New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board made history Thursday night, voting to freeze one- and two-year leases on nearly 1 million stabilized apartments in a landmark 7-1 decision that fulfilled Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s signature campaign promise.
But, in The Bronx, the celebrations didn’t reach Tracey Towers — a 38- and 41-story affordable housing complex.
Its landlord, RY Management, formally requested an increase earlier this month that would raise rents 15% in the first year, followed by 5% in each of the next two years and 3% in the fourth, compounding to a total of 30.59%.
That’s because the complex is part of the city’s Mitchell-Lama program, a mid-century initiative that secured affordable rents through tax breaks and low-interest loans to developers.
Last night’s freeze covers rent-stabilized apartments in buildings with six or more units built before 1974.
Tracey Towers, completed that same year, is governed by an entirely different program — one with no rent cap, no guidelines board oversight and no mechanism to shield its 871 households from what could be the steepest rent increase they have ever seen.
Unlike stabilized apartments, where the Rent Guidelines Board votes each year on allowable increases, Mitchell-Lama developments are overseen by the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development — and state law requires HPD to approve rent hikes sufficient to cover a building’s operating costs.
The mayor’s influence over the Rent Guidelines Board, which was central to delivering Thursday’s freeze, simply does not extend here.
A one-bedroom currently renting for $1,344 would climb to roughly $1,750 by the end of the phase-in.
The juxtaposition is creating a political problem for a mayor whose brand is built on tenant relief.
Six elected officials, including City Council Speaker Julie Menin and Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson, sent Mamdani a letter Thursday — hours before the freeze vote — arguing that he has “the authority and tools necessary to reduce or avoid a rent increase of this magnitude,” according to the New York Times.
The City Council plans to hold a hearing on the matter in July.
“We’ve got a situation where, in an affordability crisis, raising the rent 30% on these Mitchell-Lama residents is completely unacceptable,” Menin said. “We have real concerns about how this situation got to this point.”
A spokesman for the mayor said the administration would make “critical investments” in developments like Tracey Towers, but that state law required the city to back the increase.
HPD Commissioner Dina Levy, who fielded questions from distressed residents at a tenant meeting earlier this month, said the rent spike was not meant to fund capital improvements but to address a deeper financial collapse.
The building is three years behind on its mortgage and failing to cover basic operating costs, she told tenants. HPD is separately allocating $36 million toward repairs including faulty elevators and leaky roofs.
But the financial troubles did not soften the blow for residents on fixed incomes, many of whom have already absorbed increases of 22.21% between 2022 and 2024.
Tony Taylor, 79, the former tenant association president, put it plainly after the meeting.
“When I retired, back in 2009, it was affordable. Now I’m right at the envelope. I’m pushing the envelope now,” he previously told The Post. “What do I do? Do I take my meds? Do I eat?”
Councilman Eric Dinowitz, who represents the district, captured the disconnect in a single line.
“If you think about the Rent Guidelines Board, people are apoplectic that they’re even considering a 2% rent increase,” he told the Times. “But the city otherwise seems fine with a 30.59% rent increase.”
About a third of Tracey Towers residents hold federal Section 8 vouchers or qualify for city exemption programs that protect seniors and people with disabilities from the increases, meaning they will see no change in what they pay out of pocket. For the rest, Thursday night’s celebration was someone else’s victory.
Jean Hill, a retired bookkeeper who serves as president of the tenant association, said the situation amounted to a betrayal.
“That is not the platform the mayor ran on,” she said.