Tenants in NYC public housing won't be allowed to complain about city landlord at Mamdani's 'rental ripoff' hearings

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “rental ripoff” hearings will not allow those in publicly operated housing to provide testimony. This is despite the fact that the government agency running the units has consistently been called the “worst” landlord in the Big Apple.

The first “rental ripoff” hearing, a pillar of Mamdani’s campaign when he ran for mayor, will take place on February 26. However, only those who are in privately owned buildings are allowed to offer testimony about bad housing conditions. There are around 500,000 tenants that live in housing controlled by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), but they won’t get to participate in the hearings, per the New York Post.

Private landlords were enraged about the city itself dodging questions about publicly-owned units while those renting out private units are encouraged to badmouth their landlords about such issues as “rental junk fees” for amenities and other concerns.

“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. 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,” Lopes added.

When Mamdani was asked if the hearings were also for those in the NYCHA system, a statement from his office said, “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.”

"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,” the note added.

On Sunday, Mamdani told reporters, “So we are going to be approaching the housing crisis in a wide variety of ways. One of those are these rental ripoff hearings.” He then blamed the federal government for failures from NYCHA, which needs $80 billion in improvements.

“We will also continue to work with NYCHA residents to ensure that they are being delivered the quality of service they’ve long been denied,” Mamdani said. “And while we know that so much of the reason that NYCHA residents are living through a system that requires around $80 billion of capital improvements. By last count, is a lack of commitment from the federal government.”