A leaking ceiling, damaged floors, an overflowing sink and weeks without adequate heat in the middle of winter.<\/p>\n
Those are some issues a Brooklyn resident said she\u2019s endured in her rent-stabilized apartment.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The Mamdani administration is conducting one-on-one conversations between tenants and senior officials during “rental ripoff” hearings
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Tenants rallied ahead of the first hearing in Brooklyn and then headed inside for a resource fair, where they got information from city agencies
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The next public hearing will take place in Long Island City, Queens on March 5, Fordham in the Bronx on March 11, East Harlem on March 28 and North Shore on Staten Island on April 7<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been fighting with my landlord for years. We\u2019ve had multiple problems, and whenever we have to get them fixed, the only way to do that is to go to court. Calling 311 has been absolutely useless. I spent the entire month of January with no heat and intermittent hot water,\u201d said Lauren, who does not want to share her last name due to a legal battle with her landlord.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, she got to air her grievances during the first “rental ripoff” hearing in Downtown Brooklyn. These hearings consist of one-on-one conversations between tenants and senior officials with the Mamdani administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were quite shocked, and I hope that maybe they take that information and they do something about it,\u201d Lauren said.<\/p>\n
Tenants rallied ahead of the hearing and then headed inside for a resource fair, where they got information from city agencies. Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the goal is to use testimony to help shape housing policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to thank Mamdani for having this event because it\u2019s allowing us to let him know exactly in the direction he should go. And truly, the tenants need help,\u201d Betty Key of the Montgomery Street Tenant Association said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyhow our voice can be heard is good. In a respectful way, absolutely, 100% this is wonderful,\u201d Cynthia Gouin, a tenant advocate for the Flatbush Tenant Coalition, said.<\/p>\n
Everyone was invited to sign up to speak, including landlords and property owners. But some say that the messaging did not reach them, and they\u2019re calling these hearings \u201canti-landlord.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t feel that the owners are welcome and given the same opportunity,\u201d Ann Korchak, a board president for Small Property Owners of New York, said. \u201cThe flyer said, \u2018tenants vs. bad landlords.\u2019 They didn\u2019t really share that this was going to be an open forum for landlords to come and share how they\u2019re going to be ripped off.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nonprofit organization Small Property Owners of New York said the city and state are to blame for the housing crisis, not landlords.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s fair to say that everybody\u2019s had a bad experience with a landlord. I would say that people\u2019s frustration with not enough supply and the cost of housing is directly related to city and state policies, not the people providing the housing,\u201d Korchak said.<\/p>\n
The next public hearing will take place in Long Island City, Queens on March 5, Fordham in the Bronx on March 11, East Harlem on March 28 and North Shore on Staten Island on April 7.<\/p>\n