The Mamdani Administration's 'Rental Ripoff' Report

**Brian Lehrer** (0:10)
It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. We'll begin today with Mayor Mamdani's top housing officials on their newly announced rental reform agenda. This goes way beyond the simple rent freeze for rent stabilized tenants. That's been in the news, of course, that the Rent Guidelines Board approved last month. It's a list of specific proposals that grew out of the rental ripoff hearings. Remember those that the mayor held earlier this year? At a news conference last week, the mayor announced that they'll take action in four main categories, beginning with this.

**Zohran Mamdani** (0:44)
First, we will improve housing quality by strengthening our enforcement of common housing code violations and complaints. For the first time ever, inspectors will investigate every single heat complaint the city receives. Also, for the first time ever, if HPD inspectors come at a time when you're not available, you will be able to reschedule a visit at a time that works for you.
New Yorkers have been able to schedule food deliveries and the time they pick up their clothes at the dry cleaner for years. They should be able to do the same when it comes to an inspection of their home.

**Brian Lehrer** (1:21)
All right, Mayor Mamdani on Friday will play the clips of him naming the other three reform categories as we go. And we are very happy to have as our guests, both leaders of the Mayor's Rental Reform Team, Cea Weaver, Director of the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants, and Leila Borzog, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Planning. Director Weaver, Deputy Mayor Borzog, thanks for coming on for this. Welcome to WNYC today.

**Leila Bozorg** (1:47)
Thanks for having us.

**Cea Weaver** (1:48)
Thank you. Happy to be here.

**Brian Lehrer** (1:49)
And listeners, we welcome some of your questions, comments, and maybe a few short rental ripoff stories of your own. If they're focused on the solutions that the Mayor and his team say they'll pursue, 212-433-WNYC, call or text. Landlords also, very welcome to call. We know some landlords don't like some of these. You can call and say why and see if you and our guests can maybe find some common ground, because they say this is about enforcement against bad landlords. But they want to support the many good ones, 212-433-9692, call or text. And I'll just say at the outset that our guests are available until 10.3 today.
So we won't be able to take too many calls in this segment, but let's see what we can do as we also go down the list of proposed reforms and play those two, three, and four clips from the Mayor's event. Ms. Weaver, as Director of the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants, would you like to give us a very brief overview first of what you think you learned at the rental ripoff hearings? Maybe the most common or most surprising ways renters felt they're being ripped off, whether or not they're in rent stabilized apartments?

**Cea Weaver** (3:00)
Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much. So over the rental ripoff hearings, we heard from over 2,400 New Yorkers about the basic fact that they are paying too much in rent and getting very little in return. We heard about persistent housing quality issues from mold to leaks to consistent lead paint. We heard about fear about using the city's tools to enforce tenants' rights. But we also heard about what works. We heard about tenants coming together to form tenant organizations in their building to take advantage of housing quality improvement programs. We heard about the city's alternative enforcement programs and how they have actually stepped in when negligent landlords fail to take action. And we were really inspired to put out a list of 23 recommendations that we are looking forward to putting into place.

**Brian Lehrer** (3:56)
And Deputy Mayor Borzog, anything to add briefly before we tick down the list of these four main categories of action?

**Leila Bozorg** (4:03)
I'll just note that this work is an important part of our broader housing plan, which we released in early June.
It's called Block by Block. It has a range of strategies, everything from building more housing to try to address our broader housing crisis to stabilizing home ownership, investing in NYCHA, other preservation strategies aimed at building owners. So this is really an important prong of our broader, all of the above approach housing plan.

**Brian Lehrer** (4:30)
And by the way, I apologize. I think I mispronounced your name in the intro. Put the R in the wrong place, but I think I have it right now. So let's jump in on that first category of actions that the mayor cited in that clip, strengthening enforcement of common housing code violations and complaints. I mean, the city has had housing code enforcement for many decades.