May 4, 2025
Williams’ spokesperson positioned the mortgage issues as part of the exploitative practices of the banking industry.
In January 2025, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams released a list of the city’s worst landlords. However, a report from The New York Post now claims Williams may have been a problematic landlord himself, and he is facing criticism from at least one opponent in the upcoming primary over the loss of a property he allegedly used as a rental.
According to the New York Post, Williams allegedly stopped making his $1,344 monthly payments on a property with a mortgage valued at $389,600 in 2010. In 2014, the home was placed in foreclosure by Bank of America, who acquired the loan after it bought the original lender Countrywide Financial during the subprime mortgage crisis.
According to a 2011 report from CBS News, Bank of America settled federal charges against Countrywide Financial related to discriminatory lending practices involving Black and Latinx homeowners. The settlement was part of broader federal efforts to address concerns about mortgage lenders accused of using unrealistic and predatory lending practices.
Despite this, a court-appointed referee calculated that Williams’ mortgage debt has only gone up from its initial valuation to a sum of $784,927; a total that includes interest and penalties accrued by the unpaid mortgage.
After Williams appealed this decision, the property was listed for sale via a foreclosure auction in April but reverted back to Bank of America after no one bid on the property.
Following that development, the debt owed by Williams on the property increased to $944,852; per a listing on auction.com.
Williams, however, has maintained that the problems with the property stemmed from the terms of his initial loan with Countrywide as well as some of his tenants who didn’t pay their rent.
His political adversaries, Councilmember Robert Holden, a moderate Democrat representing Queens, a long-time critic of Williams, and New York State Assemblywoman Jennifer Rajkumar, who is challenging Williams for his position in the primary for the New York Public Advocate position in June, both seized the opportunity to criticize Williams publicly.
“Jumaane Williams has been paid a six-figure taxpayer-funded salary for years, yet he still couldn’t pay his bills or keep his home,” Holden told the New York Post. “Like many in government, he can’t even manage his own life — so why should anyone trust him to manage the people’s business?”
Rajkumar, meanwhile, criticized Williams via a statement issued by her spokesperson, Arvind Sooknanan.
“Like the very slumlords he put on his ‘Worst Landlords Watchlist,’ Jumaane Williams pocketed rent from tenants, pulled in a six-figure salary, and still failed to make basic mortgage payments on his investment property. This isn’t just bad judgment — it’s pure hypocrisy,” Sooknanan said.
Williams’ spokesperson, William Gerlich, however, positioned the mortgage issues as part of the exploitative practices of the banking industry, which were covered by CBS News when Bank of America took over the loans issued by the original lender in 2011.
“As has been extensively covered for a decade, the Public Advocate has an investment property in the foreclosure process, in part due to exploitative banking practices. Many New Yorkers are facing much worse today – losing their family homes as a result of the affordability crisis and predatory practices – which is why the Public Advocate constantly stands up to the mayor’s rent hikes and the bad actors driving families out of our city,” Gerlich said in his statement.
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