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Why Mamdani’s ‘Rental Ripoff’ hearings are a sad farce

Ouch: Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s “Rental Ripoff” hearings look to be yet another embarrassing failure of the new administration, exposing how Democratic Socialist ideology deflates in the real world.

The first event Thursday in Brooklyn proved an earnest snooze.

Dozens of tenants shared gripes about unsafe conditions, landlord abuses, evictions and “hidden” fees — what you’d expect from a standard constituent-services night, not any grand exposé as the “New Yorkers vs Bad Landlords” billing promised.

Many of those testifying presented gripes that can get resolved in housing court; the rest simply couldn’t afford their rent — which isn’t especially the landlord’s fault.

Cea Weaver, the “tenant protection” czar, insisted on a show focused on privately-owned buildings; tenants of the city’s worst slumlord, the public New York City Housing Authority, couldn’t testify but only consult about their gripes (slow repairs, horrible pest control, weak security) with agency reps on the sidelines.

Weaver’s preferred topic, “junk fees” and any other payments made on top of base rent, was near-irrelevant: The city and state have plenty of laws and regulations covering those; if housing court needs to move faster on them, the mayor can devote resources to it.

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As for (non-NYCHA) buildings with terrible conditions, a decade-plus of severely limited legal rent hikes (which the mayor vows to make worse) is the obvious explanation.

The Real Estate Board of New York just updated a landmark 2018 study by the left-leaning Regional Plan Association to cover the last 24 months, identifying the properties where major violations and tenant evictions predominate. It found: 

*About 10% of all residential buildings account for 97% of executed evictions.

*The same 10% account for 88% of violations ID’d by the city Housing Preservation and Development, and 94% of HPD Class C (most severe) violations.

*Within multifamily buildings (four or more units), 10% account for 80% of evictions and 50% of violations.

*Buildings with 75% to 100% rent-stabilized units account for 47% of executed evictions.

In short, buildings starved for rental income since Bill de Blasio become mayor are trying to avoid losing money by stinting on maintenance and pushing out tenants who don’t pay.

As Kenny Burgos, New York Apartment Association CEO, explains: “When buildings don’t bring in enough income to cover property taxes, utilities, maintenance and basic operating costs, decline becomes inevitable, no matter who owns them” — a nod also NYCHA’s woes and problems at buildings under other nonprofit management.

Tighter rent controls and other new housing regulations won’t change this math, but only spread the dysfunction.

In the rest of America, people who have issues with their landlords just move; the only real fix for the city’s housing market is to help supply grow drastically to meet demand — the Mamdani-Weaver drive to finger “Bad Landlord” villains is irrelevant at best.

City Hall can put its energy into making these dog-and-pony shows less pathetic, or it can start focusing on practical policies to make housing affordable.

Does the mayor want more theater, or to truly make a difference?

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