Zohran Mamdani Appoints 5 Members to Rent Guidelines Board

Mayor Zohran Mamdani named five new members to the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, meaning the mayor’s appointees make up a majority of the body as he calls for freezing rents for stabilized apartments.

Mamdani announced Wednesday that he tapped Chatnella Mitchell, program director at the New York Community Trust, as the new chair, replacing Doug Apple. Maksim Wynn, director of development and supportive housing at Bronx-based Procida Development Group, is joining as an owner representative. Wynn previously worked for the city’s Department of Homeless Services and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, where he focused on homelessness.

The mayor also named to the board Sina Sinai, senior research associate at the Jain Family Institute; Lauren Melodia, director of economic and fiscal policy at the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School; and Brandon Mancilla, a regional director of the United Auto Workers; as public members.

Despite efforts by outgoing Mayor Eric Adams to leave the board with a majority of his own appointees, Mamdani entered office with the ability to appoint up to five of the nine board members in his first year, with the ability to replace the remaining four in his second.

But another spot was freed up when public member Alex Armlovich, who has been publicly skeptical of freezing rents, announced Tuesday that he was stepping down ahead of schedule. In a letter posted on X, Armlovich said he was leaving to take a new position at Coefficient Giving, where he’ll work on housing supply policy.

“In a democracy, the mayor who wins an election has some right to appoint people who reflect his policy priorities, including on the RGB,” he states in the letter, adding that he has confidence that the mayor’s housing priorities are being guided by a team — he mentions Deputy Mayor of Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg — that is “engaging with the full complexity of the problem.”

Armlovich urged board members to consider a proposal by Arpit Gupta, one of the owner representatives on the board. The proposal, dubbed a “slumlord freeze” by Armlovich, would only freeze rents for property owners whose buildings have the highest number of hazardous violations.

“It directly ties a landlord’s revenue to their performance as a housing provider, and it addresses the legitimate concern that blanket guidelines reward negligent and responsible ones alike,” Armlovich writes.

Armlovich’s decision to step down before his term was up at the end of the year was first reported by The City.

Instead of naming a sixth new member, Mamdani opted to reappoint Adán Soltren, a tenant representative, appointed by Adams whose term had expired.

The terms of the remaining members, Gupta and Christina Smyth, both owner representatives, and tenant representative Sagar Sharma, expire at the end of the year.

Appointing a majority of the rent board’s members doesn’t guarantee that the body will ultimately freeze rents this year, let alone over the next four. The board is supposed to act independently of the mayor, though past administrations have influenced its decisions.

In a press release, the mayor didn’t mention his pledge to freeze rents on stabilized apartments for the next four years. In a statement, he said that under Mitchell’s leadership as chair, “the board will take a clear-eyed look at the complex housing landscape and the realities facing our city’s two million rent-stabilized tenants.”

The news of the appointments comes one day after the mayor unveiled his preliminary budget, which calls for a blanket 9.5 percent property increase if the state doesn’t hike corporate tax and income tax rates for New York’s wealthiest.