On his first day in workplace, Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed three housing-related govt orders.
One relaunched the Workplace to Defend Tenants, which was created by Mayor Invoice de Blasio however hollowed out by the final administration. One other sought to hurry up housing building, whereas the opposite centered on alternatives to construct housing on public land.
Leila Bozorg, the newly-appointed deputy mayor of housing and planning, mentioned the orders lay the groundwork for what’s to return.
“I feel the chief orders that we put out on day one of many administration actually present that complete strategy that we wish to take,” she mentioned throughout an interview this week. “We’re not simply going to be centered on persevering with to construct on our housing provide challenges, but in addition coupling that with necessary views and instruments to guard tenants.”
As Mamdani’s housing czar, Bozorg will play a serious function in shaping the mayor’s housing plan, constructing on her work with the earlier administration whereas taking a extra aggressive strategy to tenant protections.
Bozorg most just lately served as Mayor Eric Adams’ executive director of housing, the place she labored extensively on zoning modifications below the Metropolis of Sure for Housing Alternative. She additionally served on the mayor’s Constitution Revision Fee, which offered voters with 4 housing-related ballot measures, together with three that created completely different avenues for mission approvals. Earlier than that, she served on the Metropolis Planning Fee and was chief of technique and coverage at nonprofit NYC Children RISE.
She additionally beforehand was chief of workers to 2 former commissioners of the Division of Housing Preservation and Improvement, in addition to a senior coverage advisor on the U.S. Division of Housing and City Improvement through the Obama administration.
The Actual Deal caught up with Bozorg this week to discuss the brand new function and the administration’s early actions.
This interview has been edited for readability and size.
What are your prime priorities on this new function?
I’m actually going to be centered on constructing off the inspiration of labor that I’ve executed in my profession over the previous 15 years to be sure that we’re utilizing each device at our disposal to deal with our housing disaster, and on this administration, constructing new instruments.
What sort of new instruments are you taking a look at?
I’m actually involved in constructing off the work that HPD has been doing, not solely to construct one hundred pc reasonably priced housing however [to develop] new, mixed-income instruments that permit us to construct each market-rate and reasonably priced housing. Particularly given the mayor’s bold objectives to create 200,000 new reasonably priced items, we’re going to must give you new, mixed-income methods to have the ability to scale to that stage of reasonably priced manufacturing. We’ll even be seeking to work intently with NYCHA, construct[ing] on the work that they’ve been doing by means of PACT, but in addition to reposition a few of their campuses to do reasonably priced infills together with constructing off the work on the Preservation Trust.
What’s your function in serving to the mayor ship on a few of his key marketing campaign guarantees, together with the promise to freeze rents on stabilized residences for the following 4 years?
An enormous a part of my function proper now could be going to be serving to to establish and appoint new members to the Lease Tips Board. It’s in the end going to be as much as the board to resolve whether or not it’s applicable for a lease freeze. However we’re assured that if you have a look at the assorted components that the board has to consider, they’ll discover {that a} lease freeze is suitable, by means of the method of each taking a look at information, taking testimony and looking out on the financial circumstances that tenants are dealing with.
As well as, we actually have to construct out our preservation methods supporting distressed buildings, together with distressed rent-stabilized buildings. We wish to be taking a look at completely different applications to assist carry down working prices. The difficulty of insurance coverage prices going up is one thing we’re wanting intently at, and whether or not there’s any public sector instruments we will carry to the desk to deal with these varieties of rising prices. And the mayor has additionally said that he’s involved in looking at our property tax system, which in the end creates a number of the sort of inequitable outcomes which have created misery within the rent-stabilized inventory.
When trying to find lease board candidates, are you searching for people who find themselves extra amenable to a lease freeze? You mentioned it’s in the end as much as the board to resolve, however the mayor’s pledge wasn’t certified in that manner through the marketing campaign.
There’s various necessities that board members have to satisfy to be certified to be on the board. We’ll be wanting to ensure anybody that’s appointed is certified to investigate these points comprehensively, as required by legislation.
