The co-chair of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America rails against rising rents, but probably doesn\u2019t have to worry about paying for his own housing.<\/p>\n
Financial records revealed New York City DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo resides in a $1.5 million, 2,400-square-foot row house in Brooklyn\u2019s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood that his wealthy parents purchased for him and his brother. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr. Gordillo\u2019s dad, also named Gustavo Gordillo, founded an engineering firm in South Florida whose most important client is telecommunications giant AT&T.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The parent-funded apartment turned up on Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s list of addresses that could be subject to the city\u2019s new pied-a-terre tax. It\u2019s listed under the name of a trust created by Mr. Gordillo\u2019s mother and father and was first reported by the publication Jewish Insider.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wonder if Gustavo\u2019s parents will pay the pied-a-terre tax on the rowhouse they bought him in Bed-Stuy,\u201d the publication\u2019s city hall reporter posted on X.<\/p>\n
The younger Mr. Gustavo goes by the handle @UnionGustavo and identifies himself as a union electrician on X, but it\u2019s not clear if he actually works in the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Federal Election Commission records show Mr. Gordillo listed the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers as his employer as late as March 2026, when he donated $120 to Act Blue.<\/p>\n
He appeared on Fox News last month to promote the DSA agenda. He argued landlords are unfairly profiting from high rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cLandlords in New York have been making a 12% return on their investment, on average,\u201d Mr. Gordillo said, adding that he does not believe \u201canyone should have a constitutional right to double-digit returns on their investment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old Mr. Gustavo, who earned a fine arts degree from Yale in 2010 and previously worked in an art gallery, may have little experience paying rent on his own.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The New York Post reported his father told the publication that before purchasing the Bed-Stuy row house in 2019, he covered the $2,600 monthly rent for his son\u2019s apartment on Manhattan\u2019s Lower East Side.<\/p>\n
The Gordillo family came to the U.S. from Peru when Gustavo Gordillo was 3 years old.<\/p>\n
The younger Gordillo portrays his family as having struggled to make it in America and said their success was an outlier among immigrants who come to the U.S. and have difficulty surviving economically.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The engineering firm founded by his father has branches in 10 U.S. cities, and his parents own several properties in South Florida.<\/p>\n
According to the DSA\u2019s official platform, housing should involve \u201ca redistribution of land from the landowners to the landless,\u201d and \u201cmust expropriate property from capitalists and deliver it to the working class.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Gordillo\u2019s parent-financed row house has undergone extensive renovations and restorations and now includes a posh rooftop deck.<\/p>\n