The Election’s Number One Issue, and What Else Happened This Week in Housing

The race became about who belongs in New York—and who can afford to stay in it.

Housing, housing, housing. Poll after poll showed that it was the top issue on New York City voters’ minds when they went to the polls Tuesday.

Mayoral-elect Zohran Mamdani made the cost of living—and the cost of housing, which is New York City households’ biggest expense—the unshakable center of his campaign.

Mamdani, who will be the city’s first Muslim mayor and its youngest mayor in nearly a century, catapulted to the front of the race with his signature promise to freeze the rent for the city’s 2 million rent stabilized tenants, and tackle the cost of living crisis with free buses and universal childcare.

The race became about who belongs in New York—and who can afford to stay in it.

“Our greatness will be anything but abstract,” Mamdani said in his Election night victory speech in Brooklyn. “It will be felt by every rent-stabilized tenant who wakes up on the first of every month knowing the amount they’re going to pay hasn’t soared since the month before. It will be felt by each grandparent who can afford to stay in the home they have worked for.”

Voters who spoke to City Limits at the polls this week said that housing was top of mind. 

“There’s always a price increase every year. It’s not fair for the people who are already low-income, for families who are low-income, and they’re just doing their best to make enough for rent and then they also have utility bills and basic necessities that they need to care for,” said Karina Abreu Brito, 29, who was casting her ballot in Mott Haven. “I feel like that’s the most important thing right now, especially since we’re supposedly getting a colder winter.”

Four housing-related ballot measures, which mayoral-elect Mamdani supported (after much consternation), also passed Tuesday, potentially helping the new mayor facilitate his plans to build 200,000 affordable apartments over the next 10 years.

With additional reporting by Keke Grant-Floyd.

Here’s what else happened in housing this week—

ICYMI, from City Limits:

• Here’s a closer look at how those housing-related ballot measures performed at the polls, and what they’ll do going forward.
• Tenants, housing advocates and landlords react to Mamdani’s win, and the prospect of a rent freeze.
• Speaking of a rent freeze: Mayor Eric Adams could make it harder for Mamdani to achieve if he stacks the Rent Guidelines Board with new members on his way out of office.
• Coalition for the Homeless estimates that 40 percent of the city’s shelters for adults lack Wi-Fi. “Every step we need to take to get out of the shelter system involves using the internet to access resources, apply for jobs, and submit rental applications,” write Troy Walker and Reynaldo Medina.

ICYMI, from other local newsrooms:

• The boiler that exploded and caused a partial building collapse at NYCHA’s Mitchel Houses last month was among dozens in public housing still under use despite expired permits, The City reports.
• Eric Adams’ one-term stint as New York City mayor was consumed by scandal, but his housing agenda is expected to leave “a lasting legacy,” Gothamist writes.
• Five pressing housing issues for the mayor elect, via the New York Times.
• A group of rent stabilized tenants in a building owned by Pinnacle Group—which recently declared bankruptcy, sending dozens of properties to the auction block—want potential buyers to focus on long-overdue repairs, Next City reports.

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