{"id":137986,"date":"2026-02-18T22:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/137986\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T22:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:11:11","slug":"mamdani-poised-to-freeze-the-rent-after-stacking-nyc-board-with-likeminded-lefty-appointees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/137986\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani poised to ‘freeze the rent’ after stacking NYC board with likeminded lefty appointees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani seems poised to follow through<\/a> on his signature \u201cfreeze the rent\u201d campaign promise \u2014 after appointing likeminded lefty members to the city\u2019s Rent Guidelines Board.<\/p>\n

Hizzoner appointed five new members and re-appointed a sixth on Tuesday, making a majority of the panel\u2019s nine members hand-picked by him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI trust they will consider all the factors facing our city\u2019s rent stabilized tenants and come to an appropriate decision,\u201d Mamdani said while announcing the move outside a Harlem affordable housing complex.<\/p>\n

Mayor Mamdani announced his rent guidance board appointees at an affordable housing groundbreaking in Harlem. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n

Most of Mamdani\u2019s picks appeared to fall right in his ideological wheelhouse.<\/p>\n

Three were \u201cpublic members:\u201d Self described \u201cdisruptive\u201d labor union leader and staunch anti-Israel activist Brandon Mancilla; nonprofit advocacy economist Lauren Melodia, who has authored studies arguing against interest rate increases; and new board chair Chantella Mitchell, a former city housing official with a history of work in affordable housing nonprofits.<\/p>\n

Mamdani also appointed one of two landlord representatives, Maksim Wynn, also city Department of Homeless Services official who went on to manage affordable housing for a private developer.<\/p>\n

Current tenant representative Ad\u00e1n Soltren, a housing attorney and lecturer, was re-appointed to his position after a history of being vocally anti-rent increase.<\/p>\n

Made up of mayoral appointees \u2014 five public members, two tenant advocates and two landlord advocates \u2014 the board is meant to analyze data regarding both landlords and tenants in a non-partisan way. <\/p>\n

The panel, billed as an independent body, is tasked with voting annually on whether or not to raise rent on the city\u2019s roughly 1 million stabilized units, and Mamdani can\u2019t follow through on his key platform without their go-ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cRent stabilized tenants deserve a rent freeze,\u201d he said Wednesday. \u201cAnd of course, I also understand that the RGB is an independent board, and they will consider all of the evidence we are working to lower costs for property owners across the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s vow to \u201cFreeze the Rent\u201d was a core tenet of his campaign that helped propel him to City Hall. Michael Nigro<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s majority appointment on the rent board almost didn\u2019t happen \u2014 former Mayor Eric Adams tried to appoint two people before he left office, but they withdrew from the positions. On Tuesday, board member Alex Armlovich resigned, paving the way for Mamdani\u2019s majority, Gothamist reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The board under Adams increased stabilized rents by 12%, while freezes were approved three times during Mayor Bill de Blasio\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s vow to freeze rents during his first term was a core campaign proposal that helped propel him into office \u2014 and the new appointments will finally determine<\/a> whether he will be able to follow through on that when they next hold a vote around June.<\/p>\n

But how independent they will be remains to be seen, considering their widespread backgrounds focusing on affordable housing initiatives and other Mamdani-aligned leftwing causes.<\/p>\n

Mitchell, the new chair, has a long resume of poverty and affordable housing-aligned work, including a Columbia University masters in social work and a current role overseeing grantmaking at the New York Community Trust.<\/p>\n

Mamdani called the rent guidelines board \u201cindependent,\u201d but most of his appointees appear to share his views. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n

Mancilla lead a five-day hunger strike calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, and also once compared protesting against Israel to \u201copposing fascism in WWII\u201d on X. His career seems to be much more focused on organizing activism than neutral analysis of housing-cost issues.<\/p>\n

Soltren voted in favor of raising rent in 2023, but did so begrudgingly and has spent his time on the board being loudly opposed to rent hikes with arguments that tenants can\u2019t afford them. He voted against a raise in 2024, and again in 2025 saying it would be \u201cdevastating for low-income and moderate-income New Yorkers, as well as predominantly black and brown New Yorkers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melodia, meanwhile, co-authored a 2021 Roosevelt Institute brief that argued against interest-rate hikes in favor of worker needs, and also has a decade of experience in advocacy causes ranging from anti-prison movements to criminal justice reform.<\/p>\n

Mamdani is also threatening to saddle New Yorkers<\/a> with a staggering 9.5% property tax increase if Gov. Kathy Hochul doesn\u2019t agree to impose a 2.2% tax on millionaires, calling it a \u201clast resort\u201d to balance the city\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

Some critics said that raising property tax would<\/a> ironically become a \u201cde facto rent increase on renters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor rent stabilized tenants who may not get the costs passed directly onto them, this is the city raiding their rent money that\u2019s going to show up in more distress, more disrepaired housing,\u201d Kenny Burgos, CEO of the rent-stabilized landlord group New York Apartment Association, previously told The Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncreased property taxes = a rent increase,\u201d Burgos also wrote on X.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Additional reporting by Hannah Fierick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani seems poised to follow through on his signature \u201cfreeze the rent\u201d campaign promise \u2014 after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6722,57,9,56,63,65,64,564,566,58,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-137986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-apartments","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-ny","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-nyc-headlines","14":"tag-nyc-news","15":"tag-rent","16":"tag-rent-stabilization","17":"tag-us-news","18":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}