Tenants Decry Bad Landlords at First Ever ‘Rental Ripoff’ Hearing In Brooklyn – City Limits

At Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s first public hearing for renters, attendees bemoaned slow repairs, a frustrating 311 system, and unresponsive landlords. Some NYCHA tenants, meanwhile, felt slighted by the event, which was focused on problems in private market rentals.

Mercy Kassa was the first tenant in line for the first ever “Rental Ripoff” hearing hosted by the City of New York.

She came to George Westinghouse High School in Downtown Brooklyn early Thursday night because her January electric bill for a small Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment was $450. She and other tenants in the building could not get their landlord at 825 Dekalb Ave. to explain why the bills were so high.

“I wanted to make sure that my story was heard,” said Kassa.

From leaky ceilings, no heat, succession rights, repair issues to amenity fees, tenant issues ran the gamut.

But the hearing—announced by Mayor Zohran Mamdani during his first few days in office as a chance for the city’s renters to share their experiences—felt less like a community meeting and more like a resource fair.

After a brief presentation by housing officials, 225 New Yorkers who were able to secure a registration for the event circulated the school’s gymnasium and cafeteria, talking to city agencies that set up tables or stepping into a side room to spew their complaints at a city official in a three-minute time slot.

Capacity was capped at 225 attendees for each session and it was first come, first served to talk to someone one-on-one. The city will release a report 90 days after the hearing, and recommendations will go directly into the mayor’s forthcoming housing plan, officials said. 

“This is about shaping public policy,” said Cea Weaver, director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. 

Sonia Perez came to tell officials how the walls in her home are crumbling and that she has broken cabinets and flooring. She’s called 311, but said getting an inspection from the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) was elusive.

“They never come, they never arrive, and they never call back or anything,” said Perez in Spanish.

This was a common issue of the hearing: how the city’s housing agency responds to repair complaints lodged through the city’s 311 system.

Jacob Cowan, an organizer with Churches United for Fair Housing, said HPD inspectors often come when tenants aren’t home. 

“With a heat issue, they’ll call 311, and then 311 will get sent to their apartment during the work day, but they’re out working, so there’s no way to plan or to coordinate with the city,” he said.

A record number of tenants called 311 about heat issues in January, as City Limits reported.

Circulating around the gymnasium, tenants placed stickers on ideas they liked, such as “making it easier to know when an inspector is coming after I call 311.”

“Many, many, many, many people call 311 everyday trying to get repairs made by their landlord,” Weaver said. “Really evaluating that system and how it’s working, and making sure that we are improving New Yorker’s customer service, is the goal of the hearing.”

Landlords, however, criticized the hearings, calling them “political theater.”

“Housing works best when all parties are pulling in the same direction, but the Mayor is intent on demonizing owners and spreading divisiveness,” said Ann Korchak, CEO of the landlord group Small Property Owners of New York, in a statement.

Kenny Burgos, CEO of the New York Apartment Association, called attention to distress in portions of the rent-stabilized housing stock, where rent increases are capped and some buildings have experienced significant increases in operating costs like insurance.

“No one denies that some renters are dealing with serious problems,” Burgos said. “But when buildings don’t bring in enough income to cover property taxes, utilities, maintenance and basic operating costs, decline becomes inevitable, no matter who owns them.”

Mayor Mamdani, as well as tenants at the hearings, are calling for a rent freeze on rent stabilized units across the city. Stabilized rents went up 12 percent over the last four years under former Mayor Eric Adams, and further rent hikes would push working class New Yorkers out of the city amid a citywide housing shortage, Mamdani says.

Some NYCHA residents also criticized the hearings—which were targeted at private market landlords, not public housing (which the city directly oversees). At one point, a person with their face obscured jumped on stage and yelled, “NYCHA tenants deserve to speak.”

“I find it quite interesting the absence of NYCHA and city public housing tenants from Mamdani’s housing agenda,” said Dominick Braswell, a tenant at NYCHA’s Albany Houses in Crown Heights. He said he’d like to see the mayor address poor conditions and funding deficits that NYCHA has been dealing with for decades.

Kevin McCall, a community organizer, came to the hearing with a sign that read, “The mayor don’t care about NYCHA.”

“NYCHA is the number one worst landlord,” he said—a critique that has been leveled by others, including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

NYCHA representatives were available at the resource fair. But Weaver said the hearings are  primarily looking for ways to address issues in buildings overseen by HPD, since NYCHA has a different process for requesting repairs.

Weaver said they’re planning other ways to enage NYCHA residents as part of creating the administration’s housing plan.

How the city uses other tenant testimony remains to be seen. But officials will roll out four more Rental Ripoff hearings in The Bronx, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island in the coming weeks.

“I don’t know what the next steps are. They took my contact info. I don’t know if they’re gonna follow up,” said Kassa.

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