Zohran Mamdanis rental ripoff hearings will ban NYCHA tenant complaints

Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “rental ripoff” hearings will ban testimony from public housing tenants — even though the government agency running the units is routinely called the “worst” in the five boroughs.The democratic socialist’s administration will host its first complaint session on Feb.26, but the much-touted program will only focus on renters and landlords in privately owned buildings and not the half a million tenants of the New York City Housing Authority.Property owners fumed about the city dodging questions about the public units while also encouraging tenants in private property to attend the sessions to testify about landlord abuses such as “rental junk fees” for amenities including keeping pets.“The city’s own tenants—those living in public housing—are demanding a real plan to improve their living conditions,” said Humberto Lopes, CEO of Gotham Housing Alliance.

“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,” Lopes added.“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.”Mamdani’s team was forced to address the slight, quietly updating a message on the city’s website to include a Q&A answering “Are these hearings for NYCHA residents too?”“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 updated note said.“In the coming months, our administration will release a housing plan focused on improving housing quality for al...