Mayor Eric Adams, otherwise inconsistent and ideologically peripatetic, has not budged on the question of rent. Since campaigning in the Democratic primary last year, Adams has questioned the idea of bailing tenants out during the pandemic and finding a way, through the powers he exercises over the more than one million New Yorkers living in rent-stabilized apartments, to reduce rent burdens.

Rather, as a landlord himself, Adams has repeatedly expressed sympathy for the building owner class. “We don’t want to aggravate the eviction process, but we also got to look at small property owners,” he said last week. “You know, if you are a mom-and-pop that owns a ten-family unit, and you have, you know, your electric bills are going up, your water bills are going up, this is your only source of income.”

While New York City is an incredibly expensive place to live, a small lifeline exists for the number of tenants lucky enough to secure apartments in the rent-stabilization system. Overseen by the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) — the mayor appoints all nine members — these apartments can still have high rents but guarantee tenants the opportunity to regularly renew leases. In addition, landlords who own them cannot rapidly hike rents up on their own. Instead, they must follow the recommendations of the RGB. Under Bill de Blasio, a relatively tenant-friendly mayor, the Board froze rents multiple times, lending working- and middle-class tenants a degree of stability during a decade that otherwise saw the city grow increasingly unaffordable.