Housing earned a brief mention during the first general election mayoral debate on Thursday, largely focused on Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani’s plan to freeze rents for stabilized tenants.
Debate moderators pushed Mamdani on how he could promise to freeze the rent for four years without seeing the annual analysis produced by the city’s Rent Guidelines Board. Mamdani pointed to data released in previous years that showed landlord profits on the rise.
The authority to set annual rent increases for stabilized rents lies with the nine-member board, though mayors have influenced its decisions.
The board releases a report every year that suggests different potential rent increase ranges, based on different financial considerations. The final rent increases do not have to, and often do not, abide by those ranges. Landlord groups have long criticized the board’s reports detailing rises in buildings’ net operating income because those calculations include market-rate units.
One of the moderators, Politico New York’s Sally Goldenberg, twice asked Mamdani if he was making a determination based on data he has not yet seen. Both times, he pointed to previous data.
“I’ve seen the data year after year, of the fact that salaries are stagnating, costs are up, New Yorkers can’t actually afford their apartments,” he said.
He added that he would take action to help landlords with insurance, property taxes and water bills.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, repeatedly noted that Mamdani lives in a stabilized apartment and criticized the rent freeze proposals.
“Freeze the rent only postpones the rent because then you have to have an increase to cover the costs,” he said. “Otherwise, the building is going to go bankrupt.”
When asked what he would do for renters who do not live in stabilized housing, Mamdani pointed to plans to build 200,000 units of “truly affordable homes.”
“I’m going to make it easier for the private sector to build housing in this city, because what we see today is, it’s not labor, it’s not materials, it’s the wait that is often costing so many, so much to actually build the housing we need in this city,” he said.
Despite this promise to build more housing, Mamdani has not taken a position on three controversial ballot questions aimed at speeding up approval of affordable housing. Though moderators didn’t ask about the measures, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa noted his opposition to and pointed out that Democratic leaders of the City Council also oppose the measures. He also said he is the only candidate who opposes zoning changes approved as part of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity.
When asked how he hopes to bring down costs in the city if he doesn’t support the construction of new housing, Sliwa said office buildings in Manhattan should be converted for residential use.
“You don’t need to go into the outerboroughs, you don’t need to use wetlands or parklands,” he said. “If you build a new building, it takes five years. If you convert an existing building, it can be done in a year.”
Cuomo was asked about his proposal, dubbed “Zohran’s Law,” and criticism that it would require tenants to pay too much of their income toward rent. Under the proposed law, when a regulated apartment becomes vacant, a landlord could only rent to someone who would spend at least 30 percent of their income on rent. Both tenant and landlord groups have criticized the proposal.
Cuomo, who repeatedly referenced that he served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said the proposal is meant to ensure the units are reserved for the city’s most rent-burdened.
Later in the debate, the moderators asked the candidates how they would enforce the city’s emissions law, Local Law 97.
Cuomo and Mamdani agreed that some owners will opt to pay the fine for non-compliance rather than invest in the building upgrades required to meet the law’s requirements.
“Yes, I support the law, yes, we have to implement it, but we have to implement it in a way that is feasible,” Cuomo said. He has reportedly told a coalition of co-op boards that he is open to modifying the law to make compliance easier.
Mamdani said the city could help condo and co-op owners by buying green building technology in bulk. Sliwa indicated that he would slow the law’s implementation.
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