Mamdani's former Dem colleague rails against his signature campaign promise: 'Nail in the coffin'

Fox News

5 days ago

A former New York City Democratic assembly member, who now runs the New York Apartment Association, tells Fox News Digital that socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's rent freeze plan would be disastrous for the city's housing crisis.
"His proposal to freeze the rent on rent-stabilized housing, which is almost 40% of housing stock within New York City, a housing stock that is already under the stress by which the NYU Furman Center has categorized as 200,000 units functionally bankrupt. A rent freeze would be the nail in the coffin on this housing stock," NYAA CEO Kenny Burgos told Fox News Digital.
"So if he's attempting to achieve affordability, what he's instead going to achieve is insolvency."
Mamdani has faced criticism from some experts over his plan to freeze rent for certain tenants in New York City.
His campaign website states, "As Mayor, Zohran will immediately freeze the rent for all stabilized tenants, and use every available resource to build the housing New Yorkers need and bring down the rent. The number one reason working families are leaving our city is the housing crisis. The Mayor has the power to change that."
Burgos told Fox News Digital that the housing problem in the first place was "perpetuated by the government."
"Government controls most of the costs that goes into housing, the largest of which is property taxes and when it comes to rent-stabilized housing, the government caps the revenues on this housing," Burgos explained. "So if we were to solve this affordability crisis, we have to begin by decreasing the cost to operating housing. First step is property tax. Next will be insurance, then we can talk labor, fuel, water. There's a host of costs that the government has impact on, and we have to have these conversations as opposed to just capping rents."
Burgos told Fox News Digital that his organization represents owners of all sizes, from small properties to large, many of which have operated for decades, and they have told him the current situation is the "worst crisis" since the 1970s.
"So when you have a potential mayor who's coming in and whose number one policy position is to freeze the rent, the very revenue that makes this housing run while all other expenses continue to increase at extremely high levels, even higher than inflation, and we are headed for a cliff that we may not be able to get back off of, and when you talk about New York City's housing problem as a whole, not just around stabilized housing, but it has public housing and all other housing involved, I mean, this is a catastrophe waiting to happen," Burgos said.
Burgos outlined his belief that the "irony" of Mamdani's proposal is that low-income and working-class voters, who Mamdani has championed on campaign stops, will actually be hurt by his housing policies.
"Unfortunately this crisis is felt acutely in some of the lower-income neighborhoods, particularly communities of color and while they would absolutely benefit from a potential relief on increase in bills, we can talk about that relief through targeted programs from the government," Burgos, who served in the assembly with Mamdani, said.
"But when you blanket it, you actually subject these individuals and these families to subpar housing and potentially the collapse of their building. So this is one of those short-term band-aids that end up into a really, really long-term wound."
Burgos told Fox News Digital that he understands housing is one of the top issues facing New Yorkers but argued that the answer isn't "simply giving out slogans" but rather "addressing affordability and addressing costs head on" which sometimes involves "really tough conversations."
Burgos went on to explain that the majority of New York City's funding comes from property taxes and that Mamdani will have a difficult time achieving his "big ticket proposals" with a housing plan that will "decimate and destroy" the very housing that supports that funding.
Fox News Digital reached out to Mamdani's campaign for comment.