should" have the right for fair market rent rates.
This dude should have known he was being subsidized for a long time. I am sure the town can subsidize him in a new unit near Liberty State Park.

Jersey City tenants say rent hikes could put them on street

by Paul Takahashi/The Jersey Journal
Sunday August 02, 2009, 4:58 PM


Bernie Ortiz lives in a rent controlled apartment at 7-11 Garrison Ave. in Jersey City. His only source of income is his monthly social security check and now his landlord wants to raise the rent 25 percent as part of a hardship application.

Choking back tears, Bernie Ortiz sits in his one-bedroom apartment in Jersey City, overcome with memories of his late wife, Beatrice. The apartment is filled with her collection of vases and paintings.

"When my wife moved in, I only had a mattress in this apartment," said Ortiz, 73. "I would come home from work, beat from working overtime and plop down on the bed and she would tell me stories. It was wonderful... I miss her dearly."

Now, after 30 years of living at 7-11 Garrison Ave. in Jersey City, Ortiz might have to leave the rent-controlled apartment his late wife made a home.

Joseph Ehrman, the building's owner, has filed a hardship application with the city, which if approved, would allow him to raise rents 25 percent.

The 37 tenants of 7-11 Garrison Ave. plan to speak against the requested rent hike at a meeting of the Rent Leveling Board on Tuesday.

According to the renters' attorney, Ronald Kurzeja, Ehrman over-extended himself with plans to turn to the units into condominiums.

"He (Ehrman) has significantly upgraded five units," Kurzeja said. "The market was still hot when he bought the building. Now, I think he's trying to get what he can't get (after the housing bust) as a hardship increase."

Reached at his home in Lakewood today, Ehrman declined to comment.

His attorney, Joe Pojanowski, explained that the Jersey City ordinance allows a "hardship" rent increase on rent-controlled apartments if a landlord can prove he isn't making "a fair rate of return on his investment." Pojanowski declined to say anything more about the application until after the hearing.

Tenant Ruth Ann Smith believes Ehrman is simply passing along the costs for upgrading potential condo units.

"A $200 increase for senior citizens and people with low incomes is unfair," Smith said. "Why should tenants in a rent-controlled apartment pay for repairs not to their own apartments?"

Ortiz, who currently pays $548 per month rent, said his only source of income is his $1,100 monthly Social Security check. He said he's already cut out non-essentials, such as cable TV, and relies on his senior citizen status to get discounts and food from Meals on Wheels.

But having to pay an additional $127 per month for rent -- coupled with increasing medical bills for treatment for heart problems and diabetes -- will force him into the street, Ortiz said.

"I can't lug around these," Ortiz added, eyeing his wife's vases and her other belongings. "I have no place to go if I won't be able to afford this apartment."