Mayor Eric Adams has supported rent increases for New York City’s one million rent-stabilized apartments every year since he took office. Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, likely to be the Democratic nominee facing him in the general election in November, cruised into the lead in his party’s mayoral primary last week on a promise to freeze the rent.
Now, a nine-member panel appointed by the mayor to vote on potential increases is set to decide what happens to rents in rent-stabilized buildings over the next year as the city faces linked affordability and housing crises. The contrast between Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Adams is adding a new layer of tension to the panel’s decision. The vote is scheduled for Monday night in Manhattan.
The panel, called the Rent Guidelines Board, took preliminary votes this spring to back increases of between 1.75 and 4.75 percent on one-year leases, and between 3.75 and 7.75 percent for two-year leases. Any increases would apply to leases beginning in or after October. Mr. Adams has said that the higher range was too high.
As in past years, the discourse around the vote reflects the rift between pro-renter and pro-landlord political interests in New York City. But it is also providing an opportunity for Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Adams to distinguish themselves from each other at a time when making the city a more affordable place to live is a key issue driving the election.
The board is supposed to be independent. But the mayor appoints its nine members, and its decisions often reflect the political priorities of the sitting mayor.
Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, built a successful campaign around a promise to appoint members to the board who would halt future increases. That strategy helped him surge ahead of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the front-runner in the polls who had been backed by landlords and did not support a rent freeze.
Now, Mr. Mamdani is using a similar tactic against Mr. Adams.
“This mayor is once again placating real estate donors rather than serving the working people he once claimed to champion,” Mr. Mamdani said in a statement on Monday. He added that “even a supposedly modest rent hike in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis will push New Yorkers out of their homes.”
On Monday, Mr. Adams took aim at Mr. Mamdani’s winning campaign message, while also saying he was urging the board to “adopt the lowest increase possible.”
“Demands to ‘freeze the rent’ are shortsighted and risk worsening already deteriorating housing conditions — putting tenants’ health and safety in harm’s way,” Mr. Adams said in a statement. “This would be disastrous for the quality of rent-stabilized homes.”
He echoed the complaints of landlords who have pushed for increases based on the argument that they are struggling to deal with rising costs for maintenance, fuel or insurance.
“Promising to force the board to freeze rents before reviewing a shred of evidence isn’t leadership, it’s blatant abuse of process and the law,” Kenny Burgos, the chief executive of the New York Apartment Association, a landlord advocacy group, said this weekend.
The rent-stabilization system covers apartments that house some two million of the city’s residents, according to the board’s estimates. By law, it is designed to shield renters from major spikes while also considering the financial health of apartment buildings in the city.
It has become a de facto source of affordable housing, with apartments covered by stabilization having a median rent of $1,500, compared with $2,000 for apartments that are not regulated.
Cea Weaver, the director of the New York State Tenant Bloc, an advocacy group that supports Mr. Mamdani, said that Monday’s vote “will be the last rent hike New Yorkers ever see from a mayor bought and paid for by real estate.”
“We outnumber the landlords and lobbyists determined to buy New York City, and we are out-organizing them,” she said. “We will elect Zohran Mamdani in November and win the rent freeze tenants so desperately need.”
Mihir Zaveri covers housing in the New York City region for The Times.
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