\n \u201cThis is what a full-blown affordability crisis looks like,\u201d said Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine in a December report<\/a>. Median rents in Manhattan have topped $5,400 a month.\n <\/p>\n \n The city\u2019s cost-of-living crisis extends to food, child care and other parts of daily life: 1.4 million people, or 15% of the city\u2019s population, is food insecure<\/a>. A family must earn $334,000<\/a> to afford child care for a 2-year old, according to US Census Bureau data.\n <\/p>\n \n Zohran Mamdani, New York City\u2019s next mayor, faces the enormous task of making it easier to get by in one of the most expensive cities in the world.\n <\/p>\n \n Mamdani won the most votes<\/a> of any New York City mayor in 60 years, propelled by his focus on working-class issues. Now he must deliver on his progressive agenda when the city\u2019s economy is slowing<\/a>, the federal government is cutting<\/a> the social safety net and the city\u2019s budget gap is growing<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Mamdani pledged to freeze rents and build more affordable housing, but many nonprofit organizations and developers that operate subsidized housing say they already can\u2019t cover their costs.\n <\/p>\n \n And he wants to implement free care for every child ages 6 weeks to 5 years and eliminate fares on city-run buses.\n <\/p>\n \n But he needs state approval to raise taxes on the city\u2019s wealthiest residents and corporations to pay for these plans, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul has thrown cold water on his plan to make the entire bus network free and make up the $1 billion in fares the MTA may lose from eliminating fares.\n <\/p>\n \n His ability to implement his agenda in office hinges on mobilizing his grassroots campaign supporters to push for higher taxes on the wealthy, more housing production and other priorities, said Kim Phillips-Fein, a history professor at Columbia University and the author of \u201cFear City: New York\u2019s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics\u201d on the city\u2019s 1970s financial collapse.\n <\/p>\n \n His allies recently launched a nonprofit<\/a> designed to build pressure on city and state lawmakers to pass his agenda in the city and state legislature in Albany. (A Mamdani spokesperson did not respond to CNN\u2019s request for comment.)\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPeople thought Mamdani\u2019s election was impossible a year ago, but it was accomplished through significant political organizing,\u201d said Phillips-Fein. His success as mayor \u201cwill depend upon an alignment of political forces and continued organizing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Before the election, Mamdani\u2019s opponents warned of an exodus<\/a> of the ultra-wealthy from New York City as well as fiscal collapse if he won.\n <\/p>\n \n But the wealthy haven\u2019t fled,<\/a> and comparisons to the 1970s financial collapse are \u201cshallow,\u201d said Phillips-Fein. The city was losing population, manufacturing jobs and suffering a deep recession back then, she said.\n <\/p>\n \n The city\u2019s economy has been strong, despite affordability concerns.\n <\/p>\n \n Employment and participation in the labor force are at all-time highs<\/a>. Tax revenues are also at record highs, and fears of an urban doom loop after the pandemic have faded. Office leases reached 97% of pre-Covid levels in the first half of the 2025.\n <\/p>\n \n But there are signs of a slowdown.\n <\/p>\n \n The city is on track to have added 78,000 fewer jobs in 2025 than it did a year ago, and most of the job growth has been concentrated in the low-wage home health sector, said Sarah Parker, senior research and strategy officer at the New York City Independent Budget Office.\n <\/p>\n \n A $6.5 billion budget gap<\/a> looms in 2027 that, by law, must be filled, and bigger holes are expected in the following years.\n <\/p>\n \n The incoming administration is \u201cfacing a pretty challenging fiscal picture,\u201d Parker said.\n <\/p>\n \n Housing is the largest cost for most people in New York City. That helped drive Mamdani\u2019s victory.\n <\/p>\n \n Mamdani pledged a rent freeze on rent-stabilized apartments, calling it his \u201clandmark policy.\u201d The freeze would apply to nearly 1 million apartments, almost half of the rental stock in the city.\n <\/p>\n \n But Mamdani\u2019s plans will run into the financial pressures of operating rent-stabilized housing.\n <\/p>\n \n Since 2020, expenses for rent-stabilized apartments have grown 22%, while rents grew roughly 11%, according to the lender Community Preservation Corporation<\/a>. Rising costs for utilities, insurance and labor without a corresponding rise in revenue may lead buildings to deteriorate, experts say.\n <\/p>\n \n Separately, Mamdani wants to build 200,000 new affordable homes for low- and moderate-income households that will be permanently subsidized by the government. But this sector of the housing market is also in trouble, with some developers at risk of defaulting on loans.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe trends of increasing costs and reduced income are unsustainable for affordable housing,\u201d Enterprise Community Partners and National Equity Fund, two organizations that finance affordable housing, said in a recent report<\/a>. They called for emergency funding to stabilize affordable housing and state action to reduce insurance costs.\n <\/p>\n \n Mamdani pledged<\/a> the \u201cmost ambitious agenda to tackle the cost-of-living crisis this city has seen since the days of Fiorello La Guardia\u201d after he won the November election.\n <\/p>\n \n But Mayor La Guardia accomplished his agenda during the Great Depression with help from Franklin Roosevelt in the White House and a Democratic Congress to pass New Deal programs funding public works, social programs and other progressive policies.\n <\/p>\n \n Mamdani, instead, has a federal government controlled by Republicans cutting funding to key social programs such as Medicaid and SNAP and a president often hostile to cities.\n <\/p>\n \n The state estimates<\/a> that Republicans\u2019 One Big Beautiful Bill passed over the summer will result in 1.5 million New Yorkers losing health insurance coverage; 300,000 households losing some or all of their SNAP benefits; $13 billion in cuts to New York\u2019s health care system with 200,000 job losses; and higher long-term energy costs by eliminating clean energy projects.\n <\/p>\n \n Although President Donald Trump and Mamdani had a surprisingly chummy meeting in the White House in November, the administration is withholding $18 billion federal funding<\/a> for transit projects in New York City.\n <\/p>\n![\"Food](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/gettyimages-2243832459.jpg\")
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