Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s first nine months in office leave no doubt: To him, New York City\u2019s housing problems are the fault of private landlords.<\/p>\n
That mindset inspired the \u201crental ripoff\u201d hearings<\/a> that encouraged tenant complaints, community-organizing efforts meant to spark tenant unions<\/a> and a fast-track program<\/a> to get maintenance complaints into housing court more quickly.<\/p>\n Now, landlords say, a new threat may be looming.<\/p>\n For decades, NYC\u2019s generous tenant-assistance programs have stepped in to rescue renters under threat of eviction, by having taxpayers cover their \u201carrearages\u201d and head off years-long battles in housing court.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an obscure program known as the \u201cone shot deal\u201d (a misnomer, because tenants can apply repeatedly) \u2014 \u00a0\u201cemergency assistance,\u201d according to the city\u2019s Human Resources Administration, for tenants who \u201cwill lose your housing if you do not get help.\u201d<\/p>\n More than 54,000 New Yorkers received such aid last year, and no doubt many deserved it.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s also been an invitation for abuse \u2014 one that cries out for reform.\u00a0<\/p>\n Consider the experience of \u201cElena,\u201d who owns three 20-unit pre-war, rent-stabilized buildings in the Tremont section of The Bronx.<\/p>\n She and her husband inherited them from her immigrant Greek father-in-law, who invested his life savings to buy them.<\/p>\n \u201cMost tenants are good,\u201d she told me, \u201cbut there are a handful of bad seeds who just don\u2019t pay.\u201d<\/p>\n When she notifies such \u201cbad seeds\u201d that she\u2019s about to begin formal eviction proceedings, they often apply for the one-shot deal to cover their large arrearages.<\/p>\n Unpaid rent in just one of her buildings tops $100,000.<\/p>\n But despite the lack of rental income, she must continue to maintain the aging buildings \u2014 even as insurance and taxes increase, and rents, thanks to Mamdani<\/a>, are frozen.<\/p>\n Then some resume their deadbeat ways just months after getting the city\u2019s emergency help, starting the cycle all over again.<\/p>\n No other city has a system so generous.<\/p>\n A Los Angeles program \u2014 now closed to new requests \u2014 caps assistance at $15,000; Gotham has no cap at all on payments or on applications.<\/p>\n Philadelphia caps arrearage relief at $3,500.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a tenant in one of Elena\u2019s buildings who received \u201cone-shot\u201d help previously has now racked up a new arrearage of $22,000.<\/p>\n Another building manager told me of a case of a single $90K arrearage.<\/p>\n New York City provided rental assistance to 52,200 households for fiscal year 2025 \u2014 at a cost of $555 million, or more than $10,000 apiece.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Emergency assistance for tenants truly in need is actually a good concept, says Valentina Gojcak, whose OneSource Property Management firm runs 40 rent-stabilized buildings.<\/p>\n When a reliable tenant faces a temporary health or financial challenge, the program sends needed funds to the landlord while the tenant gets over the hump.<\/p>\n That allows both parties to avoid a housing-court process than can take two years or more \u2014 and keeps landlords, as she put it, from being \u201cforced to provide unpaid shelter.\u201d<\/p>\n But in her experience, some tenants are deliberately stiffing their landlords.<\/p>\n They may be \u201cworking in cash-only jobs who are choosing to send money back to family in their home countries,\u201d she told me. \u201cThey\u2019re using landlords as banks that don\u2019t get any interest on what amounts to a loan.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why the early months of Mamdani\u2019s mayoralty have her concerned.<\/p>\n In the first quarter of this year, turn-down rates for one-shot applications rose \u2014 75% were declined, compared to 62% in the same period in 2022, the first quarter under Mayor Eric Adams.<\/p>\n In light of the city\u2019s eviction rules, that means more landlords are being left in the lurch.<\/p>\n If Mamdani\u2019s HRA refuses an increasing number of rent-relief requests, landlords will be forced to begin the protracted eviction process \u2014 during which they\u2019ll get no rent revenue at all.<\/p>\n A tighter tourniquet on private landlord income will force owners into bankruptcy, after which the city can swoop in and help taxpayer-supported non-profits<\/a> obtain the buildings instead.<\/p>\n