Editor’s note: This story appears in the Aug. 23-Sept. 5 print edition of the Norwood News. On Thursday, Tracey Towers residents are staging a rally at Borough Hall on the Grand Concourse at 10 a.m. to protest the pending rent hike and announce that they have filed for an injunction to prevent it from being implemented on Sept. 1.

A few weeks ago, tenants at Tracey Towers, the troubled twin high-rise apartment buildings on Mosholu Parkway, received notices in the mail saying that on Sept. 1 their rent would spike 16 percent. The rent increases would continue over the following three years as well, leading to what amounts to a 65 percent rent hike by 2015.

The buildings’ managers say, and the Division of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD) agrees, that the rent increase is necessary for the continued operation of the buildings.

But tenants claim that RY Management, which runs Tracey Towers, has mismanaged the property’s finances, failed to make promised repairs and is forcing tenants to pay for its mistakes. They say hundreds of residents, especially seniors with fixed incomes, will be unable to shoulder the increased rent burden.

At a rally to protest the rent hike two weeks ago, the tenant leaders from the 869-unit Mitchell-Llama complex said they wanted an investigation into RY Management’s finances and were considering legal action to stop the rent increase.

“These people need to be investigated,” said Jean Hill, the president of the tenants association who also chairs the housing committee on Community Board 7.

Over the past eight years, Hill said RY Management has received millions in government loans to make capital improvements, including repairing the cracks and leaks on the facades of both buildings and replacing the buildings’ boilers and elevators. To this day, she said, the elevators often malfunction and the buildings are often without heat and hot water. Though scaffolding has been up for several years — at a cost of $5,000 per month — it appears little work has been completed on the façade.

RY Management did not return calls requesting comment for this story.

Hill was joined at the rally by more than a hundred Tracey residents and a host of people representing local elected officials who all pledged their support for tenants.

Kenny Agosto, an executive assistant to State Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson who, after redistricting earlier this year, now represents Tracey Towers, exhorted the crowd with a fiery speech while standing with the help of crutches.

“I can’t walk, but I’m here at Tracey Towers to stand with you,” he said. “Sixty-five percent is ridiculous!”

“We have a message to RY Management: We can’t live in the lobby!” Agosto added. “We’re not going anywhere!”

Other elected officials echoed Agosto.

Assemblywoman Naomi Rivera, who is campaigning for re-election in the 80th Assembly District, which includes Tracey Towers and its 2,000-plus residents, said she and other officials met with representatives from RY Management and HPD a few months ago. At the meeting, Rivera said HPD essentially told them that they had reviewed RY’s application and deemed the rent hike necessary to cover mounting operational costs amid the building’s yawning debt burden and there wasn’t any room for negotiation.

“There’s something not quite kosher going on,” she said. “It doesn’t smell good. It doesn’t sound good.”

Rivera said she has enlisted the help of Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu to investigate the matter and brought up the idea of bringing a lawsuit against HPD if a compromise can’t be reached.

“Even if [HPD] did [do their due diligence in approving the rent hike], we still can’t accept 65 percent,” Rivera said.

A representative from Councilman Oliver Koppell’s office said RY and HPD originally wanted the entire rent increase to occur over just three years, but compromised at four.

Hill said tenants wouldn’t go down without a fight.

“There are a whole lotta tricks that are going to come out of the bag,” Hill told the crowd. “We will win.”