Adams considers stacking Rent Guidelines Board to block Mamdani’s rent freeze pledge
Credit: NYS Tenant Bloc
Before leaving office, Mayor Eric Adams is considering stacking the city’s Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) with allies in an effort to block mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze proposal. As first reported by the New York Post, the mayor could appoint at least six new members to the nine-person board, which determines rent changes for the city’s one million rent-stabilized apartments. One of the contenders is reportedly Douglas Elliman real estate agent and reality TV star Eleonora Srugo, who has since told the New York Times she intends to decline the offer to focus on her television career.
Freezing rents for stabilized tenants is a central campaign pledge of Mamdani, who said he will appoint board members who would block proposed increases. However, Adams’ move to stack the board puts that pledge in jeopardy and would leave Mamdani with little room to make changes if he takes office in January.
Mamdani could replace the board’s chair, but to remove any other member, state law requires him to cite a specific cause and give the member an opportunity to respond at a hearing. Eight members hold fixed terms: two serve four-year terms, and the remaining six serve two- or three-year appointments. The chair holds the ninth seat.
If he wins, Mamdani could see his effort to freeze rents hindered for at least the first two years of his administration by Adams’s move to reshape the board. Six members currently serve on expired terms—including some appointed by former Mayor Bill de Blasio—and Adams can replace them at any time. A seventh member, whom Adams appointed, will step down on December 31, according to the Times.
Under Adams, the RGB has voted to raise rents for stabilized apartments four times, saying the increases are necessary to offset rising landlord costs. During de Blasio’s administration, the city froze rents on one-year leases three times and approved only modest increases otherwise.
This year, the board voted to raise rents for stabilized apartments by 3.75 to 7.75 percent for two-year leases and 1.75 to 4.75 percent for one-year leases starting on or after October 1, 2025.
Freezing rents has drawn intense criticism from the city’s real estate industry and landlord groups, who argue that capping rents on stabilized apartments will cause buildings to fall into disrepair. Industry experts have also warned that a freeze could prompt an increase in market-rate units to offset the costs of maintenance and rising energy bills, as reported by the Post.
However, a Rent Guidelines Board report released this year found that landlord profits rose 12.1 percent from 2022 to 2023, according to the Community Service Society (CSS). The NYS Tenant Bloc also cited an April poll showing that 78 percent of New Yorkers support a rent freeze, while 54 percent are considering leaving the city due to housing costs.
Further analysis by the CSS in April found that a rent freeze could save New Yorkers up to $7 billion annually—an average of about $600 per household each month.
Sumathy Kumar, managing director of the NYS Tenant Bloc, criticized the real estate industry for attempting to “rig the game.”
“Real estate knows they’ve lost the election – that’s why they’re rushing to rig the game. But tenants are the majority in New York. Nearly half a million voted for a rent freeze mayor in the primary – and in the general, we’ll do it again. Tenants are winning our rent freeze.”
Adams has not revealed any other potential candidates. One of the city’s top-earning real estate agents, Srugo is best known for her work on Netflix’s “Selling the City,” part of the “Selling Sunset” franchise, which aired earlier this year, according to the Times.
Srugo said she plans to continue working in television and that accepting a political role could be seen as “polarizing and uncomfortable” within the entertainment industry.
“I do have a unique perspective and experience, and I would love to consider something like this,” she told the Times. “I really love doing my show and I’ve had so much fun with it and I wouldn’t want anything to cause any agita for a board that’s meant to serve the people of New York.”
Early voting in New York City has already begun and runs through November 2, with Election Day set for November 4. According to the Times, a new Suffolk University poll shows Mamdani leading former Gov. Andrew Cuomo by 10 points.
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