Andrew Cuomo is “landlords’ favorite candidate,” his lefty opponents in the New York City mayoral race and tenant advocates claimed Friday — while ripping the ex-governor over his housing record.
The slate of Democratic primary candidates endorsed by the left-wing Working Families Party and advocates held a joint rally outside City Hall to shed light on what they said were Cuomo’s shady housing policies while in office.
“We’re here today because your landlord’s favorite mayoral candidate is once again trying to position himself as a leader of our city,” said Joanne Grell, co-chair of the Freeze the Rent campaign.
Another group, the NYS Tenant Bloc, harped that when Cuomo sat in the Executive Chamber, rents increased 33% in the state, while homelessness skyrocketed 50% in the city, according to a census data report from 2021.
Reports released by the non-profit organization also called out the thrice-elected governor for extending loopholes in city rent laws in 2011 and 2015, which the group said resulted in tens of thousands of apartments losing their rent control status.
“Unfortunately, Andrew Cuomo cannot give a rats ass about the lives or future or housing justice for every single New Yorker — he is a corrupt ego maniac who shows time and time again that he cares about only one thing and that is Andrew Cuomo,” said city Comptroller Brad Lander, one of the mayoral hopefuls at the rally.
Democratic Socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani — a state Assemblyman from Queens who is currently polling second behind Cuomo in the primary — brought attention to the 2.3 million dollars in donations from real estate bigwigs that the former gov has accepted through his super PAC.
“We are here to speak about the record of disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo, a governor who has accepted more than two million dollars from real estate over the course of this very short run,” Mamdani said.
He also skewered Cuomo over recent accusations that Cuomo’s campaign used ChatGPT on its typo-riddled housing plan.
“Cuomo looked at polling that said that more than 90% of New Yorkers were concerned seriously about affordability, more than 88% about affordable housing, and said, you know what? let’s have Chat GPT write our housing platform,” he snarked.
Lander and Mamdani have both pledged to not take money from corporate PACs or lobbyists.
In 2019, Cuomo signed the tenant-friendly Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA), which expanded rent control rights. Despite that, there was an 8% decrease in rent-stabilized apartments, totaling 66,000 units lost during his last year as governor in 2021, The City has reported.
Cuomo later signaled he regretted signing the bill. His spokesperson Rich Azzopardi told Politco in March: “While well-intentioned, the 2019 bill had unintended consequences in some places — specifically changes involving MCI and IAI repairs” — referring to regulations placed on how much landlords can raise rents — even if they’ve made repairs.
In response to Friday’s rally, Azzopardi said: “Governor Cuomo has a decades-long record of fighting for tenant rights and protecting renters. As governor he created a tenant protection unit to fight for renters and crack down on bad actors, as well has launched a comprehensive program to finance 100,000 affordable housing units and 6,000 supportive housing units across New York.”
Azzopardi noted Cuomo’s work as Housing and Urban Development secretary in former President Bill Clinton’s administration.
“New Yorkers know he’s the candidate with the experience and the record to help fix what’s broken in this city and they are not going to be swayed by this gaslighting from far left political operatives and a clown car of career politicians with no vision or achievements of their own,” he said.
