Mamdani’s rent freeze means big trouble for MOST tenants, and maybe for ALL

Mayor Zohran Mamdani won office vowing to freeze rents and now he’s delivered — for some renters, with a ham-handed “victory” that will force big hikes for other renters and risks getting the rent laws nixed by the US Supreme Court.

Like every mayor before him, Mamdani’s named a majority of the supposedly independent Rent Guidelines Board, which each year sets allowed hikes on one- and two-year leases for the city’s 1 million regulated units; unlike all them until now, he had his handpicked toadies ram through zero increases on all leases — at a time when the RGB’s own staff says landlords’ costs (which the board is supposed to consider) are rising far faster than inflation.

We’ve written at length on the troubles this means in buildings that are mostly rent-regulated: no money for maintenance; buildings forced into bankruptcy or forced sale to slumlords or incompetents.

But it doesn’t stop there.

In complexes with a good number of non-regulated units, landlords will hike rents on those apartments to cover their costs, especially on newly-vacant ones; market-rate rents will soar, making them even less affordable for anyone trying to move here.

Oh, and anyone with a good deal will stay if they can (maybe subletting illegally to great profit), meaning fewer vacancies than ever even in the rent-regulated market.

Gotham’s rent inequities will get worse.

Lots of Mamdani voters are in for an unpleasant surprise.

Note that the rent laws aren’t truly all that progressive to start with: More than a third of rent-regged apartments are occupied by single adults with no children; about 30% of tenants make over $100,000 a year, well above median income.

The ham-handed RGB move will certainly bring court challenges, and practically begs the Supremes to toss the rent laws completely.

The justices aren’t eager to do that: In the past, they’ve ruled that the laws are not an unconstitutional taking because nonpartisan experts play an important role in RGB decisions, so this (arguably) is not a process where politicians just do as they please.

Oops: Ahead of Thursday’s meeting, Christina Smyth, named to the RGB to speak for landlords, quit in protest, ripping the process as “theater” that ignored rising building and insurance costs for property owners. 

Plus, the mayor’s Democratic Socialists of America cronies crowed: “Just days after our candidates sweep their elections, we’re going to deliver a rent freeze for millions of New Yorkers!”

These are damning facts to raise with the Supremes; what an irony if Mamdani goes down in history as the mayor who killed rent control.