New York University’s Furman Center held a panel Wednesday morning on the city’s rent-stabilized housing stock.
At one point, Samuel Stein, a senior policy analyst at Community Service Society, made a somewhat radical suggestion: Given the distress in rent-stabilized buildings, if landlords don’t take part in well-designed city programs meant to help them, maybe someone else should take over.
Then, suddenly, the lights went out.
“The specter of government ownership!” Stein joked.
It’s an interesting time for rent-stabilized housing. Zohran Mamdani’s successful mayoral campaign has contributed to a sense of left-wing momentum, all while distress in the sector is growing and buildings are selling for a fraction of their peak prices. Could those conditions give rise to a government or nonprofit takeover of buildings?
Some progressives think so. Mamdani has cooled his anti-landlord rhetoric recently, but the advocates who may have his ear still have bold ideas about the future of New York’s housing stock.
Stein acknowledges that distress in rent-stabilized buildings is a real problem. Government programs can provide relief, he said, but not if they are poorly designed, like the city’s Unlocking Doors program. (Gothamist reported that not one landlord has participated in the program.)
However, even when programs are well-designed, many landlords may just not want to work with the government, Stein contends. Or they may be more focused on ways to achieve higher rents, which increases property values.
And if landlords aren’t interested in what the city’s offering, maybe it’s time for tenants, community land trusts or the city itself to take over, he said.
“If they’re not interested in doing the right thing, that’s when we move to alternative ownership,” Stein said in an interview.
Cea Weaver, who directs Housing Justice for All, has a similar vision. Writing for Phenomenal World a few weeks ago, Weaver imagines the city could purchase buildings, now at fire sale prices, from owners who want to sell. It could then lease out the ability to collect rents and, with a vast enough portfolio, cross-subsidize between higher- and lower-income buildings.
Setting aside ideological objections, experts and advocates I’ve chatted with had some concerns with these plans. They would be expensive, for one, not to mention the city is bad at stewarding things, they said. Plus, a change in ownership would not inherently fix the issue of economic distress in these buildings. Revenue (i.e., rent) would still have to go up.
Stein accepts this last point, but says there are other benefits to these models, like greater trust and more democratic control of tenants’ living conditions.
Still, despite the ascendance of the city’s left wing, many politicians wouldn’t be on board for this level of intervention.
“I don’t see any need for some fundamental change in the ownership structure of these buildings,” said State Sen. Brian Kavanagh when I asked him about Stein’s ideas.
But some are taking small steps in that direction. A City Council committee is considering the bill COPA, which, as written, would delay building sales by several months to allow nonprofit organizations a first opportunity to purchase.
“There’s a lot of excitement, there’s a lot of organizing,” Stein said of this political moment. “There’s a lot of hair-pulling among the landlord class.”
What we’re thinking about: Three state senate committees are running an investigation into why residential insurance costs have skyrocketed. Do you have thoughts about why premiums are up? Have soaring insurance costs wrecked your finances? Drop me a line at lilah.burke@therealdeal.com.
A thing we’ve learned: The average household income among renters in Veris Realty’s properties is $480,000, as Jay Parsons spotted and posted to X/Twitter this morning.
Elsewhere:
– Mamdani met President Trump at the Oval Office today. The two struck a positive tone. “I feel very confident that he can do a very good job,” Trump said of Mamdani, adding that the two agree on more than he thought.
– Nydia Velazquez, the 16-term, 72-year-old state representative, said she will not run for reelection in 2026. That opens up a seat in New York’s seventh congressional district, which runs through many Mamdani strongholds, including Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, Ridgewood, Long Island City and the mayor-elect’s own Astoria.
– One man singlehandedly delayed 755 subway trains in October by pulling copper wiring off the tracks at 149th Street-Grand Concourse, Gothamist reported.
Closing time:
Residential: The top residential deal recorded Friday was $21 million for 111 West 57th Street, Unit 58. The Midtown Central condo is 4,200 square feet. Sotheby’s International Realty’s Nikki Field and Benjamin Pofcher have the listing.
Commercial: The top commercial deal recorded was $18.03 million for 212 Lafayette Street. The rental unit in Soho is five stories, has 16 units and is 8,800 square feet.
New to the Market: The highest price for a residential property hitting the market was $26.9 million for 133 East 73rd Street, Unit PH. The Lenox Hill condo is 6,700 square feet. The Modlin Group’s Adam Modlin and Andrew Nierenberg have the listing.
— Joseph Jungermann