Mamdani reveals new housing plan to seize property from 'bad' landlords, classify homelessness as 'housing problem'

Socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced plans to seize buildings away from their owners and place them under new ownership in a plan that he has called “block by block.” He will also classify homelessness as a “housing problem.”

Mamdani told a crowd of supporters on Tuesday, "When necessary, we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers."

"For buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards. Stewards that include community land trusts, non-profits, or even the tenants themselves,” he added.

The “block by block” program, according to the mayor’s office, will involve the building of 200,000 “new affordable homes” in the city and spending $22 billion on housing in the Big Apple over the next five years. An additional 200,000 homes will also be made into rent-stabilized properties.

However, the mayor offered no specifics on how seizures and transfers of private property would be carried out legally. One possible avenue is the city's contentious Third Party Transfer (TPT) program, which previously enabled New York City to foreclose on struggling buildings whose owners had fallen behind on taxes and fines.

The TPT program was suspended in 2019 following pushback from property rights groups and lawmakers. Legislation that could revive it is currently under review by the New York City Council.

Mamdani added in his speech that he will “prove that government can deliver on the solutions to the toughest problems, not just debate them.”

Mamdani went on to say that the presence of a “good government” will be able to “build the solutions we now need” for housing.

As Mamdani presented the plan, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning Leila Bozorg also spoke, and said that the “block by block” plan is “clear that homelessness is a housing problem." The message runs against a recent video that was posted by LA mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt, who said that homelessness is really an addiction problem.