NYC’s Rent-Freeze Gamble: Real Relief or Just an Illusion?

New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has put a rent freeze at the center of his housing agenda — specifically a freeze on rent increases for the city’s nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments. It’s one of the boldest moves we’ve seen here in years, and it’s stirring up a wide range of opinions about whether it will actually help or just make things worse.

According to Amsterdam News, critics argue that a freeze sounds great on paper — especially for tenants already struggling to afford rent — but it doesn’t address the deeper problems in New York’s housing market, like the chronic lack of supply and the high costs of maintaining buildings. In that sense, the freeze might be more symbolic than transformational.

Supporters of the policy say it’s a necessary relief. Polling before the election showed about three in four New Yorkers supported the idea of freezing rent increases, suggesting strong public backing. But opponents — including some economists and real estate groups — warn that freezing rents can disincentivize landlords from maintaining or listing units, potentially reducing the available housing stock and worsening affordability in the long run.There are also legal and procedural hurdles: the city’s Rent Guidelines Board (RGB), which decides rent adjustments each year, would still have to approve any actual freeze. Recent moves by the outgoing administration to stack the RGB complicate how easily a freeze can be implemented.

Honestly, I think the Amsterdam News point about the rent freeze being an “illusion” without structural fixes rings true. A rent freeze can offer temporary relief to people who can’t afford another increase right now. That matters. But it doesn’t solve the root cause of high rents in New York: too little housing supply and too much cost pressure on buildings.

Here’s what feels real to me:

• Short-term relief helps people right now. For someone barely scraping by, freezing a rent increase can mean the difference between staying in the city and being priced out. That’s meaningful.

• But without boosting supply or reducing operating costs, the market doesn’t fundamentally change. Developers and landlords still face rising costs for maintenance, insurance, and financing, which a freeze doesn’t touch.

• Policy needs to be part of a broader plan. New York needs both immediate protections and long-term expansion of housing stock — things like removing zoning barriers, deep subsidies for affordable housing, and stronger renter safeguards.

A rent freeze alone feels like putting a Band-Aid on a deep wound. It’s not bad policy inside a larger strategy — but by itself, it can’t carry the weight of fixing affordability in a city where supply is tight and demand never lets up.

Read full article here to decide for yourself: https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2025/12/09/nycsrent-freezegambleisitan-illusion

Quick update for next 2 weeks

Unfortunately, there are final exams next week, so I will likely not be able to update (I will try for once a week). Same story for Christmas Week- spending time with family.

Atlantic Yards Is Getting a Makeover — But Not Everyone’s Convinced It’s Truly Affordable

If you’ve followed housing issues in New York, you’ve probably heard about Atlantic Yards — the huge project around the Barclays Center that’s been in the works for decades but hasn’t delivered most of the promised affordable housing. Well, a new plan just dropped that tries to jump-start the development, but it’s stirring up frustration in the community.

Here’s what’s going on: a new development team is proposing to build about 10,000 total housing units in the area — up from the roughly 6,400 originally envisioned — with taller towers and updated designs to make the project financially viable. They’re talking about skyscrapers up to 775 feet tall, which would reshape that part of Brooklyn’s skyline.

They’re also raising the income eligibility limits for the “affordable” units. Instead of aiming at lower-income thresholds like in earlier plans, this version would make apartments available to individuals earning up to around $130,000 a year and families of three earning as much as $200,000 — something that many advocates point out isn’t really affordable for most Brooklyn residents struggling with rent.

That’s a big deal because one of the core promises of Atlantic Yards (or Pacific Park, as it’s also called) has always been to deliver deeply affordable housing alongside all the new development. But after years of delays and broken deadlines — including a previous developer failing to build hundreds of units on time — some local leaders are skeptical that this new iteration will actually deliver the homes Brooklyn needs most.

Community members and civic leaders have been pushing for clarity on how many affordable units will be built and at what rent levels, and they want more transparency during the planning and approval process. That’s especially important in a city where so much housing talk ends up meaning expensive “affordable” units that average residents still can’t realistically access.

So this Atlantic Yards update is a mixed bag. On one hand, it could finally get a stalled megaproject moving again after more than two decades. On the other, how “affordable” affordable housing actually is in this plan remains a big question. For anyone who cares about housing justice in NYC, this is one to watch — especially as public workshops and community feedback sessions continue in early 2026.

Read full article here: https://www.planetizen.com/news/2025/12/136529-nycs-new-atlantic-yards-plan-would-bring-taller-towers-and-raise-income-limits?