How are you fascinated by the function of the Workplace to Defend Tenants, particularly by way of taking up distressed buildings?
There’s going to be plenty of issues that the workplace is targeted on, not simply on distressed properties or the case of dangerous landlords that should be held extra accountable, but in addition the varieties of companies that should be obtainable to tenants and dealing higher for tenants or the varieties of companies which can be usually obtainable however siloed throughout authorities.
The town really [has] plenty of examples of intervening in distressed multifamily properties and serving to facilitate preservation purchases. That’s an enormous chunk of labor that HPD does day by day, facilitating preservation transactions in order that buildings will be on a greater monetary basis and get rehab. The instruments exist already, however we’re one week in, and on the early phases of fascinated by whether or not there are gaps in that toolbox that we have to develop for the distressed inventory.
Are you involved that the housing regulation payments vetoed by Mayor Eric Adams may be revived by the Metropolis Council?
I’m actually excited to be working with the brand new Metropolis Council and with Speaker Julie Menin to advance shared housing objectives. And sure, we’ve voiced some considerations about various the payments that had been vetoed by the final administration, significantly with regards to the affect that a few of these payments could have on the price of housing manufacturing, or how a lot we will be producing with the restricted sources that now we have. It stays to be seen whether or not the Council will override these vetoes, however I’ve full religion that now we have plenty of shared objectives and that we’ll be capable to work collectively to deal with the reasonably priced housing problem.
The final administration didn’t veto the Development Justice Act, which established minimal wages for building staff on sure tasks. Do you might have a way of how that’s going to have an effect on town’s capacity to affect city-financed housing going ahead?
It’s a bill we help and sit up for working with the laborers and others to make sure that, as we’re constructing, persons are paid a livable and honest wage.
(The Adams administration warned that this measure can be the most costly of the housing measures.)
Do you count on landlords to take part within the Rental Ripoff hearings?
We wish to be listening to from everyone, together with landlords, concerning the varieties of points and circumstances that tenants are dealing with, or perhaps the varieties of unscrupulous charges that they’re dealing with, however we additionally wish to hear the experiences that landlords and property managers are confronted with as effectively. For too lengthy, we’ve been a bit disconnected from actual individuals’s voices. We’re actually aiming to carry New Yorkers into the policy-making course of very early on within the administration, in order that we will hear from them straight as we’re creating the housing plan and making a baseline for brand spanking new housing coverage.
There are some individuals in the true property trade who see the early actions of the administration as anti-landlord. How do you consider balancing the push for extra tenant protections whereas additionally encouraging improvement of housing by the personal sector?
We actually have to have the ability to do a number of issues without delay. We now have to be aggressive in addressing our housing provide challenges. That’s why two of the executive orders had been actually centered on discovering websites for extra housing and rushing up the event course of. This mayor very a lot acknowledges that now we have a housing scarcity and desires to be extremely aggressive on the event entrance, so we’ll stay a pro-development administration. On the similar time, sure, there’s going to be a deal with making certain we will do this whereas additionally defending tenants. That’s essential for a metropolis like ours, the place now we have a 1.4 p.c emptiness fee. It’s extremely exhausting to seek out housing, and that’s created an uneven taking part in subject for tenants throughout the entire metropolis.
What do you wish to see occur on the Elizabeth Avenue Backyard web site, the place the final administration deserted plans for senior housing?
We’ll must take an in depth have a look at the actions that the final administration made on the very finish of the administration, and consider the sort of value and advantage of attempting to maneuver ahead on the location.
Does town plan to step in or assist different portfolios in comparable conditions because the Pinnacle buildings?
We now have a historical past of supporting preservation of tasks which can be in bodily and monetary misery. A big a part of HPD work focuses on repositioning properties which can be dealing with each bodily or monetary misery. We now have various instruments, however we’ll be evaluating case-by-case on what our choices are to help buildings and the tenants that reside in them.
Learn extra
Mamdani taps Leila Bozorg as deputy mayor of housing
Mamdani admin objects to sale of Pinnacle units to Summit
Election-year state-vs-city politics are affecting Mamdani’s first days in office
