Leaders of the Small Property Owners of New York on Sunday accused former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and City Council member and mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani of political posturing on housing policy and urged the next mayor to pursue reforms they say would stabilize small landlords and return empty units to the market.
In an opinion column in the New York Post, Ann Korchak, the group's board president, and Lincoln Eccles, its vice president, argued that campaign rhetoric attacking landlords and proposals such as a four-year rent freeze would accelerate deterioration of older rental stock and push more small owners toward foreclosure. The column said Cuomo has pledged to enact what he calls "Zohran's Law," a means-testing proposal to require income checks for residents of rent-stabilized apartments.
Korchak and Eccles attributed much of the current strain on small landlords to the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which Cuomo signed into law. They said the law eliminated vacancy increases and altered programs that previously allowed owners to upgrade units between tenancies, reducing owners' ability to finance renovations and maintain older buildings.
The column asserted that more than 50,000 rent-stabilized apartments across the five boroughs are empty, and that lifting or easing some restrictions in the 2019 law would allow owners to rehabilitate units and put them back on the market more quickly. It said property-tax reform also is necessary, arguing that small owners face an opaque system that imposes higher effective rates on their properties than on larger or wealthier properties that receive abatements or subsidies.
The column criticized Mamdani, calling his housing rhetoric "ignorant," and noted reporting that the council member lives in a rent-stabilized apartment despite a six-figure income and family wealth. It also listed other elected officials it said were occupants of stabilized units, including Assembly Housing Committee Chair Linda Rosenthal and state Sens. Zellnor Myrie, Robert Jackson, Jessica Ramos, Kevin Parker and Gustavo Rivera, along with City Councilman Keith Powers. The writers framed those examples as evidence of hypocrisy among public officials who advocate for tenants while occupying apartments that some argue should be allocated to lower-income families.
Advocates for tenants and some housing policy experts have pushed back on proposals to means-test rent-stabilized apartments, saying income thresholds such as $150,000 do not necessarily indicate that a household is well-off in a high-cost city. The Post column noted those defenses, saying advocates have urged leniency and described proposed thresholds as too low.
The group behind the column urged the next mayor to press Albany for changes that would ease economic pressures on small landlords, arguing that such changes could restore available affordable units faster than building new housing alone. The writers described new construction as a longer-term solution often promised in mayoral races but not tracked, and said immediate statutory reforms and tax changes would be more effective in the short term.
The criticisms reflect a broader debate in the city about how to balance tenant protections with measures to keep older rental housing viable. Supporters of the 2019 law said it strengthened tenant rights and stability, while opponents have argued it reduced incentives and financial capacity for owners to maintain and renovate older stock.
Korchak and Eccles concluded that if the next mayor prioritizes politics over those reforms, more rent-stabilized buildings could fall into abandonment and foreclosure, a scenario they said would hasten the collapse of the city's affordable-housing infrastructure.
The Post opinion identified the authors as leaders of the Small Property Owners of New York. Requests for comment from proponents of the 2019 law, Mayor's Office spokespeople and the campaigns referenced in the column were not included in the published piece.