NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) -- Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced six new appointments to the Rent Guidelines Board, a nine-member panel tasked with governing rent-stabilized units.
Mamdani said in a statement Wednesday that the newly composed board will “take a clear-eyed look at the complex housing landscape and the realities facing our city’s two million rent-stabilized tenants, and help us move closer to a fairer, more affordable New York.”
The mayor is seeking to fulfill one of his signature campaign promises to freeze rents on the city’s 1 million rent-regulated apartments. The appointments come a day after he threatened to raise property taxes by almost 10% to lobby New York Governor Kathy Hochul into providing more funding for the city. The mayor, a democratic socialist, is confronting a budget gap that threatens his ability to deliver on the most ambitious parts of his agenda.
Freezing rents is controversial. Even as many tenants in the city struggle with affordability, landlords and business groups have contended that, despite rising rents on price-stabilized units, rental income isn’t keeping pace with faster inflation and escalating expenses.
Tens of thousands of affordable housing units subsidized by the government are already under distress with expenses far outpacing their rents, according to advocacy group New York Housing Conference. While a freeze would help tenants, it risks pushing landlords of affordable housing units closer to default and will require Mamdani to spend $1 billion in 2026 to help landlords restructure their debts, the group said in November.
Mamdani’s predecessor, Eric Adams, named four members to the rent body at the end of his term in an effort to stymie Mamdani.
The new chair is Chantella Mitchell, a program director at the New York Community Trust.
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