Do Single Senior Tenants Rent Apartments
Larger Than They Need?
by Steven Wishnia

One of the most common myths about rent regulation is that there are scores of thousands of apartments rented by single elderly people who are paying far below market rent for homes far bigger than they need. One former Rent Guidelines Board member once justified his vote for the poor tax by speaking of the proverbial three-bedroom apartment on Central Park West inhabited by an aging "dowager" paying $400 a month.

But according to data from the 1999 federal Housing and Vacancy Survey, released by the RGB as part of its "2001 Housing Supply Report" on June 5, 72% of the 238,000 tenants over 62 living alone in New York City live in one-bedroom or studio apartments. Only 4%­11,000­lived in apartments of three bedrooms or more, and almost 40% of those lived in unregulated housing.

"On the whole, this data contradicts the perception that single elderly tenants are in large numbers occupying apartments with many bedrooms," the report said.

Of all types of housing surveyed­rent-stabilized, rent-controlled, Mitchell-Lama, other regulated, and unregulated­the percentage of seniors living alone in apartments of two bedrooms or more was highest in unregulated housing, at 43.5% of 38,000 apartments. Of the 112,000 seniors living alone in rent-stabilized apartments, 76% lived in studios or one-bedrooms, and only 3,000 lived in apartments of three bedrooms or more.

The percentage of single elderly tenants occupying small apartments was highest in Mitchell-Lama buildings, at 87% of 13,000, and in other regulated apartments, at 88% of 19,000.

"In other words, about 67,000 households, or 3% of the city’s rental units, headed by a single senior could be considered underutilized," the report concluded.

People over 62 account for 393,000 of the city’s almost 2 million renter households, about 20%, according to the HVS data. Out of these, 61% live alone.