A New York City housing board appointed by mayor Zohran Mamdani voted for a rent freeze that will affect around a million homes.

The Rent Guidelines Board on Thursday voted 7-1 for a 0% increase on one-year and two-year leases in the city’s rent-stabilised apartments.​

Mamdani appointed the majority of the board’s members in early February, just over a month after taking office. Freezing rents was a cornerstone promise of his cost-of-living-focused election campaign last year.

A crowd of tenants inside the auditorium of El Museo Del Barrio erupted in cheers as the rent freeze passed.

​“This is a historic victory for New York City tenants,” Mamdani said in a statement, noting it was the first time ever that the city has adopted a rent freeze for multi-year leases. “This is the relief that working people across our city deserve.”

​He added: “I’m grateful for the board members’ thoughtful consideration of the data, including tenants’ ability to pay, cost of living and building operating costs. I’ll continue working to deliver a more affordable city by building and preserving affordable housing, lowering building operating costs like insurance, and ensuring tenants know their rights.”

Corporate landlords, who have helped make the city one of the world’s most expensive places to live by hoarding property and hiking rents, expressed dismay at the vote.

Kenny Burgos, CEO of a landlord lobbying group called the New York Apartment Association, tried to frame the victory as bad for tenants in a statement to the Associated Press.

“This will only result in more dilapidated housing and potentially more foreclosures and bankruptcies,” he claimed.

Christina Smyth, a board member who was appointed to represent landlords, resigned in protest ahead of Thursday’s vote. “The Rent Guidelines Board has stopped being a fact-finding body,” she wrote in her resignation letter. “It has become a body that starts with an answer and vibe codes its way backward to justify it.”

Landlord groups are expected to mount a legal challenge, the Associated Press reported.

Thursday’s vote comes after Mamdani’s endorsements helped to secure a stunning sweep of primary election victories this week for eight progressive candidates – three of whom are likely to be elected to congress and five to the state legislature.

From Novara Media via This RSS Feed.