'Transfer ownership…': Mamdani's housing agenda courts developers, cracks down on 'bad landlords'

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]When necessary, we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers. And for buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards. Stewards that include community land trusts, nonprofits, or even the tenants themselves. I eventually ran for office myself and joined that fight in Albany.

[00:00:21]Fighting for better protections and helping to win good cause eviction, a policy that prevents sudden displacement and price gouging in our city.

[00:00:28]>> [cheering] [applause] >> As we made it easier for New Yorkers to stay in their homes, one thing became increasingly clear.

[00:00:41]There was no way to drive down housing costs without also building more housing.

[00:00:46]I knew the lessons of Vienna, where for nearly a century municipal government has built and financed housing directly.

[00:00:54]And data from other American cities told a clear story of what that building could lead to.

[00:00:59]Between 2015 and 2024, 120,000 homes were built in Austin. In December of 2021, Austin's median rent was $1,546.

[00:01:11]By this past January, it had fallen to $1,296, even as the city's population continued to grow.

[00:01:19]I saw these same patterns in Minneapolis and Seattle.

[00:01:22]It was clear.

[00:01:24]When it comes to housing, the binary we face is not between structures and people. It is not between building and organizing, nor is it between the tenants of today and the tenants of tomorrow. It is a far more basic one. It is between a government that debates and a government that delivers.

[00:01:43]>> [applause] [cheering] >> We can keep people in their homes and we can build the homes that they need to live in.

[00:01:55]We have spoken about this crisis long enough.

[00:01:58]It is now time to do something about it.

[00:02:01]Our housing plan meets this crisis with the scale and urgency it demands. It invests billions of dollars in new affordable housing production.

[00:02:11]>> [applause] >> And it continues the vital work of protecting tenants from bad landlords and displacement.

[00:02:23]>> [applause] >> So, let's get into it. The first plank of our plan is all about building. We have set two of the most ambitious housing targets in modern New York City history. First, we are delivering on a promise we made during the campaign.

[00:02:38]Over the next decade, city government will build 200,000 new affordable rent stabilized homes.

[00:02:48]>> [applause] >> This historic production push will increase the number of homes for homeless New Yorkers by nearly 45% helping us connect >> [cheering] [applause] >> helping us connect thousands of those in need with permanent housing.

[00:03:08]Second, I am proud to announce, for the first time in our administration, that we will preserve and stabilize an additional 200,000 homes.

[00:03:19]>> [cheering] [applause] >> TOGETHER, THESE 400,000 homes will be affordable for working people, and they will be made possible by historic $22 billion capital investment over 5 years.

[00:03:35]When it comes to affordable housing, no plan of this scale has ever been imagined by a past mayor, let alone proposed. We are the largest city in the nation. We have the resources, the talent, and the will to achieve this.

[00:03:49]Expanding our housing supply will also kick-start our economy.

[00:03:54]As we build 200,000 new affordable homes, we will support an average of 30,000 good-paying jobs each year and generate 12,700 permanent jobs once these homes are completed.

[00:04:07]There is no path to meeting our 200,000 goal of building new homes without meaningful changes to our city's zoning code.

[00:04:15]Last year, New Yorkers overwhelmingly approved ballot measures making it easier to build across our city.

[00:04:22]Our housing plan embraces these changes and commits to pursuing further reforms that not only make it easier to build, but help New Yorkers move into these homes faster.

[00:04:33]Our plan will pursue a multi-pronged strategy to make it easier for New Yorkers to buy a home, including creating hundreds of new affordable co-ops and community land trusts.

[00:04:44]>> [cheering] [applause] >> And we will also make it easier for home owners to stay in their homes as we combat deed theft and relaunch the mortgage assistance program.

[00:04:58]>> [applause] >> Combined, these efforts will lead to growth beyond anything New Yorkers have seen in generations. For some, the dream of home ownership will finally be within reach. Others will be able to sleep easily in homes they no longer fear losing.

