We Can Applaud All the Mayor Has Done and Still Hold Him Accountable

We were so excited when Mayor Mamdani was elected. Members of our organization felt as if they had finally found a candidate who spoke to their issues. So on election night, we thought: Now the real work begins.

One of the big issues he said he wanted to tackle was the affordability crisis, and at the center of that is housing. Finally we have a mayor who’s speaking our language! He’s talking about holding slumlords accountable, about making sure that you’re not being charged so much for rent and that landlords are going to fix the things you need fixed.

Our members have been organizing on East 103rd Street in El Barrio in East Harlem for years, and finally, in the past couple of years, they’ve started to gain some real traction around holding bad, predatory landlords accountable. In many cases, people had been paying their rent for years, but the landlord wasn’t paying the mortgage, and the apartment buildings were foreclosed on. But because of our organizing and legal strategy, tenants sued the landlord and were able to get $500,000 back. A huge victory!

Read more at Hammer & Hope