House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York signaled discomfort with a fellow Democrat’s housing arrangements this week, saying Assemblyman and NYC Democrat mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani’s continued residency in a rent-controlled apartment is a “legitimate issue” that must be addressed.
In a CNBC interview, host Andrew Ross Sorkin pressed Jeffries on the matter, noting that former Governor Andrew Cuomo — now running against Mamdani as an independent — has made the case that rent-controlled apartments should be reserved for New Yorkers in genuine financial need.
Cuomo has gone further, pledging that, if elected, he would work to create a state law preventing higher-income tenants like Mamdani from occupying such units.
Sorkin asked Jeffries directly, “Do you think that he should live in a rent-controlled apartment?”
Jeffries avoided a direct answer, beginning: “Well listen, that’s an issue for the state legislators and the state government to work out—” before Sorkin interjected to underscore the broader concern.
“It’s a fascinating issue about affordability in this city, and whether there are folks who are living in rent-controlled apartments all across this city that effectively should be going towards poor people who need that affordability,” Sorkin said.
Jeffries then offered his most pointed comment: “It’s a legitimate issue that has been raised, and the Mamdani campaign is gonna have to address it.”
The House Democratic leader has not endorsed in the mayor’s race but met privately with Mamdani in Brooklyn last month.
Cuomo, meanwhile, has been unrelenting in his criticism, accusing Mamdani of exploiting a housing program intended for vulnerable residents.
“Somewhere last night in New York City, a single mother and her children slept at a homeless shelter because you, assemblyman @ZohranKMamdani are occupying her rent controlled apartment,” Cuomo wrote on X last week.
“You grew up rich and married an even wealthier woman,” Cuomo charged. “You’ve had weddings on 3 continents. You own property in LGTBQIA+ murderous Uganda. You make $142,000 a year plus stipends, and your wife works too, meaning you together likely make well over $200,000. No matter which way you cut it: Zohran Mamdani is a rich person. You are actually very rich. Yet you and your wife pay $2,300 a month, as you have bragged, for a nice apartment in Astoria. That should be housing for someone who needs it.”
Calling the situation emblematic of New York’s worsening housing crisis, Cuomo continued: “We are in the middle of a historic affordability crisis.
Millions of low income New Yorkers need this apartment and an apartment like it. Yet your apartment remains rented to rich people who don’t need it.”
Cuomo concluded with a direct appeal: “Today, I am calling on you to move out immediately and give your affordable housing back to an unhoused family who need it. Leaders must show moral clarity. Time to move out.”
The dispute highlights a broader tension in progressive politics: public advocacy for the poor coexisting with personal choices that critics say contradict that message.
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