Mayor Zohran Mamdani has vowed to wrest control of apartment buildings from the city’s worst landlords in order to improve life for tenants. Now the City Council may give him a legal pathway to do it — though its future is far from certain.
While a new measure has the support of some in the real estate industry, it has yet to earn backing from the Council speaker, who will decide whether it is brought forward for a vote.
The Council held a hearing on Monday on legislation that would allow the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development to seize buildings from landlords who have racked up housing code violations and debt from unpaid taxes and fines and turn them over to owners they deem more responsible…