New York is at a critical moment.
Tenants were promised bold action, including a rent freeze, and an administration would meet the housing crisis with urgency. Now those promises are colliding with fiscal constraints, coalition politics, and the realities of governing.
Strategy, coalition-building, and budgets all matter. But in times like this, principle must remain the anchor.
The Working Families Party’s choice not to endorse Antonio Delgado and instead hold its ballot line has left Gov. Hochul without a challenger from the left, while the party’s consolidation behind Antonio Reynoso for Congress signals a further shift toward caution and risk management.
I say this as someone who canvassed for the WFP when it was still on Nevins St. I believed then, and still believe, in building independent progressive power willing to take risks.
Increasingly, progressive institutions appear focused on managing risk and maintaining alignment. Those concerns are real. But when staying viable outweighs core commitments, movements lose clarity about who they are fighting for.
The administration has stepped back from the City Council’s CityFHEPS expansion, citing the city’s $7 billion deficit and long-term cost concerns — but tenants have the right to know what the plan is to prevent homelessness before it happens.
This winter, 14 New Yorkers died from exposure to extreme cold inside their homes, a detail that received far less attention than deaths on the streets. The condition of public and private housing stock cannot be separated from the broader affordability debate.
At the state level, advocates recently mobilized in Albany to demand that lawmakers raise revenue from the wealthiest New Yorkers to fund housing and other essential public goods. If the state does not act, the pressure shifts elsewhere; service cuts at the city level, or renewed calls for property tax increases that are ultimately passed on to tenants.
The Rent Guidelines Board appointments sit squarely inside this picture. The mayor now has a board largely of his choosing and made a clear commitment to a rent freeze. The question is whether that commitment is upheld as a governing priority or adjusted in the name of political considerations.
Meanwhile, massive long-term housing projects are being pursued, including discussions with national government about building tens of thousands of homes over Sunnyside Yard. Ambitious projects like that may shape the city decades from now. But tenants facing rent increases and eviction risks today are still waiting for immediate protections.
Zohran Mamdani’s election reflects a broad-based desire for unapologetically progressive policy. As the national government moves sharply right, Democratic voters have shifted left. Leaders like Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are among the most popular figures in the party, particularly among younger voters.
Nationally, the left often concedes first in the name of pragmatism, while more conservative factions hold firm and extract concessions. But we now have a mayor who was elected with an unapologetically progressive agenda, and that should be a signal to stop conceding ground in the name of pragmatism and start governing with the confidence that comes from actually winning power.
Met Council on Housing doesn’t exist to protect any political faction. Our loyalty is to the working-class New Yorkers who call our hotline because they cannot afford another rent increase and are fighting to remain in their homes.
We understand the complexity of governing; coalitions must be maintained and budgets balanced. Strategy matters because political survival matters. But when strategy replaces principle, the working class usually pays the price. And in this political climate, we can’t lose sight of who this fight is for.
Gordon is the executive director of the Met Council on Housing.