The rent freeze that Zohran Mamdani promised when he ran for mayor last year — a promise that won over many of the people who elected him — became a reality on Thursday.
The Rent Guidelines Board, reconstituted with appointees that Mamdani made earlier this year, approved a plan to not raise the rents on both one- and two-year leases for tenants living in more than 1 million rent-stabilized units across the city.
When the board approved the freeze during its June 25 meeting at El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem, the crowd of tenants advocates cheered and celebrated almost as loudly as the city did when the Knicks won the NBA Championship earlier this month. Mamdani called it a victory for beleaguered tenants struggling to make ends meet in a city that is growing more expensive by the day.
But then there’s the reality of the rent freeze vote, which Mamdani and supporters of the move are quick to brush under the rug.
First, the freeze applies only to rent-stabilized units across New York City. Tenants living in open market rentals have no relief. Like their neighbors in rent-stabilized apartments, they face the same affordability crisis — but have no guaranteed break that their landlords won’t raise their rent this year.
Second, the “mom-and-pop landlords” of this city who own rent-stabilized buildings will need to figure out how to keep their buildings properly maintained over the next year without any freeze in insurance, taxes, construction, material, permit, and labor costs. That will not be easy to do.
Tenant advocates seemed to dismiss the concerns of “mom-and-pop landlords” as they campaigned for the rent freeze. The reality, however, is that close to a third of the city’s housing stock is owned by people who own less than five buildings. For some of these “mom-and-pop landlords,” their buildings are generational wealth, a means to make sure their families can have the same opportunities to live and thrive in New York.
Just because a small property owner owns property does not mean that they are the enemy, or somehow not entitled to economic relief. Some of these landlords live in their own buildings, take pride in them, and do their best to keep their tenants happy.
If they cannot afford to keep up appearances, their tenants will grow angry and move out. Their properties will fall into disrepair, risk failing city inspections, and potentially lead to fires and other tragedies that could cause harm or potential death to tenants and Fire Department members.
And it may all be too much in the end, forcing some landlords to sell their buildings.
Who will buy them? Private equity firms flush with resources and lawyers to get around rent-stabilization rules and find ways to make apartments available at higher market rents.
If the Mamdani administration wants to avoid this costly scenario, then it must find ways to help the small property owners of New York and the economic challenges before them. At the very least, there must be incentives for small landlords to make needed improvements and keep their buildings viable.
The mayor helped the tenants; now it’s time he help those landlords whose economic flexibility has been frozen.