Mayor Zohran Mamdani spent his first in-person appearance at his “rental ripoff” hearings appealing to public housing tenants after he was heckled and previously accused of ignoring their plights.
“Public housing first mayor, public housing first,” one woman screamed as Mamdani began speaking at Fordham University in the Bronx.
The mayor tried to disregard the heckler, but she persisted, so he addressed the select few public housing residents in attendance to open his remarks.
“I know that not only have NYCHA residents faced chronic disinvestment, they have also come to expect little from a city government that has constantly turned a blind eye, and so for too many New Yorkers who do live in NYCHA housing, the legacy of living in that housing has been a legacy of being ignored,” Hizzoner said.
“And I say all of this to say that our administration understands its responsibility very clearly. It is a responsibility to rewrite that legacy,” he implored.
“If you are a NYCHA resident, we want and welcome your stories at the rental ripoff, and we are committed to delivering the improvements that NYCHA residents deserve,” Mamdani said.
The heckler screamed, “We don’t want stories. We want you to listen, mayor. Listen to public housing.”
Mamdani said the hearings would help inform policy.
The mayor announced that his administration would release a housing plan in early May that would incorporate “the ideas that have surfaced” during the hearings.
From there, officials would create a report recommending changes to implement for housing citywide. Mamdani highlighted a need to “build a more effective 311 response system,” among other weak points.
Mamdani and his controversial tenant advocate, Cea Weaver, were caught in a firestorm after it was reported the hearings would focus on renters and landlords of privately owned buildings, rather than the city’s decrepit public housing.
During last week’s hearing Weaver insisted that “everyone is welcome.”
But the Crisis Action Center (CAC), which advocates for NYCHA residents, has accused Mamdani of ignoring public housing residents.
A mobile billboard mocking the mayor that parked outside the Queens “rental ripoff’ hearing was paid for by CAC.
“Hi I’m Mayor Mamdani and I don’t care about NYCHA!” read the billboard, featuring a grinning Mamdani.
At the February hearing in Brooklyn, headlined by Weaver, a profane protester stormed the stage and demanded that “NYCHA should be allowed in the motherf–-king building.”
Renters — including NYCHA tenants — were not given time to provide their public testimony during the Brooklyn forum. Roughly 500 of them who signed up to speak were instead offered one-on-one meetings with Weaver.
