Fox News Digital spoke to Manhattan Institute scholar John Ketcham about Zohran Mamdani's housing policies (Getty/Fox News Digital)
"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.
MAMDANI CONFRONTED ON STREETS OF NYC ABOUT 'COMMUNIST' LABEL, REFUSES TO ANSWER
Zohran Mamdani during an election night event in New York, early on Wednesday, June 25, 2025. (Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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.
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/expert-flips-script-key-mamdani-housing-problem-he-says-will-make-crisis-worse-basic-economics