As the Mamdani administration continues its “Rental Ripoff” hearings tonight — announced as a forum to hold bad landlords accountable — the largest landlord in New York City won’t be facing the music.

Year after year, facilities operated by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) top the lists of aging buildings with the most complaints and poorest conditions, but this troubled agency is not the focus of these so-called hearings. Even worse, impacted NYCHA tenants can’t deliver testimony about their plight.

The Mamdani administration has declared these hearings are focused on “private housing,” a technical excuse that doesn’t carry weight with real New Yorkers. City leaders claim there will be another time, another meeting and another process for public housing.

In essence, NYCHA residents are being told — once again — to wait their turn and trust that a new plan is coming soon. However, it is abundantly clear these hearings are more about optics than policy. Mayor Mamdani and his team want to position themselves as heroes battling the wrath of bad landlords, while shielding the work, or lack thereof, of this administration (and previous administrations) and not answer for its own neglect.

City Hall has made it clear that NYCHA tenants can deliver complaints to representatives on hand; they just can’t deliver testimony — i.e. they can be seen but not heard. To hold public hearings about housing injustice and exclude the worst housing conditions in the city is beyond hypocritical: it is racist.

The overwhelming majority of NYCHA residents are Black and Brown, and only 4% are white. As a lifelong resident of Brooklyn and a district leader, I have known families who have lived in NYCHA apartments for generations, and I have fought for fairness in public housing. I’ve seen the hallways left uncleaned, the elevators in disrepair and the air thick with mold and roaches that leave children wheezing from asthma. I’ve seen holes in the walls, felt cold heating systems that do not work, and complaints that get ignored.

That’s why I cannot stay silent when Mamdani targets private landlords while ignoring the shortcomings of city government. The city doesn’t maintain these NYCHA buildings as they expect private owners to do. The agency doesn’t show pride or care. And now, Mamdani wants to silence the people who live there from speaking out, because our stories don’t belong in his anti-landlord narrative.

NYCHA tenants know that private landlords do not treat their tenants worse than the City of New York does. Even our public advocate, who releases a yearly bad landlord list, has stressed that NYCHA easily tops the list. There are bad private landlords in New York City, and they absolutely should be held accountable. But when NYCHA sits atop every list for the city’s worst housing conditions, failing to put its tenants at the center of any housing-justice conversation is itself an act of injustice.

If these hearings are truly about confronting a “rent ripoff,” let’s talk about the ripoff of dignity, health, and opportunity that NYCHA tenants suffer every single day. Let’s talk about how our city government collects rent while failing to provide heat, clean air, or functioning plumbing, with more than 614,000 open work orders.

It is time to give the microphone to NYCHA residents and let their voices be heard.

Collymore is a lifelong Brooklyn resident, appointed NYCHA district leader, and longtime advocate for public housing tenants.

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