January 5, 2026
The rising costs of rent and the livelihood of renters has been a big concern for the former assemblyman and now youngest and first Muslim mayor to ever serve the Big Apple.
Just days after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was sworn in, he is keeping his campaign promises of fighting back against “unconscionable” business practices by NYC landlords by ordering “rental ripoff” hearings, CBS News reports.
In one of his first executive orders, Mamdani has assigned the new Office of Mass Engagement and other city agencies to hold hearings within his first 100 days in office, during which residents will be able to testify about their biggest rifts with landlords and the challenges they face as renters. On X, Mamdani says the days of New Yorkers getting ripped off are over.“ Too many New Yorkers are getting ripped off—paying obscene rents for apartments that fail basic health and safety standards. When tenants speak up, landlords threaten eviction,” he said on the social media platform.
“That ends now. Today we launched a citywide crackdown on rental ripoffs, like landlord neglect and outrageous fees.”
The rising costs of rent and the livelihood of renters have been a major concern for the former assemblyman and now the Big Apple’s youngest and first Muslim mayor. However, Mamdani has openly spoken out about working with both renters and landlords, as he knows they face significant pressures. During an October 2025 television appearance, he called out former mayors who used their powers to hike rent prices, which has caused friction between the parties — and pushed people out. “I believe that tenants across our city deserve relief and I also believe that city government can work to alleviate those pressures for landlords of those units without having to put that burden on those same tenants,” Mamdani said.
“It’s possible to keep New Yorkers in this city and to help landlords with rising insurance costs, water bills, Con Edison, and a broken property tax system,” said Mamdani.
Hearings will take place in all five city boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. The person leading the hearings will be Dina Levy, who Mamdani named as the head of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), according to La Voce di New York. He described Levy as a “true force” whose housing advocacy has resulted in organizing tenants facing eviction and giving them access to an HPD loan of $5.6 million to help buy out their landlord — and replace them with one more responsible.
Prior to signing the executive order, Mayor Mamdani spent a few hours after being sworn in inspecting rundown apartment buildings and talking with tenants. In one building, he was seen picking up broken floor tiles and reviewing rusty pipes and sketchy bathtubs.
When he asked the tenant if she had spoken to her landlord about the issues and what the response was, the woman said, “No one wants to do anything about this.”
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