While pushing #CancelRent during COVID, NYC mayoral candidate Brad Lander was charging rent
During the early days of the COVID pandemic, then-City Councilman Brad Lander was a leading champion of the #CancelRent movement. But at the same time he was pushing for a rent moratorium, Lander — now a leading candidate for mayor in this year's election — charged his Brooklyn tenant more than $1,600 per month in rent, according to a review of his financial disclosures.
Lander's disclosures, provided to the Daily News by the city Conflicts of Interest Board, say he pulled in between $5,000 and $50,000 in rental income per year in both 2020 and 2021, a period when he adamantly pushed the #CancelRent demand as COVID wreaked havoc on New York's economy and on the many who'd lost their jobs.
Lander's disclosures only offer ranges as opposed to exact dollar figures, but his campaign confirmed Monday the tenant at his Park Slope property paid him $1,625 per month in 2020, 2021 and 2022, tallying up to $19,500 per year. Lander and his wife live in the same building.
A spokeswoman for Lander, who was elected city comptroller in November 2021 and has sought to distance himself from some of his most progressive stances since becoming a mayoral candidate, said his tenant in 2020 and 2021 was an Afghan refugee employed by the city government who didn't lose his job during COVID.
The spokeswoman, Dora Pekec, also noted the amount Lander charged his tenant was below market rate, with a study from the MNS real estate agency finding the average rent in Park Slope in January 2021 was $2,759 for a one-bedroom and $3,698 for a two-bedroom.
'What Brad was advocating for in 2020 was that folks who lost their jobs should not be evicted and should receive rental assistance from the state, which is something Andrew Cuomo failed to do,' Pekec said, referencing how then-Gov. Cuomo didn't enact rent relief packages that were as extensive as some housing advocates had hoped.
'All this shows is that Brad Lander has the heart to rent out a unit to a political refugee in need,' she added.
Lander's push for pandemic rent relief at times went beyond calling for an eviction moratorium and rental assistance.
The News found 10 social media posts Lander made in 2020 and 2021 in which he specifically urged Albany lawmakers to #CancelRent, a term used during the pandemic to rally for a suspension of the requirement for tenants to pay rent. Lander also attended #CancelRent rallies at the time and issued letters to state urging them to enact a rent moratorium.
The #CancelRent movement was decentralized and composed of several factions pushing different proposals. Some supporters wanted rent cancelled only for New Yorkers who lost their jobs, with the understanding that the state would also compensate landlords via the so-called Emergency Rental Assistance Program. Others advocated for a more expansive plan that'd abolish rent for all tenants.
Lander urged his Twitter followers on May 1, 2020 to sign a petition that called on city tenants to go on 'rent strike' by refusing to pay their landlords if Cuomo and the state Legislature didn't enact a universal moratorium 'for the duration of the public health crisis.' Along with sharing the petition, Lander posted a photo of himself wearing a face mask with '#CancelRent' written across it in black Sharpie.
'You shouldn't be surprised there's a movement to #CancelRent,' Lander tweeted a few months later. 'You should be surprised there's not a revolution.'
Ultimately, state lawmakers and Cuomo — who resigned as governor in August 2021 amid sexual misconduct accusations and is now another leading 2025 mayoral candidate — never cancelled rent, a decision Lander panned in March 2021.
'Albany has continued to kick the can down the road,' Lander tweeted March 1, 2021 before thanking organizers of a 'Sunset Park march to #CancelRent & #InvestInOurNY.'
Though rent was never canceled, the state enacted a moratorium on evictions for much of the pandemic. The city also froze rent increases for all stabilized tenants in 2020.
Affordability, especially when it comes to housing, is a key issue in June's Democratic mayoral primary race, which features nearly a dozen candidates vying to unseat Eric Adams, whose reelection bid is in turmoil amid his federal corruption indictment and surrounding scandals.
The most left-leaning candidate in the race, Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, has vowed to if elected freeze rent for all stabilized tenants in the city for at least four years. Lander wouldn't make the same commitment as Mamdani at a mayoral candidate forum last month.
'If the data supports it,' Lander said at the forum when asked if he'd as mayor freeze rent for stabilized tenants.
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