{"id":297117,"date":"2026-07-15T22:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T22:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/297117\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T22:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T22:30:15","slug":"mamdanis-housing-brass-couldnt-name-single-time-it-rejected-rent-hikes-for-nycs-most-affordable-apartments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/297117\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani’s housing brass couldn’t name single time it rejected rent hikes for NYC’s most affordable apartments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Man-of-the-people Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s housing agency couldn\u2019t name a single time it has ever rejected a rent increase for 42,000 of the Big Apple\u2019s most affordable apartments \u2014 as tenants at a Bronx complex now face hikes as high as 30%.<\/a><\/p>\n

While Hizzoner\u2019s Rent Guidelines Board delivered a freeze <\/a>for approximately one million rent-stabilized apartments, his Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) officials admitted that it had already approved five hikes this year for the city\u2019s middle-class Mitchell-Lama housing program.<\/p>\n

The agency also greenlit a whopping 37 rent increases last year under former Mayor Eric Adams.<\/p>\n

Officials at Mayor Mamdani\u2019s Housing Preservation and Development couldn\u2019t name an instance where it rejected rent hikes for apartments in the city\u2019s Mitchell-Lama housing program. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

The 1950s-era statewide program provides privately owned rental and co-op housing for moderate- and middle-income families that is overseen by HPD in the Big Apple.<\/p>\n

Unlike rent-stabilized apartments, Mitchell-Lama units have no cap on how much rent can rise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have that knowledge off the top of my head,\u201d HPD Deputy Commissioner Adam Phillips said when pressed on whether the agency had ever flat-out rejected a hike.<\/p>\n

The commissioner attempted to downplay the rent bumps by arguing that HPD had, at times, \u201cmodified\u201d the increases by finding ways to cut a building\u2019s expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As The Post previously reported, tenants at the Bronx-based Tracey Towers<\/a> Mitchell-Lama complex were blindsided by the proposal to raise their rents by over 30% over the next four years.<\/p>\n

Rent would hike 15% next year for Tracey Towers tenants, who pay an average of $1,344 for a 1-bedroom and $1,680 for a 2-bedroom apartment.<\/p>\n

HPD said they are powerless due to state law, which requires the building to remain solvent or risk foreclosure.<\/p>\n

Tracey is over three years behind on its mortgage, and according to HPD\u2019s testimony, the wider Mitchell-Lama portfolio is $47.5 million in overdue property taxes.<\/p>\n

Residents at the Tracey Towers buildings in The Bronx may see a rent hike of over 30% over the next four years. Wikimedia<\/p>\n

But HPD also couldn\u2019t cough up basic answers about the finances of the Mitchell-Lama program during the fiery hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is basic information,\u201d Speaker Julie Menin (D-Manhattan) snapped after officials admitted they did not have a citywide financial review of the program \u2014 despite the council requesting it three weeks earlier.<\/p>\n

Follow live updates on Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s socialist agenda and the latest in NYC politics<\/a><\/p>\n

Later, Bronx Councilman Eric Dinowitz pressed HPD officials on how security costs at the affordable complexes spiked by nearly 50% in two years \u2014 ballooning to $2.8 million.<\/p>\n

Demonstrators calling for a \u201crent freeze\u201d for rent-controlled apartments at a Rent Guidelines Board meeting on June 25, 2026. Kevin C. Downs for NY Post<\/p>\n

Philips admitted that it was \u201cquite a large increase\u201d and that the agency is now bringing in a management firm to explain the cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re doing this after the rent increase was already proposed,\u201d Dinowitz shot back.<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Man-of-the-people Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s housing agency couldn\u2019t name a single time it has ever rejected a rent increase…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[25779,57,9,56,63,65,64,564,58,82],"class_list":["post-297117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-department-of-housing-preservation-and-development","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-rent","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297117","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=297117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}