Housing affordability and rent control: The case of elderly renters

Elderly renters face mounting housing affordability challenges due to rising rents. While many see rent control as a way to assist families in need of affordable housing, evidence of its effectiveness is sparse. We fill this gap by examining the effects of New York City’s rent stabilization policy on elderly renters. We find that elderly renters experience greater rent burdens than younger renters and, on average, benefit more from rent control. Specifically, elderly renters are more likely to live in rent-stabilized units and to receive greater rent discounts. However, this “elderly advantage” is mostly explained by elderly renters’ greater housing stability and disappears (in some cases, even reverses) after tenancy duration is accounted for. Our findings suggest that while New York City’s rent stabilization offers more support to older renters overall, it also, by favoring longer tenancy, leads to uneven allocation of policy subsidies among elderly renters. The “elderly advantage” accrues mostly to stable long-term renters, but less so to unstable ones, who are more often racial minorities, immigrants, or those with low levels of education and income.