Expert flips script on key Mamdani housing problem he says will make crisis worse: 'Basic economics'

EXCLUSIVE: As New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani pushes solutions to the city’s housing issues, including a rent freeze, Fox News Digital spoke to a local expert who said Mamdani’s agenda will do more harm than good to the housing situation. 

"The fundamental problem with New York City's housing market is that there is not enough supply to meet the demand," John Ketcham, a legal policy fellow and director of cities at the Manhattan Institute, told Fox News Digital. 

"The city government has prevented the private sector from building enough housing through zoning, through other forms of regulation, through affordability requirements and so forth, and so we've had more jobs created in New York City than housing units to support the population of newcomers and so that has simply increased prices. Prices are an effect of the supply-demand dynamic. They're not a cause, they're an effect."

Mamdani, positioning himself as a champion of the working class and someone who would address the housing crisis with policies like a rent freeze, doesn’t address the actual problem. 

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"Assembly member Mamdani's proposal to freeze the rent would only apply to the 1 million units of rent-stabilized apartments," Ketcham said. "Now, these are units that can only increase in rents by an amount that the rent guidelines board determines and those members of the rent guidelines board are appointed by the mayor. So he would essentially appoint these members and direct them to keep rents stable."

Ketcham continued, "Now, rents are already not covering increased operational costs for the owners of these rent-stabilized buildings and so the quality of the rent-stabilized housing stock is deteriorating rapidly and will continue to do so if the capital is not there to cover maintenance and operational costs. Roofs leak and boilers break. These things have to be fixed and there has to be enough in the rent increases to allow for these increased costs. If there isn't, then we're going to see a situation where tenants are living in worse and worse conditions each year."

Ketcham told Fox News Digital that the situation raises the question, "Is that the type of city that we want to create?"

"Or do we want a city where we have an abundance of new housing, where young people can feel like they have an option from among many different buildings and neighborhoods, where they can find the place that best suits their preferences and needs?" Ketcham said. 

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Ketcham also said a key issue in the New York City housing market is that the city already has the largest public housing authority in the country, totaling 177,000 units. According to Ketcham, those residents are already "truly suffering from gross mismanagement."

"It takes our public housing Authority, NYSHA, 413 days to complete a repair on average," Ketcham said. "It's so bad that our far-left public advocate, Jumaane Williams, has repeatedly called NYSHA the worst landlord in the city. So these are issues where we're looking at what kind of city is New York going to be? Is it going to a place that rewards aspiration and that tries to attract newcomers who want to live in conditions that are getting better every year? Or is it going to stay stagnant and simply appeal to those who seek security above all else?"

Mamdani, who has made lowering costs for New Yorkers a cornerstone of his campaign, has also proposed building 200,000 affordable housing units.

Mamdani's plan, aimed at tackling the tag team crisis of affordability and housing, includes an immediate freeze on more than 2 million rent-stabilized apartments. 

Fox News Digital asked Ketcham if he thinks the housing situation will get worse under a Mamdani administration, and he replied, "I do." 

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Ketcham explained his belief that rent controls "reduce the quality and the quantity of housing by reducing investment."

"That's just the basic economics of it," Ketcham said. "It's been tried in other cities like in Chicago and in St. Louis with Cabrini-Green and Pruitt-Igoe, which were historic failures in public housing."

"The residents of these places have to contend with mold, rats and other vermin; they have all sorts of crime issues as well, so those experiments simply did not work. What does work is allowing the private sector to build a lot of new housing, including market-rate housing across the city and Mr. Mamdani's proposals are not necessarily amenable to that kind of private investment. In fact, he'd like to substitute in large part that private investment with public investment, public building projects."

Fox News Digital reached out to the Mamdani campaign for comment.