Stringer’s Telling Mistakes

City Comptroller Scott Stringer had to confess to a huge error on Wednesday: His recent report on the loss of low-rent apartments was off by nearly 600,000 units. That’s unforgivable for a guy whose job is all about getting the numbers right.

His report had said that, from 2005 to 2017, the city “lost” more than 1 million units that had rented for $900 a month. It turns out it was 425,492. His office blamed human error that had a key calculation done wrong.

In a related fix, the math whizzes corrected the increase (over the same period) in apartments renting for more than $2,700 from 237,535 to a bit over 110,000.

In short, Team Stringer more than doubled numbers on both the low and high ends — errors that supported his real goal, namely to win headlines by calling for tighter rent controls. It’s always hard to spot a mistake that “confirms” your agenda.

And an agenda it is. After all, Stringer didn’t have to go to Census Bureau data for his analysis. The city Rent Guidelines Board tracks these units very closely. Its latest report showed that, from 1994 to 2017, the city lost some 155,000 rent-stabilized units to vacancy deregulation — but added 143,00 new rentstabilized units.

Yes, rents rose for most units — but all costs rise over time, thanks to inflation if nothing else. Indeed, those “lost” units, whose rents rose about $900, are still rentstabilized. And rent laws still control 60 percent of the city’s housing stock.

In fact, the rent board also noted that 2017 actually saw a net increase in rent-stabilized units for the first time on record, thanks to the state 421-a law, which encourages developers to build such units.

Bottom line: With a single report, Stringer showed himself both sloppy and sneaky.