Housing board votes to freeze New York rents in victory for Mamdani

A New York City housing board has approved a key pledge made by Mayor Zohran Mamdani to freeze rents for about one million regulated apartments. The result of the vote on Thursday was greeted with cheers and whistles from hundreds of people in Manhattan as the Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) approved a freeze on both one and two year leases. Mamdani said in a statement that it was a "historic victory for New York City tenants". The board voted in favour of the policy 7-1, hours after the public resignation of one of its members Christina Smyth, who accused the panel of bias and of "knowingly disregarding its own evidence" that landlords face spiking operating costs. Smyth was one of three members appointed by former New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Mamdani appointed the other six members after taking office this year. Smyth, one of two landlord representatives on the board, said the outcome had been predetermined by the mayor. "The rebuilt board was required to deliver a rent freeze," she said. "Everything since has been theater," she said in a statement. Chair of the board, Chantella Mitchell, said the board's members served with independence and integrity. In a statement concerning the rent freeze, she said "comprehensive data before the board this year reflect an economic environment in which most tenants in rent-stabilised housing struggle to meet basic affordability thresholds as housing costs continue to rise". …