[00:05:15]The second plank of our housing plan includes some of the strongest and most expansive tenant protections anywhere in the United States of America.

[00:05:26]>> [applause] >> There is a reason why I put tenants front and center on my first day in office when I visited a long-neglected rent-stabilized building and declared that we will not wait to deliver action.

[00:05:39]Nearly 70% of New Yorkers do not own their homes.

[00:05:43]And yet, tenants helped to carry this movement to City Hall because they believed in a city that could actually fight for them, that could actually protect them from bad landlords, that could actually ensure that their struggles would shape the policies that impact their lives.

[00:05:59]This plan that we present today was guided by New Yorkers' testimony during our rental rip-off hearings, and it reflects their concerns and their needs.

[00:06:09]And as we empower tenants, we will place a special emphasis on those in the Bronx >> [applause] >> who have so long been excluded from investments, who have been subjected to acute neglect, and who have faced destructive fires at the highest rate in this city.

[00:06:30]I am proud to announce announce a legislative task force to overhaul our city's outdated housing maintenance code.

[00:06:39]>> [applause] >> When I say housing, you say maintenance code.

[00:06:47]We will We will catch problems proactively and prevent them from becoming full-blown hazards, from day-to-day negligence to major breaches of fire code. We will also improve how 311 logs and investigates complaints.

[00:07:01]>> [screaming] [cheering] [applause] >> Starting on October 1st of this year, inspectors will investigate every single heat complaint the city receives.

[00:07:18]>> [applause] >> And we will support New Yorkers as they organize with their neighbors. If you form a tenant union, the city will stand with you.

[00:07:28]>> [applause and cheering] >> We will deliver the accountability you deserve from your landlord by doing a roof-to-basement inspection of your building.

[00:07:38]Finally, through our new citywide campaign Fix the City, we will focus on the worst landlords in New York City.

[00:07:48]>> [applause] >> When necessary, we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers.

[00:07:56]>> [cheering] >> And for buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards.

[00:08:06]>> [cheering] [applause] >> Stewards that include community land trusts, NONPROFITS, >> [cheering] >> NONPROFITS, or even the tenants themselves.

[00:08:22]>> [cheering] [applause] >> The third core plank of our plan is years overdue.

[00:08:33]We will deliver the transformative investments that public housing has long needed but not received.

[00:08:40]>> [applause] >> Our public housing system, the largest of its kind in the country, was born from Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia's conviction that government owed its people decent, dignified homes.

[00:08:55]NYCHA began as a testament to something great.

[00:08:59]That government can not only imagine a better life for those it serves, but that it can fulfill that vision.

[00:09:05]And yet that conviction has become a relic of the past.

[00:09:10]After [snorts] decades of disinvestment, NYCHA tenants have come to expect that no matter who is in office, they will be overlooked.

[00:09:18]Their concerns will be ignored.

[00:09:20]That ends today.

[00:09:24]>> [cheering] [cheering] >> City Hall will rewrite a legacy of neglect with the largest city capital commitment to NYCHA in decades.

[00:09:40]$5.6 billion over 5 years.

[00:09:44]>> [cheering] >> And we will do all of this while ensuring that NYCHA remains publicly owned and publicly operated.

[00:09:54]>> [applause] >> This is about putting city government in the driver's seat.

[00:10:00]This is about delivering the changes that New Yorkers have been demanding with little avail for decades.

[00:10:06]These funds will go towards comprehensive renovations guided by resident input.

[00:10:12]We will build on the success of the existing leak and mold call center and expand the model to other repairs.

[00:10:19]No longer will it take more than 400 days to fix an elevator in this city.

[00:10:26]>> [cheering] >> When NYCHA residents call for help, they will be able to expect immediate improvements.

[00:10:35]Longevity is the goal.

[00:10:38]This plan will reboot NYCHA as a public developer for the first time in generations.