‘Zohran’s Law,’ Cuomo’s very political housing proposal, would not apply to Zohran

Andrew Cuomo continued his attacks on Zohran Mamdani this weekend, pitching a state law to keep the rich out of rent-stabilized apartments.

The not-so-subtly named “Zohran’s Law” would enforce income limits for tenants applying for newly vacant rent-stabilized units. Tenants wouldn’t be evicted if their incomes increased after moving in, according to brief details released on Monday. As such, it would not seem to apply to the Democratic nominee himself. (Mamdani’s most likely reason for vacating his rent stabilized Astoria apartment – moving into Gracie Mansion – obviously runs counter to Cuomo’s agenda.)

It’s unclear how seriously landlords are taking the pitch for means testing rent stabilized apartments, a move that would require approval from state lawmakers. One real estate source said that the Cuomo campaign didn’t consult with the industry, adding the proposal was “issue 99 out of 100” in terms of importance for landlords. Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, chair of the Assembly Housing Committee, also told City & State that Cuomo’s idea likely wouldn’t find support in Albany. A spokesperson for Cuomo did not respond to follow up questions, including on whom they consulted about the policy.

Reactions to the proposal ranged from opposition among tenant advocates to muted interest among some landlord groups. “It’s completely impractical,” said Cea Weaver, director of Housing Justice for All, which advocates for tenants. “Introducing this sort of new layer of bureaucracy, when people are already struggling to find homes, would be a disaster for landlords and tenants alike.”

One group representing rent-stabilized landlords, the Small Property Owners of New York, has advocated for means testing in Albany. But the landlord group New York Apartment Association suggested that means-testing isn’t their top concern. “I think we can all agree that high earners and people with (second) homes, which make up about 10% of regulated housing in New York City, don’t need to occupy low rent stabilized apartments,” CEO Kenny Burgos said in an email. “But the more pressing issue is the 200,000 apartments that housing experts warn are bankrupt and are unable to survive one year of rent freezes, let alone four years.” (Mamdani has promised to support a rent freeze for the city’s roughly 1 million rent-stabilized units for every year of his first term if elected.)

After hitting Mamdani for living in a $2,300 rent-stabilized one-bedroom with his wife while making more than $140,000 a year as an Assembly member, Cuomo’s campaign sent out additional details about what the policy would look like on Monday afternoon. “Under Cuomo’s proposal, when a rent-stabilized apartment becomes vacant, the incoming individual income would be capped so that the annual rent makes up at least 30 percent of that income,” the campaign wrote in a press release. That would essentially require that tenants be rent-burdened – defined as at least 30% of income going toward rent – to qualify for a rent-stabilized unit. (Mamdani’s campaign has noted that he would have met this standard when he moved into his current unit, as he was earning $47,000 a year at the time.) The Cuomo campaign did not elaborate on how or whether the threshold for eligibility would differ for multi-income households.

According to the 2023 Housing and Vacancy Survey, rent-stabilized units had a median household income of $60,000 in 2022, lower than the median household income for market rentals. The rent-stabilized housing stock also had a higher share of tenants from outside the United States than the market rental housing stock.  

Sam Stein, a housing policy analyst at the Community Service Society, said that access to rent-stabilized housing shouldn’t be limited, referring to rent stabilization as a set of rights. “Rent stabilization is not a subsidy program where a certain amount of money is allocated, and then we need to make a decision about how it should be spent,” Stein said. “We want those rights to be as universal as possible, and it doesn’t make sense to limit them to certain social classes.”

Cuomo has long had financial ties to the real estate industry, with major executives making up his top donors. It led to wariness from tenant advocates about his dedication to strengthening the state’s rent stabilization laws when they were set to expire in 2019. Publicly, Cuomo supported measures like ending the practice of deregulating stabilized units when the rent hit a certain price and limiting how landlords could raise prices beyond legally permitted increases. 

But when push came to shove, Cuomo took a back seat to the negotiations, instead leaving that entirely up to legislative leaders. Shortly before they announced a two-way agreement, Cuomo suggested that Democrats in the state Senate were bluffing about having the votes for a deal that included widespread reforms, even as he said he would sign whatever they passed. Cuomo ultimately signed the landmark tenant protections – which landlords have been trying to roll back since.

Asked about the proposal for means-testing on Monday morning, Mamdani compared the situation to his preference for fully subsidizing bus fares to make them free rather than relying on Fair Fares, the existing discounted transit fare program for low-income New Yorkers. Of Cuomo, he added, “I live rent free in his head.”