Rent Control Status Quo Clings to 99 Vote Lead

Correction: An earlier article, based on information from the city clerk's office, incorrectly stated that the results had been reversed and now stood in favor of removing certain rent control protections i.e. "Yes," on Public Question No. 1. The city spokesman confirms that the city's vote count now lines up with the count displayed on the Hudson County Clerk's website.

If the unofficial results on Hoboken Public Question No. 1 hold, voters will have narrowly upheld the status quo on rent control for the second straight year.

According to unofficial results available on the Hudson County Clerk's website and corroborated by the Hoboken city clerk's office, 5,047 residents voted "No" to changing Hoboken's rent control system, while 4,948 voted "Yes," to adopting a vacancy decontrol model for buildings with one-to-four units -- a difference of 99 votes.

"Obviously, we're very, very happy," said Cheryl Fallick, a rent control advocate and member of the Hoboken Fair Housing Association. "We had been feeling a little like we hadn't been getting a fair shake in the court room and just the whole election process, like they let us down, but right now we're feeling that our friends and neighbors did not, and we're very grateful."   

Provisional votes have not yet been received, but Fallick said earlier in the day that she'd been told by both the mayor's chief of staff and the city clerk that the victory will hold up.

"I'm getting people telling me, 'You're going to win,'" she said. "It seems that everybody's confident that we will hold beyond the provisionals."

Ron Simoncini, the executive director of the Mile Square Taxpayers Association, which advocates for property owners in Hoboken said that regardless of the final count, the issue is almost certain to end up in court, just as it did last year when the status quo was upheld by fewer than 100 votes in an identical ballot referendum whose results were later challenged and overturned.

“Obviously this is going to court," Simoncini said. "There’s no other way. If they lose they would be crazy not to sue us, and if we lose, we’d be crazy not to sue them.”