Zohran Mamdani, the democratic-socialist mayor, says the “Block by Block: The Housing Plan for a New Era” will help combat the city's deepening housing crisis. He believes that part of the solution is for the city to crack down on landlords and transfer ownership of buildings to new landlords who are supported by his administration.
"When necessary, we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent owners and property managers," Mamdani told supporters. "For buildings that have suffered chronic neglect, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible stewards."
Even though Mamdani is open about his communist ideology, critics were surprised at such a public plan to legally seize valuable private property and transfer it to non-profits aligned with Mamdani.
"The aim is (legalized) theft, but after all, confiscating private property is a pillar of socialism," a New York Post editorial warned readers.
Responding to this on “Washington Watch,” Joel Griffith of Advancing American Freedom says this is not a renovation program but a private property seizure program.
"We all recognize that housing and affordability is a big problem, especially in New York City, but the driver of the housing affordability problem in New York City are the left-wing policies that have been in place for decades, things like land use regulations, rent control," says Griffith.
He emphasizes that rent control in New York City is really tight right now.
"Once you end up finding yourself a unit to live in, the prices are pretty much locked in for an indefinite period. So, people stay in those units, sometimes unlawfully, for decades on end, and no one else has access to those properties," states Griffith.
The Post editorial made a similar observation: Most of the serious code violations are in rent-stabilized buildings, where the rental income barely covers upkeep of the building.
Griffith says rent control in New York City has caused problems for investors.
"Why would you put money into renovating a unit or building a new unit if you knew that you were not going to be able to recoup the costs of your investment?" questions Griffith.
"There are many dilapidated units in New York City, but that's because the landlords, those that own the property, cannot invest the resources to upgrade those properties because there's no way they'll lawfully be allowed to charge the rent that would be necessary to recoup their investments."
Fox News reports that in recent weeks, when addressing supporters about his plans for city-owned grocery stores and other efforts to help people in the affordability crisis, Mamdani went after former President Ronald Reagan for saying “I'm from the government, and I'm here to help” is a terrifying remark.
"I think nine more terrifying words are 'I worked all day, and can't feed my family,'" said Mamdani. "We are going to use the power of government to lower prices and make it easier for New Yorkers to put food on the table."
Griffith says New York City's problems were caused by New York City's government.
"Unfortunately, Mayor Mamdani's proposal to simply seize the property, that is only going to make matters worse," says Griffith.
