By Nathan Duke
A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Astoria) said the congressman would give up a rent-stabilized Harlem apartment from which he operates his campaign office after The New York Times reported last week that he has been keeping four inexpensive apartments in the city for more than a decade.
The Times said Rangel, chairman of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, has four rent-stabilized apartments at luxury development Lenox Terrace in Harlem, including three adjacent units on the 16th floor and a fourth on the 10th floor that serves as a campaign office. Two of the units were already combined as a single apartment when he first rented the space.
City and state regulations require that rent-stabilized apartments should be used as primary residences.
Emile Milne, a spokesman for the congressman, said earlier this week that Rangel would give up the 10th floor apartment, but could not specify when the unit would be vacated, The Times reported.
The Times said Rangel paid a total monthly rent of $3,894 for the four apartments in 2007. The market rate for the units would total between $7,465 to $8,125 per month, the newspaper said.
In a statement last week, Rangel defended the rates he paid for the apartments.
“The rents I pay are the maximum allowable by law [and] the units I've rented for close to 20 years are my home,” he said.
— Nathan Duke
