New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, is combining a tougher stance on bad landlords with a broader push to make housing safer and more affordable across the five boroughs.
On Sunday, the city placed 250 apartment buildings deemed “most distressed” by New York officials under increased scrutiny, promising to crack down on landlords who fail to make basic repairs.
Mamdani and Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Dina Levy released a report updated list of buildings in the Alternative Enforcement Program, which targets properties with the worst housing code violations.
The buildings, which together comprise 7,038 homes, are responsible for almost 55,000 public violations. According to City Hall, they owe the city nearly $4.5 million for emergency repair work already completed. Cea Weaver, head of the Mayor’s Office of Tenant Protection, formulated the enforcement action as part of the government’s commitment to link affordability to a baseline of decent, livable conditions.
“Every New Yorker deserves a safe and well-maintained place to rest, raise their family and sleep at night,” she said in a statement.
Take action to deliver on housing affordability promises
Mamdani began his term by sharply steering housing policy toward highly affordable, supportive units. On his first day in office, he signed executive actions to more directly link the city’s sprawling emergency shelter system to permanent housing. He also ordered a review of migrant shelters that do not meet standard requirements, with a mandate to upgrade or close them within weeks.
He campaigned and is now organizing his administration around a promise to dramatically scale up publicly funded, union-built, rent-stabilized housing on public land. His stated priority is affordable housing for low-income residents and those emerging from homelessness, before construction at market rates.
However, his government suffered its first defeat when it tried to stop the bankruptcy sale of 5,100 units of the company Top features. A federal bankruptcy judge approved the sale in mid-January Pinnacle Groupthat the city owes for violations and unpaid taxes.
Summit pledged tens of millions of dollars for repairs and promised to quickly address many of the violations. The judge’s ruling showed that the company had the financial capacity to fulfill the promise.
Mamdani has moved quickly to restart stalled projects, reviving the Just Home supportive housing development at Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx to create 83 apartments for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers with complex medical needs. His government supports plans for about 190 additional support units for similar population groups.
Putting pressure on landlords
“Throughout our first month in office, we have been clear: New York will no longer look the other way while bad landlords put tenants at risk,” Mamdani said in a statement, vowing to use “every tool we have” to keep housing safe.
Now in its 19th year, the Alternative Enforcement Program allows HPD to increase the number of inspections and issue correction orders. When owners refuse to take action, the department sends city crews to fix heat outages, leaks and other dangerous conditions. Landlords bear the costs.
Officials said the latest round builds on a $2.1 million settlement HPD reached last month with A&E Real Estate Holdings, which covered 14 buildings — the largest settlement won by the agency’s anti-harassment unit — that require extensive repairs and court-ordered protections for tenants.
Of the city’s five boroughs, the worst offender on this year’s list is in Queens, where more than 1,000 “B” and “C” violations have been recorded over the past five years, the city said. HPD’s Housing Disputes Unit is involved in lawsuits against the owners of 138 buildings on the list to enforce compliance.
“This administration will not stop at nothing to protect tenants or enforce the Housing Maintenance Code,” Levy said, warning that landlords who repeatedly abandon their tenants will be held accountable.
Owners can leave the program within months if they resolve violations and outstanding repair bills, or enter into payment agreements with the city, officials said. HPD says it will monitor vacant buildings for at least a year to ensure conditions don’t worsen, and that landlords who relapse will be prosecuted more quickly if they return to the list.
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