New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first “rental ripoff” hearing scheduled for Feb. 26 will not permit tenants in the city’s public housing projects to detail their complaints about the quality of their housing.
The New York Post reports that only renters and landlords in privately owned buildings will be allowed to speak at the event. None of the half-million tenants of the New York City Housing Authority are being allowed to participate, despite years of complaints about the quality of life within the city’s public housing projects. The agency has been placed under a federal monitor since 2019 following reports of dangerous conditions and fraudulently certified inspections.
Humberto Lopes, CEO of the nonprofit Gotham Housing Alliance, accused the Democratic Socialist mayor of attempting to censor criticism.
“The city’s own tenants — those living in public housing — are demanding a real plan to improve their living conditions,” Lopes said. “It appears the Mamdani administration woke up to their own hypocrisy. If these hearings were truly about holding bad landlords accountable, the over 500,000 residents in NYCHA would be able to meaningfully participate. This is clearly the city trying to distract from its own failures while putting on a show, instead of having a real conversation with property owners, renters, NYCHA residents, and everyone else about how to improve housing for all.”
The Mamdani administration updated the city’s website for the hearing to address the question of why public housing tenants are not being allowed to speak.
“While these hearings focus on price gouging and living conditions for private-market renters, senior leadership and staff from NYCHA will be on-site to ensure that residents can submit in-apartment repair requests, file heat/hot water complaints, or discuss development-wide issues,” the website said. “In the coming months, our administration will release a housing plan focused on improving housing quality for all New Yorkers, including those in public housing.”
Photo courtesy of Mayor Mamdani’s social media platform
