Over half a century ago, state lawmakers in Albany decided New York City couldn’t be trusted to set its rent regulations because rules favoring tenants could harm the financial health of landlords and their buildings.
In 1971, those state officials took power for themselves, instituting a rule that prevented cities from putting their restrictions on rent increases or imposing new eviction protections.
During his decade as governor, Andrew Cuomo maintained a status quo that put him and the Legislature in charge of rent rules.
But now that he’s running for mayor, Cuomo has a different take on the policy, known as the Urstadt Law, so-named for the former state housing commissioner who devised it. In an interview released late Tuesday, Cuomo said he wants to scrap the rule to make housing more affordable.
“The Urstadt Law could be repealed,” he told NY1’s Errol Louis. “Allow New York City to regulate its rents.”
Later in the interview, he said he wanted the city to “increase the rent regulation.”
But Cuomo didn’t say how the city should use that power, or why he didn’t repeal the law while he was the governor. He has frequently derided candidates, including Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, for calling for a rent freeze for tenants in stabilized apartments and has previously expressed regret for signing laws as governor that limited landlords’ ability to hike rents.
Cuomo declined an interview request to clarify his position. His spokesperson, Rich Azzopardi, provided a bit more detail. He said Cuomo wants to build more apartments to resolve a deep affordable housing shortage, but “given rising costs of living, more needs to be done and we can’t allow rents to dramatically keep rising like they have over the past three years, nor can relief apply only to a narrow group of tenants.”
“Let’s start fresh by giving NYC, like other major cities, control of their own destiny instead of working off the same tired blueprint — and find something that works so tenants get relief,” he added.
The comments from Cuomo caught the attention of housing experts, as well as advocates for tenants and landlords who questioned the timing and motivation.
“He certainly had an opportunity to weigh in on this and do something about it all those years he was governor,” said Andrew Scherer, a housing law professor at New York Law School. “It doesn’t seem consistent with his positions.”
But Scherer said he welcomed the idea, since it would likely fall to the City Council to devise and approve regulations for the city.
“It would give a lot of power to the City Council, which is very pro-tenant and very progressive at the moment,” Scherer said.
Last year, the Council voted to eliminate upfront broker fees for most renters, despite complaints from the landlord groups and the real estate industry.
Scherer said city lawmakers could even extend regulations to cover more apartments, not just the ones currently subject to rent-stabilization rules, or strengthen rules that allow tenants to challenge rent increases or sign new leases.
On the other hand, a conservative or moderate mayor could seek to weaken the laws, thereby allowing landlords to increase rents when an apartment becomes vacant or after completing major renovations.
But real estate attorney Scott Mollen, a former chair of the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, said the current Council wouldn’t go for that.
He said most current councilmembers represent districts where a majority of residents are renters and would never vote for laws that allow landlords to raise rents, even if they need the money to invest in deteriorating buildings. He said the present arrangement, controlled by state lawmakers, including dozens of elected officials from outside the city, can better balance the interests of tenants and landlords.
“The state Legislature offers an opportunity to have a more responsible, broader perspective,” Mollen said.
In recent years, however, the state Legislature has consistently approved laws that favor tenants. The dynamic marks a sharp contrast from previous decades when the state Senate was controlled by Republicans, including many who received major financial backing from New York City’s real estate industry.
In 2019, the Legislature, which was controlled by Democrats for the first time in a decade, voted to prevent landlords from lifting apartments out of the rent stabilization system and eliminated most of the ways owners could legally raise prices on their rent-stabilized apartments.
Annual increases are set by a panel of experts appointed by the mayor. Last month, they voted for a 3% hike on new one-year leases.
Kenny Burgos, head of the New York Apartment Association, a rent-stabilized landlord lobbying group, said he doesn’t think much would change under the city rule.
“Given the political alignment between New York City lawmakers and the state legislators who represent the city, it’s hard to see how repealing the Urstadt Law would lead to anything but more of the same,” he said in a written statement.
Mamdani and Mayor Eric Adams did not respond to requests for comment about restoring power to the city.
Cea Weaver, director of TenantBloc, a PAC that supports Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for mayor, called the idea far-fetched, with state lawmakers unlikely to give up their authority.
Weaver also serves as a coordinator for the pro-tenant coalition Housing Justice For All and said most renter groups dropped the effort to repeal Urstadt in 2018 in favor of lobbying state lawmakers to expand protections across New York.
She chalked Cuomo’s comments up to a desire for control.
“It’s not shocking that a power-hungry governor is interested in strengthening the power of the mayor as he’s running for mayor,” Weaver said. “But if Andrew Cuomo wants to expand rent stabilization, that’s great.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
