Andrew Cuomo, Somehow, Wants to Weaken Affordable Housing
Proposing a housing policy that will accelerate New York’s housing crisis just to troll Zohran Mamdani is an odd look for Andrew Cuomo, who ran for mayor on seriousness and experience. But badly losing a primary will do that kind of thing to a man.
Ex-governor and current mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo has proposed banning middle-income tenants from rent-stabilized apartments. (Andres Kudacki / Getty Images)
It’s famously hard to find an apartment in New York City. Andrew Cuomo has floated a plan to make it harder.
The disgraced ex-governor and current mayoral candidate has proposed banning middle-income tenants from rent-stabilized apartments. Specifically, under Cuomo’s proposal, prospective tenants wouldn’t be allowed to rent a rent-stabilized unit unless they could prove that the rent would eat up at least 30 percent of their household income. In a city where 41 percent of all apartments are rent-stabilized, this would take over one million apartments off the table for many tenants.
So why do this? Cuomo purports to believe that too many rich people are occupying rent-stabilized apartments. Specifically, he’s got a bee in his bonnet about Zohran Mamdani, who lives in a rent-stabilized $2,300 one-bedroom apartment in Astoria. Cuomo thinks Zohran, who earns a good living as a state legislator — is too rich for that unit.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.