Zohran Mamdani on Welfare & Poverty NY State Rep and 2025 NYC Mayoral candidate

NYC is the wealthiest city, but one in four live in poverty

ZOHRAN MAMDANI: I think, ultimately, it was the focus on the fact that we live in the most expensive city in the United States of America. It's also the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and yet, one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty, and the rest are seemingly trapped in a state of anxiety. And what we've seen is that this is a city that needs to be affordable for the people who build it every day. Our focus was on exactly that, and by keeping that focus on an economic agenda, we showed New Yorkers that this could be more than just a museum of what once was. It could be a living, breathing testament to possibility.

Rent Guidelines Board: affordable rent instead of 12% profit

MAMDANI: The first thing is living up to these promises that I have made because I've made them because I intend to keep them. And in a city of about 8.5 million people, close to 2.5 million New Yorkers live in rent-stabilized housing. The mayor, through a board called the Rent Guidelines Board, sets whether or not those rents increase or stay the same. The previous mayoral administration froze the rent three times. This one, led by Mayor Adams, increased it by 9%. So the first thing that I would do is start to constitute a board that votes in a reflection of reality. And the reality I'm speaking of is that the median household income of those tenants is $60,000 a year. The landlords of those units have seen their profits increase by 12%. It's time for relief for working-class New Yorkers.