New Yorkers favor rent stabilization and social housing to solve housing crisis, new poll shows

Tenant advocates hope that new polling shared with City & State will prompt New York politicians to prioritize housing affordability in 2026. Housing Justice For All and Data For Progress conducted a statewide poll to test how the electorate views housing policies, which found that 69% of respondents said they would be more likely to support a candidate who backed rent stabilization and 68% would be more likely to support a candidate who backed public investments in social housing.

The poll of 1067 New Yorkers was conducted from July 1 to July 11 and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points. It found that concerns about the cost of housing are prevalent throughout the state, with 26% of New Yorkers saying that they have considered leaving the state due to unaffordable housing costs, and 46% of respondents from Western New York and 43% of respondents from the Mid-Hudson region saying they have had to cut back on essentials to meet housing costs.

“Housing pain is being felt all across the state, not just in NYC and surrounding areas. It’s startling to see voters, particularly younger voters and voters of color, say they are cutting back on essentials like food and health care to afford housing. That’s a moral failure,” said Ryan O’Donnell, interim executive director at Data for Progress. “Voters clearly want to see our government invest more in affordable housing, limit rent hikes and hold greedy landlords accountable.”

The poll asked New Yorkers about two potential solutions to the housing crisis. A slight majority of 51% of respondents said the best way to lower rents was to “limit how much landlords can hike rents and to invest public dollars in building more affordable housing,” while 40% of respondents said the best way to lower rents was to “build more housing by reducing regulations and offering tax breaks to encourage private developers to build more.” Respondents in Long Island preferred incentivizing private development, while those in all other regions preferred rent stabilization. One policy that polled well across the state was social housing programs, with 46% of New Yorkers supporting public social housing investments to build affordable housing.

Respondents to the poll generally took a dim view of landlords, with 64% saying that too many landlords raise rents unfairly and the state should step in to stop it and only 27% saying that landlords should be allowed to raise rents without government interference. The Finger Lakes and the Mid-Hudson region have the most hostile view of landlords, with 70% of respondents in both regions saying that too many landlords raise rents unfairly.

Voters’ concerns about housing affordability are already influencing high-profile elections.

Zohran Mamdani’s upset victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary in June was buoyed by his commitment to affordability, and housing is generally the largest monthly expense for New Yorkers. It’s no surprise, then, that his promise to freeze the prices of rent-stabilized apartments landed so well with voters. 

New York is gearing up for a gubernatorial race next year, with Gov. Kathy Hochul and Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado duking it out for the Democratic nomination and Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik expected to formally announce her campaign later this year. Delgado is charting a path to the left of Hochul with proposals to expand funding for the Housing Access Voucher Program. Hochul was initially resistant to the Housing Access Voucher Program due to its cost and has generally supported a “build first” approach to housing policy, while progressives have argued that more regulations are needed to protect New York tenants. Mamdani and Delgado have also called for raising taxes on wealthy New Yorkers, while Hochul has warned that higher taxes will lead rich residents to flee the state.

“Housing costs are driving people out of the state across the board, it's like the number one thing,” Housing Justice For All Campaign Coordinator Cea Weaver told City & State. “So when you hear people like Kathy Hochul saying that high taxes are making people flee the state, the truth of the matter is that high housing costs are making people leave the state, and we need to build more truly affordable housing and stabilize rent.”

Weaver said that the results of the new poll revealed the obvious about some regions. That includes the Mid-Hudson region’s support for rent stabilization as multiple cities push to opt in to the Emergency Tenant Protection Act and the lower support for regulation on Long Island, which has a more conservative voting body that leans towards homeowners. She noted that Western New York has some of the lowest wages in the state, while housing costs have steadily risen, so it tracks that many residents need to cut back to afford housing. 

Weaver said that she is eager to see how Hochul accommodates sentiment around rising housing costs into her upcoming campaign, especially since she’ll need to collaborate with Mamdani on policy if he wins in the general election. 

“I think that she'll probably move. I mean, we'll see,” Weaver said. “I think the lessons that Hochul takes away from the New York City mayoral primary and then ultimately, the general, definitely remain to be seen, and I'm interested to see how she's going to relate to, assuming Zohran wins, his mayoralty, and how that will impact the lane that Delgado is seeking to swim in.”