Majority of New Yorkers Support Rent Freeze
NEW YORK – This morning, the NYC Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) held its first public meeting with Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s newly appointed members to discuss income and expense changes for rent stabilized tenants and landlords. Tenants are demanding a rent freeze for the 2.4 million tenants living in rent stabilized units in the city. New data today in the Board’s 2026 Income and Expense report shows that landlord incomes rose 6%. Over the past three years, Net Operating Incomes have risen by more than 30%, while tenants continue to struggle to make rent.
Sumathy Kumar, NYS Tenant Bloc Director, released the following statement in response to the meeting:
“Tenants are winning our rent freeze. Landlord incomes continue to rise while tenant wages stay stagnant and the cost of everything from food to transportation keeps going up. A rent freeze is the common sense first step to making sure that the New Yorkers who keep this city running aren’t priced out of our homes. Tenants are the majority of New York City and we are ready to win the rent freeze we deserve.”
Background:
Housing costs are the #1 driver of inflation and people’s biggest expense each month. A 2025 survey by the Community Service Society showed that half of rent stabilized tenants are struggling to make ends meet, and two-thirds lacked emergency savings. 37% of very low-income NYC households live in rent stabilization – three times more than live in public or subsidized housing.
In November, more than one million tenants voted for Mayor Mamdani’s promise to make the city more affordable and freeze the rent. Analysis from the Community Service Society shows a rent freeze would save New Yorkers up to $7 billion or an average of nearly $600 per month. 78% of New Yorkers support a rent freeze, according to a 2025 Data for Progress Poll.
More than half a million people left NYC between 2020 and 2023 in search of lower housing costs. New York’s Black population has decreased by almost 200,000 people over the past 20 years because of the high cost of living. In NYC, Black and Latino New Yorkers live in rent-regulated housing at higher rates than any other group.
Landlords say they cannot maintain buildings without raising the rent, but according to a 2023 analysis from the Community Service Society, most tenants saw no improvement to their building or apartment, despite rent increases. Housing distress is not limited to rent regulated tenants. 65% of New York City tenants experienced a housing quality issue in the past three years.
This year’s Income and Expense report, an analysis of data from buildings collected by the Department of Finance, found that Net Operating Income (NOI) increased 6.2% from 2023 to 2024, following increases of 12.1% and 10.4% in the prior two years. Average rent collections increased 4.8%, while the share of distressed properties remained steady.
