NYC renters raise housing complaints at Mamdani’s first ‘rent-to-rent’ hearing – but remain cautiously optimistic
Hundreds of New York City renters aired their housing grievances at Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first “rent-to-rent” hearing Thursday — but they still doubt their landlord woes will be fixed.
About 500 tenants signed up to speak face-to-face with Mamdani’s tenant dispute attorney, Cea Weaver, and volunteers from other city agencies to address the ongoing housing and landlord disputes in the Downtown Brooklyn square.
Weaver began the “trial rent” hearing — which residents of the New York City Housing Authority criticized for not excluding them — by listing key points of discussion for tenants to address with city attorneys, including unnecessary rental costs for amenities including pet care and code enforcement issues.
“What are the things you have to pay every month that aren’t your rent and that make people unable to afford housing in the city?” Weaver asked the crowd.
Tenants of privately owned buildings have voiced their complaints about long-term housing quality issues and disputes with landlords, while they remain skeptical that their problems will improve even though the Mamdani administration has promised.
“Mamdani made a big statement about how he wants the rights of tenants to be recognized, and I think it’s good that they start having these kinds of meetings,” said Brooklyn tenant Alex Reddihough.
“I’m not sure if anything will come of this, but at least the city is giving it a chance.”
The 41-year-old civil engineer who lives with his wife in Prospect Heights began lining up for the hearing around 4pm outside K605 George Westinghouse High School.
“I hope that the new mayor will apply the laws and understand what people have to face,” he said.
Reddihough has been in the same one-bedroom apartment on Eastern Parkway for years, paying $2,950 a month in rent — but has experienced rat infestations, heat and hot water problems, and repeated “repair jobs” for other maintenance issues.
Citizens filed many 311 complaints, but they were closed within “hours,” he recalled, saying that no one from the city had come to look into the complaints.
Although he is a member of the rental association, Reddihough said many older, established tenants are afraid to report problems for fear of being evicted.
“It saddens me that they are afraid and don’t see that there is a way to improve their living conditions,” she said.
Joshua Rodriguez, a Red Hook resident on Coffey Street for more than 40 years, spoke face-to-face with Weaver during the hearing to get advice on how to move forward with his housing court case and enforce repairs on his building.
“It’s nice that it’s there because in my life I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Rodriguez about the hearing. “A lot of the time, it’s overlooked, especially by people of color and people who have lived in New York all their lives.”
“I think I don’t trust the government very much, but this new administration, maybe, maybe we will see a little change,” he said.
The start of the meeting was interrupted by a notorious Internet activist who calls himself “Crackhead Barney.”
The blasphemy artist stormed the stage and climbed onto the platform, where he shouted, “NYCHA [tenants] they should be allowed to speak today. NYCHA should be allowed in the motherf-cking building. NYCHA should be allowed to speak. These are t-bulls.”
“There is no employer organization other than NYCHA. Poor people have a voice.”
NYCHA tenants – or any tenant – are given time to give their testimony publicly during the hearing and instead are given one-on-one meetings.
Public housing residents can still visit the forums and speak in person with NYCHA officials on hand about housing, heat or hot water issues and other concerns, according to the Mayor’s office.
The city plans to hold separate hiring negotiations for NYCHA tenants, a City Hall spokeswoman said.
