{"id":161153,"date":"2026-03-12T06:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T06:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/161153\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T06:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T06:08:08","slug":"mamdani-appeals-to-nycha-tenants-at-rental-ripoff-hearing-after-being-accused-of-ignoring-public-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/161153\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani appeals to NYCHA tenants at \u2018rental ripoff\u2019 hearing after being accused of ignoring public housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent his first in-person appearance at his \u201crental ripoff\u201d hearings<\/a> appealing to public housing tenants after he was heckled and previously accused of ignoring their plights.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic housing first mayor, public housing first,\u201d one woman screamed as Mamdani began speaking at Fordham University in the Bronx. <\/p>\n

The mayor tried to disregard the heckler, but she persisted, so he addressed the select few public housing residents in attendance to open his remarks. <\/p>\n

Zohran Mamdani spoke at a \u201crental ripoff\u201d hearing Wednesday evening. Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that not only have NYCHA residents faced chronic disinvestment, they have also come to expect little from a city government that has constantly turned a blind eye, and so for too many New Yorkers who do live in NYCHA housing, the legacy of living in that housing has been a legacy of being ignored,\u201d Hizzoner said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I say all of this to say that our administration understands its responsibility very clearly. It is a responsibility to rewrite that legacy,\u201d he implored.<\/p>\n

NYCHA residents heckled Mamdani at the hearing. Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are a NYCHA resident, we want and welcome your stories at the rental ripoff, and we are committed to delivering the improvements that NYCHA residents deserve,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n

The heckler screamed, \u201cWe don\u2019t want stories. We want you to listen, mayor. Listen to public housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamdani said the hearings would help inform policy.<\/p>\n

The mayor announced that his administration would release a housing plan in early May that would incorporate \u201cthe ideas that have surfaced\u201d during the hearings.<\/p>\n

Audience members listen as Mamdani speaks at a \u201cRental Ripoff\u201d hearing at Fordham University in the Bronx borough of New York on March 11, 2026, in New York City. Getty Images<\/p>\n

From there, officials would create a report recommending changes to implement for housing citywide. Mamdani highlighted a need to \u201cbuild a more effective 311 response system,\u201d among other weak points.<\/p>\n

Mamdani and his controversial tenant advocate, Cea Weaver,<\/a> were caught in a firestorm after it was reported the hearings would focus on renters and landlords of privately owned buildings, rather than the city\u2019s decrepit public housing.<\/p>\n

Cea Weaver, Mamdani\u2019s controversial tenant advocate, also spoke at the forum. Lone Pine Press for NY Post<\/p>\n

During last week\u2019s hearing Weaver insisted that \u201ceveryone is welcome<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n

But the Crisis Action Center (CAC), which advocates for NYCHA residents, has accused Mamdani of ignoring public housing residents. <\/p>\n

A mobile billboard mocking the mayor that parked outside the Queens \u201crental ripoff\u2019 hearing was paid for by CAC. <\/p>\n

\u201cHi I\u2019m Mayor Mamdani and I don\u2019t care about NYCHA!\u201d read the billboard, featuring a grinning Mamdani.<\/p>\n

At the February hearing in Brooklyn, headlined by Weaver, a profane protester stormed the stage<\/a> and demanded that \u201cNYCHA should be allowed in the motherf\u2013-king building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Renters \u2014 including NYCHA tenants \u2014 were not given time to provide their public testimony during the Brooklyn forum. Roughly 500 of them who signed up to speak were instead offered one-on-one meetings with Weaver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent his first in-person appearance at his \u201crental ripoff\u201d hearings appealing to public housing tenants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2907,75,84,83,57,9,24,63,305,307,58,82],"class_list":["post-161153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-housing","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nycha","tag-public-housing","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161153","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=161153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}