The decision fulfills a campaign pledge by Mamdani to freeze rent for New Yorkers
NEW YORK (WABC) — For the first time in its history, New York's Rent Guidelines Board voted to freeze rents for both one-year and two-year leases for the city's one million rent-regulated apartments.
The board voted 7-1 in favor of the rent freeze on Thursday night, as tenants, packed inside El Museo del Barrio in East Harlem, unleashed unbridled joy and relief.
"This is no longer just a city that's a playground for the rich," said tenant Lex Rountree. "This is a city for the working people making it run, and we are making it run for us, and I am so overjoyed, and we are finally here after so much fighting, after years of struggling to figure out how we're going to make ends meet."
The board has frozen one-year leases only three times before Thursday's vote, but had never voted to freeze two-year leases.
"For years, landlords have run this city, and this is a new era of tenant power. We have a rent freeze mayor. Hundreds of people came out and testified, thousands online. Landlords' days are over; tenants are in power now and it feels amazing," said K Agbebiyi of the Tenant Bloc.
The outcome now fulfills one of Mayor Zohran Mamdani's signature campaign promises, which was set in motion after he appointed half a dozen members of the nine-member board.
"This is a historic victory for New York City tenants. After reviewing the data and hearing from New Yorkers across the city, the independent RGB has delivered a freeze on one-year leases, and the first-ever freeze on two- year leases in our city's history. This is the relief that working people across our city deserve," Mamdani said in a statement.
He's insisted that landlords can weather a rent freeze, but landlords lambasted the decision, who say they are struggling with rising costs, like fuel, oil and insurance. They say a rent freeze would hurt their ability to maintain buildings.
"We're going to have to cut back. We're gonna have to lay off some of the people," said landlord Humberto Lopes. "We're gonna have to lay off supers. Only choice, it's a business. People don't get it. This is a business. It's not a choice that this is for free."
In a statement following the vote, James Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), said, "Tonight's vote may be politically popular, but it will make New York's housing crisis worse."
Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association (NYAA) said the freeze will "destroy the living conditions for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers."
While the outcome seemed like a foregone conclusion, it did not come without drama.
On Thursday morning, hours before the vote, Christina Smyth, a board member appointed by the landlords, abruptly resigned, claiming the outcome was never in doubt.
"The Rent Guidelines Board has stopped being a fact-finding body," she said in her letter. "This rebuilt board was required to deliver a rent freeze. Everything since has been theater. The hearings, the reports, the public comment, the data. None of it was ever going to change the result."
Mamdani insisted Thursday that the board is independent and that its members would make up their own minds.
"I look forward to the outcome, the decision that they will make," Mamdani said. "It's an independent Board, and we trust them to make the decision they come to."
Renters who struggle with affordability said they can't afford an increase.
"I hope that if they are very serious about addressing the affordability crisis in New York, they're going to decrease our rent, because the rent is already too damn high," said rent-stabilized tenant Emma Rehac.
Under the Adams administration, landlords received 12% rent increases, while their net operating incomes rose by 30%.
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