Here’s what NYC's mayoral candidates say about freezing the rent

Three Democratic candidates for mayor are calling for a rent freeze for tenants in New York City’s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments.

State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, state Sen. Jessica Ramos and former state Assemblymember Michael Blake all said they would use their influence over the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, which determines how much landlords can legally raise rents on regulated apartments each year, to halt another hike if they were elected. The mayor appoints the board’s nine members.

Under Mayor Eric Adams, the Rent Guidelines Board has increased rents by an average of 3% per year over the past three years. In June, it voted to increase rents by 2.75% on one-year leases. The board has only voted to freeze rents three times in its history, and all of those freezes occurred under former Mayor Bill de Blasio.

“I will freeze the rent every single year,” said Mamdani, a democratic socialist representing Astoria who has made the rent freeze proposal a key pillar of his mayoral platform.

Blake, who is considering a bid to lead the Democratic National Committee, also said he unequivocally supports a freeze. “Should we freeze rent? The answer is yes,” he said.

Ramos touted her time in the de Blasio administration, where she served as a communications aide. She called on the board to pause rents and said she would also advocate for property tax reform to lower costs for landlords.

“I am ready to win a rent freeze again,” she said. “The way we get there matters.”

Adams has consistently supported the increases approved by the Rent Guidelines Board, while citing the experience of smaller property owners who he says need the extra income to cover expenses. He did not attend the forum, which was organized by the groups Housing Justice for All and Housing Conservation Coordinators.

During an interview on WNYC on Friday, Adams’ audio abruptly cut out when he was asked if he supports freezing rents. He did not answer the question later in the interview.

Landlord groups say they need to increase rents to keep up with their own rising costs and turn a profit. Kenny Burgos leads the New York Apartment Association, a newly formed lobbying group for owners of rent-stabilized housing, and said the three candidates were interfering with the independence of the Rent Guidelines Board.

“Any mayoral candidate pledging to destroy that independence is either pandering for votes, or they are admitting they do not intend for the RGB to follow the law,” said Burgos, a former assemblymember from the Bronx who left office last year to lead the landlord group.

Rent-stabilized apartments are located in buildings with six or more units built before 1973, or newer buildings with tax breaks. Tenants in those apartments pay a median rent of $1,500, less than the city’s overall median of $1,641. But they also earned a median household income of $60,000, far less than the current area median income of about $109,000 for a single person, according to data produced by the Rent Guidelines Board.

Four other candidates at Saturday’s forum stopped short of calling on the Rent Guidelines Board to keep current rents in place.

State Sen. Zellnor Myrie said he would “appoint members of the Rent Guidelines Board that will be putting our renters first,” while Comptroller Brad Lander said he would appoint tenants to the board.

Lander said rents should cover the cost of repairs and superintendent wages so “we don't just have affordable housing with low rents, that we have good, decent rent-stabilized housing.”

Former Comptroller Scott Stringer cited his career advocating for tenants at several levels of government.

“I will work to ensure that the people who have rent-stabilized apartments can live there in a rent that's commensurate with income and with stability for our neighborhoods,” Stringer said.

And Jim Walden, an attorney and former federal prosecutor, said he supports freezing rents for tenants of “any landlord that will not open up the books to show the operating costs versus the income.”

Walden proposed an annual certification program and rating system for landlords.

“If they fail two consecutive years in a row, they get rent freezes, rent freezes, rent freezes,” he said.