Mayor Zohran Mamdani promised to heed tenants’ calls for reform at Rental Ripoff Hearings, but upping enforcement on landlords to “fix the city” is easier said than done.
The Mamdani administration debuted his Rental Ripoff Report Thursday, compiling tenants’ most frequent complaints about their living conditions and landlord dynamics, while promising major changes planned to address common concerns among renters.
For some of the measures laid out in the 67-page report, implementation will be straightforward, like the mayor directing his Department of Housing Preservation & Development to issue tenants a 311 text blast for scheduling inspections or to send inspectors for every new heat complaint starting in the fall.
Many of the 23 initiatives recommended in the report, however, will require formal rulemaking, City Council approval or legal action before they are set into motion. I asked the mayor to spell out how he plans to court buy-in from local lawmakers on several of the report’s key initiatives, which range from cracking down on mold remediation to expanding the city’s lien authority for properties where owners aren’t addressing violations.
“When we are speaking to our partners, whether it be those who serve in the City Council or beyond that, about the importance of tackling the root causes of mold, of ensuring that we are finally bringing the kinds of tenant protections that the city should have brought years ago, we are also oftentimes speaking to an audience that knows exactly what that means,” Mamdani said at the Tenement Museum Thursday. “What I will also say is there are other aspects of this report that can begin immediately. And we are going to look to take as fast of an approach as we can with every single recommendation that is here.”
The city plans to stand up an interagency Enforcement Days initiative in the fall, which prioritizes full inspections for buildings with tenant unions that report deteriorating conditions across at least one-third of apartments. The administration will also publish a guide on filing landlord harassment complaints on a revamped website, along with a public awareness campaign to help tenants report discrimination based on immigration status.
The Department of Buildings has already taken steps to require single-elevator building landlords to provide alternative accommodations when service is disrupted for more than two weeks, as highlighted in the report.
The Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, helmed by longtime tenant organizer Cea Weaver, will use its Legislative Taskforce to coordinate with Council members on reforms that comprise more than half of the recommendations.
“We’ve begun productive conversations with Council member [Pierina] Sanchez, who is, of course, the chair of the Housing and Buildings Committee,” Weaver said. “And we expect that we’ll be able to start meeting soon with the Council to be able to get some of these things drafted and then move through the legislative process.”
Despite her progressive alignment and key role shaping the city’s housing policy, Council member Sanchez hasn’t always operated in lockstep with the Mamdani administration’s goals.
The Bronx lawmaker spearheaded a push to demand that the mayor expand CityFHEPS vouchers and settle an Adams-era legal challenge to the program, a fight that nearly derailed budget negotiations before Speaker Julie Menin and Mayor Mamdani reached a last-minute deal.
Mamdani and Menin both claimed victory on the budget and their compromise to expand voucher access by $300 million over the next two years under a new program, but Sanchez had sought a larger allocation to address the looming cliff for households set to lose federal Emergency Housing Voucher access by year’s end.
“I do acknowledge that this isn’t where we wanted to land,” she told reporters last month, while noting that the expansion of voucher access is still a win for New Yorkers who rely on subsidies. “But we are in a very impressive place and we would not have been here if the Speaker didn’t hold the line, if the Council did not stick together and say with one voice that this is a priority.”
What we’re thinking about: How soon do you expect recommendations from the Rental Ripoff Report to go live? Will the mayor face an uphill battle on certain initiatives in court or City Council? Let me know what you think at ben.miller@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: If a New York City apartment applicant supplies a credit report from within the past 30 days, they cannot be charged a credit check fee by the landlord. Under federal law, anyone can get an annual free credit report from the three major credit bureaus.
— Spencer Davis
Elsewhere…
— The New York City Council has voted for the first time since 2016 to raise the salaries of New York City officials, increasing wages by 18.2 percent as early as next month, City & State reports. Mayor Zohran Mamdani, however, said he won’t take the money. “I haven’t knocked on anyone’s door in New York City and they’ve said their concern is that the mayor makes too little,” he said, adding that he hopes the money will go to “the pockets of those who are struggling in the city.”
— The New York City Council voted unanimously to give a one-time, $10,000 bonus to public school paraprofessionals, writes The City Reporter. The bonus will be dispersed in four installments to teachers’ aides, who have a starting salary of $32,000. Mayor Mamdani, who supported the bill as a candidate, has expressed concern that it violates labor law since the payment was made outside the collective bargaining agreement, but United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew said the bill was written to avoid conflict with state labor laws.
— New Yorkers should prepare for severe thunderstorms and a possible isolated tornado this weekend, amNY reports. The inclement weather could alleviate the smoke in the air that has for days rolled in from Canadian wildfires.
— Spencer Davis
Closing times
Residential: The most expensive residential sale recorded Friday was $6.2 million for 426 8th Street. The Park Slope townhome is 900 square feet and is fetching $6,900 per square foot. The Corcoran Group’s Jackie Torren, Charlie Pigott, Jennifer Wang and Nathalie Roy have the listing.
Commercial: The most expensive commercial transaction was $38.5 million for 136 West 55th Street. The building is the Blakely Hotel in Midtown and is 16-stories. Israeli hotel company Fattal is purchasing the 117-key room, per reports.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $10.5 million for 25 Central Park West, Unit 17RU. The condo at the Century Condominium on the Upper West Side is 2,500 square feet. Compass’ Amanda Young and Laura Vela-Kawwa have the listing.
— Joseph Jungermann