As new rent increases for the city’s two million rent-stabilized tenants took effect Oct. 1, Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani held a rally Wednesday in Highbridge to reiterate his commitment to a four-year rent freeze if he is elected in November.
Mamdani was joined by elected officials and tenant activists from as far as Chinatown and Brooklyn at 1187 Anderson Ave., a rent-stabilized building where, in 2023, tenants won a $400,000 settlement against their landlord, Emerald Equities. Residents accused the owner of attempting to remove the property from rent stabilization while neglecting repairs to hazardous conditions such as pests, mold, and water leaks.
Much to the disappointment of tenants’ rights groups, the mayor-appointed Rent Guidelines Board voted in June to increase rents by 3% for one-year leases and 4.5% for two-year leases.
Following the vote, Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement that while the board implemented a higher increase than he ideally wanted, a rent freeze would “depriv[e] owners of the resources needed to make repairs — a cruel and dangerous proposal.”
However, Mamdani’s upstart campaign has centered around the rent freeze promise, along with other measures aimed at making New York City life more affordable for working people.
The press conference attendees included City Comptroller Brad Lander, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, state Sen. Gustavo Rivera, Assembly Members Emerita Torres and Landon Dais, and other elected officials from across the city.
Several tenant groups, including that of the Anderson Avenue residents, also attended and chanted “Freeze the rent!” as Mamdani took to the podium
He first expressed concern for residents displaced by the partial building collapse at the NYCHA Mitchel Houses in Mott Haven. Mamdani then said the city has become prohibitively expensive and that high rent is “the number one reason that New Yorkers are becoming residents of Jersey City, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.”
He also said that despite increased rents — up a total of 12% under the Adams administration — housing quality has largely declined.
“This policy of raising the rent year after year, like we’ve seen under this administration … that is a policy that will come to an end when I am the mayor of this city,” Mamdani said.
He also accused one of his opponents, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, of being “a corporate ventriloquist for much of this race.”
Mamdani said Cuomo has not addressed the affordability problem and that his campaign has taken more than $400,000 from landlords being sued by the city for neglecting their buildings.
Mamdani said a four-year rent freeze is just one of several changes needed to improve life for the city’s working-class families.
A reporter pressed for more detail on another of Mamdani’s central campaign promises: free childcare for kids ages six weeks to five years. Mamdani said the cost of implementing universal childcare would be expensive — estimated at $6 billion — but the economic loss from not having it is $23 billion.
A rent freeze is one piece of a larger plan, Mamdani said.
“We are going to ensure that this affordability agenda is one that extends to tenants, it extends to homeowners, it extends to landlords,” he said. “But it will no longer ask these tenants, for these next four years, to shoulder the burdens of the failures of this city, of our own policies.”
Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
