Which NYC mayoral candidates would freeze the rent?

With hundreds of tenants looking on, seven candidates in the ever-expanding New York City mayoral race were pressed to commit to a rent freeze for rent-stabilized apartments at a housing-centered forum Saturday. Three explicitly promised they would freeze rents: Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, state Sen. Jessica Ramos and former Assembly Member Michael Blake.

Ahead of the mayoral primary in June, the next seven months will be full of these kinds of policy-driven candidate forums hosted by advocacy groups. Saturday’s was sponsored by Housing Conservation Coordinators, West Side Neighborhood Alliance and Housing Justice for All. Candidates weighing in on housing Saturday afternoon included New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, former city Comptroller Scott Stringer, Ramos, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie, Mamdani, Blake and attorney Jim Walden. Mayor Eric Adams has yet to appear at any such forums. 

Earlier this week, Myrie became the first challenger – and so far only – to release a detailed housing plan, seeking to position himself as the most pro-housing candidate in the 2025 mayoral race. The ambitious plan lays out a vision to build 700,000 new housing units and preserve 300,000 over the next decade through a myriad of proposals like rezonings, code reforms, incentive programs, and direct tenant and homeowner protections. But the plan doesn’t commit to freezing rents for tenants in rent-stabilized apartments – a fact Housing Justice for All and some other left-leaning tenant advocates quickly criticized after its release.

Mayors are tasked with appointing people to the nine-member New York City Rent Guidelines Board, which votes annually whether or not to increase rents for the city’s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments. They also have historically had a great deal of influence over how the board votes on the highly-watched decision. Under the Adams administration, the board has voted to hike rents every year for the past three years. In 2022, they voted to increase rents for one-year leases 3.25%, 3% in 2023 and another 2.75% this year. In contrast, the de Blasio administration froze rents several times and never increased them by more than 1.5% at a time. As New Yorkers experience the city’s dire housing crisis, many advocates and tenants over the past couple of years have urged the city to freeze or reduce rents. Critics of rent control argue that capping rents can disincentivize landlords from putting their units on the market.

Explicitly asked Saturday whether he’d commit to a rent freeze, Myrie didn’t directly answer the question. Instead he pointed to his background growing up in a rent-stabilized apartment. “I didn’t just adopt protecting tenants for my campaign or even for my political future … As mayor of this city, I will appoint members of the rent guidelines board that will be putting our renters first,” he said. It's worth noting that when asked by City & State over the summer what he wanted from the upcoming June rent guidelines board vote, Myrie said he would not like to see a rent increase for rent-stabilized tenants. 

Many audience members at the forum held bright red signs urging the candidates to commit to freezing rents – or risk losing their votes – which they thrust into the air when the panel opened with a question about each candidates’ position. 

Mamdani, who committed to a rent freeze back in October, was unsurprisingly an adamant yes. Blake, who entered the mayoral race last month, was also an explicit yes. Pointing to her time serving under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, Ramos said she’s proud to have been part of an administration that delivered on rent freezes and said she’s “ready to win a rent freeze again. Walden also said he’d freeze the rent – with the caveat that he’d specifically do so for landlords “who will not open up the books to show the operating cost versus the income from the rent increase.”

Myrie was far from the only candidate who hadn’t formally committed to a rent freeze prior to the forum. One potential downside of releasing detailed policy plans early is the fact that it can open one up to criticism. Vague promises and generalized statements are harder to critique. The forum, like all of its kind, was rife with both of those things. 

The other candidates who didn’t directly commit to a rent freeze were careful in their wording, no doubt still wanting to make their concerns for tenants clear. Stringer vowed to ensure people living in rent-stabilized apartments can continue to live there with a rent that's “commensurate with the stability” of neighborhoods. Lander acknowledged the rent guidelines board is broken and like Myrie, said he would appoint people to the board who are actual tenants. 

“Tenants are the backbone of New York … We deserve to afford to live in the city we keep running. We need a leader who will fight for us instead of catering to the real estate donors, making this city less affordable every day,” Cea Weaver, coalition director of Housing Justice for All, said in a statement. “Delivering a rent freeze is the clearest thing that the Mayor of New York City can do to keep us in our homes.”