“The math just doesn’t math,” says Sophia, a New York City landlord. All of her major expenses\u2014insurance, labor, fuel, and property taxes\u2014are going up. Now she can no longer cover those costs by raising the rent she charges.<\/span><\/p>\n

When New York’s Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) approved a rent increase of 0 percent in June, the city’s new mayor celebrated with a frozen treat. A <\/span>short video<\/span><\/a> posted to social media shows Zohran Mamdani reaching into a freezer to grab an ice cream bar while announcing that the “independent” board froze rents for the 2 million tenants living in the city’s nearly 1 million rent-stabilized apartments. Close to a third of all New York’s homes are rent-stabilized.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It might be hot outside but the rent is freezing,” read the video caption on Instagram.<\/span><\/p>\n

The vote was a major political victory for the mayor. Mamdani’s left-wing platform included everything from free childcare to free city buses, but his need to balance the budget has largely prevented him from making good on promises that actually cost the city money. The rent freeze was one headline policy the mayor could enact without directly adding red ink to the balance sheet.<\/span><\/p>\n