Starting today, Oct. 1, something unprecedented happens in this city: tenants in rent-stabilized apartments will sign a one- or two-year lease renewal with no rent increase. Nothing. Marking the first time in history for a two-year lease. Roughly one million apartments, almost 2.5 million people.

This is not a “rent holiday.” A freeze means no increase; rent is not canceled. Tenants still owe every month. A tenant cannot decide to unilaterally withhold rent. This policy doesn’t do that, and treating it that way is a good way to end up in housing court. If a building is organizing a rent strike over documented conditions, that is a different, collective, legally distinct fight. Fight on. Get a tenant lawyer. But that is not the Oct. 1 freeze.

Under the last administration, rent-stabilized tenants saw four years of increases — 12%. The former mayor tried to lock in Rent Guidelines Board appointees, but tenants........

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