NEW YORK — Andrew Cuomo is demanding that his opponent in New York City’s mayoral race, Zohran Mamdani, vacate his rent stabilized apartment, while pushing a longshot proposal that would bar other middle-class renters from accessing much of the city’s housing.
“I am calling on you to move out immediately,” Cuomo wrote in a widely-viewed social media post this weekend, casting Mamdani as “a very rich person” occupying an apartment that could otherwise be used by a homeless family.
The line of attack drew tens of millions of views online and revived a long-standing debate about who should have access to New York’s highly sought-after rent stabilized units, which make up roughly 40% of the city’s rental stock and are currently open to people of all incomes.
It also illustrated the rhetorical lengths that Cuomo is willing to go to as he mounts an independent bid for mayor against Mamdani, a democratic socialist who defeated him handily in the Democratic primary on a platform that centered on affordability and freezing rent on stabilized units.
Mamdani, who earns $143,000 annually as a state legislator, has said he pays $2,300 per month for a one-bedroom apartment in Queens that he shares with his wife — a living situation that Cuomo called “disgusting.”
By contrast, Cuomo, a multimillionaire who previously served as the state’s governor, spends roughly $8,000 monthly on an apartment in Midtown Manhattan that he moved to last year from Westchester County, a wealthy suburb.
In recent weeks, the 67-year-old Cuomo has adopted a more aggressive social media presence, earning both praise and mockery for his use of millennial internet-speak and repeated references to his opponent’s “privilege.” Mamdani’s mother is a successful independent filmmaker and his father is a Columbia University professor.
On Monday, Cuomo went a step further, releasing a formal proposal, which he dubbed “Zohran’s Law,” barring landlords from leasing vacant rent stabilized units to “wealthy tenants,” defined as those who would pay less than 30% of their income toward the existing rent.
The rent regulation program, which caps how much landlords can raise rent each year on roughly 1 million apartments, does not currently include any income restrictions — something opponents have long pushed to change.
While the average rent stabilized household makes $60,000 annually, it is not uncommon for middle- or higher-income New Yorkers to live in the units, which sometimes rent for several thousand dollars per month.
But Cuomo’s idea drew swift skepticism from some housing experts, who noted the cap would, by definition, mean all new tenants of rent stabilized units would give up a substantial portion of their income.
“The idea that we should only have people living in apartments they can’t afford seems to be setting people up for failure,” said Ellen Davidson, a housing attorney at The Legal Aid Society. “It’s not a proposal from somebody who knows anything about the housing market or New York City.”
The Real Estate Board of New York, a landlord group whose members overwhelmingly backed Cuomo in the primary, did not respond to an inquiry about whether they supported the proposal. But in an email, the group’s president, James Whelan, said that the “benefits of rent regulation are not well targeted” and that some form of means testing should be considered.
Under state law, hikes on rent-stabilized units are decided by an appointed board, rather than landlords.
“Rent stabilization has never been means tested because it’s not an affordable housing program, it’s a program about neighborhood stability,” said Davidson, the housing attorney, adding that the proposal would likely present a “bureaucratic nightmare.”
A spokesperson for Cuomo’s campaign, Rich Azzopardi, said in a text message that “the ultra wealthy and privileged should not be taking advantage of a program meant to aide working New Yorkers,” adding that the income threshold standards would fall under the same system that governs the city’s other programs for low-income housing.
Mamdani’s spokesperson, Dora Pekec, said the proposal proved that Cuomo was both desperate and out of touch.
“While Cuomo cares only for the well-being of his Republican donors, Zohran believes city government’s job is to guarantee a life of dignity, not determine who is worth one,” she added.
