![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/7cee43212e4ee878d4012e303a1f4dc9f1-ceaweaver-explainer.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
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\n Cea Weaver, a longtime tenant advocate, listens as Mayor Zohran Mamdani announces she will serve as director of the Mayor\u2019s Office to Protect Tenants.
\n Photo: Dave Sanders\/New York Times\/Redux\n <\/p>\n
In one of his first official acts as mayor, Zohran Mamdani<\/a> announced that he was reviving the Office to Protect Tenants and appointed Cea Weaver, a prominent tenants-rights advocate and member of his transition team as its new director.<\/p>\n But Weaver has come under fire in recent days after years-old social-media posts resurfaced, including a tweet in which the longtime tenants organizer called homeownership a \u201cweapon of white supremacy.\u201d<\/p>\n On Sunday, the New York Post<\/a> reported on several tweets from Weaver\u2019s now-defunct X account, highlighting a 2018 post that read, \u201cSeize private property!\u201d In another deleted tweet from 2019, Weaver wrote, \u201cPrivate property including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of white supremacy masquerading as \u2018wealth building\u2019 public policy.\u201d UnHerd has additionally reported on similar posts Weaver published on Facebook, including one from 2017: \u201cIf you don\u2019t believe in the government\u2019s sacred right to seize private property ITS OVER.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani signaled Tuesday that he is standing by Weaver, citing her experience and past successes improving conditions for tenants. \u201cWe made the decision to have Cea Weaver serve as our executive director for the Mayor\u2019s Office to Protect Tenants to build on the work that she has done to protect tenants across the city, and we were already seeing the results of that work,\u201d he said Tuesday following an event.<\/p>\n But the unearthed posts have garnered attention across the city and nationwide. Former mayor Eric Adams<\/a>, who has already made several pointed comments<\/a> about his successor\u2019s administration since leaving office, took aim at Weaver\u2019s tweet about homeownership.<\/p>\n \u201cHomeownership is how immigrants, Black, Brown, and working-class New Yorkers built stability and generational wealth despite every obstacle,\u201d Adams said in a social-media post<\/a>. \u201cYou have to be completely out of your f****ing mind to call that \u2018white supremacy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Justice Department, signaled the federal government was watching. \u201cNew York: Consider this your official notice from @TheJusticeDept,\u201d she wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cWe will NOT tolerate discrimination based on skin color. It is ILLEGAL. @CivilRights is paying very close attention.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview on Inside City Hall<\/a> with Errol Louis<\/a> Tuesday, Weaver addressed the controversy, calling her old social-media posts \u201cregretful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think that some of those things are certainly not how I would say things today and are regretful. But I do think my decades of experience fighting for more affordable housing stands on its own,\u201d Weaver said. \u201cI\u2019m proud to be in this role fighting for stronger tenants rights, and I think that, for many years, people have been locked out of the property market. That has produced a lot of systematic and racial inequalities in our system. And I want to make sure that everybody has a safe and affordable place to live, whether they rent or own, and that is something I am laser-focused on in this role.\u201d<\/p>\n Before joining City Hall, Weaver served as executive director of New York State Tenant Bloc and was part of the organizing push for the passage of the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019<\/a>, which instituted statewide changes to rent laws including limits on security deposits and additional eviction protections.<\/p>\n NYS Tenant Bloc issued a statement in defense of Weaver, suggesting the criticism ultimately stemmed from opposition to the new administration\u2019s proposed housing policies. \u201cThe attacks on Cea Weaver \u2014 a proven tenant champion who\u2019s beaten back the real-estate lobby again and again \u2014 are a desperate attempt to distract from the fact that we are in a new era for tenants in New York,\u201d NYS Tenant Bloc communications director Ritti Singh said. \u201cReal estate, MAGA, and Trump are working hand in hand because they know what\u2019s coming: a rent freeze, real accountability for slumlords, and tenant power like they\u2019ve never faced.\u201d<\/p>\n Sign Up for the Intelligencer\u00a0Newsletter<\/p>\n Daily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n