Mamdani Stacks Rent Guidelines Board After Series of Resignations

Six new members, including a chairperson, were appointed to the New York City Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) Wednesday by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The decision follows a string of resignations from the board of RGB members appointed by former Mayor Eric Adams, with Alex Armlovich departing Tuesday. Chantella Mitchell will now lead the RGB as chairperson, the Mamdani administration announced Wednesday.

Sina Sinai, Lauren Melodia and Brandon Mancilla will represent the public, while Maksim Wynn will represent landlords and Adán Soltren will continue on the board as a tenant representative.

Members still on the board who were not up for replacement are Arpit Gupta, Christina Smyth and Sagar Sharma.

“I’m confident that, under the leadership of Chantella Mitchell as chair, the board will take a clear-eyed look at the complex housing landscape and the realities facing our city’s 2 million rent-stabilized tenants, and help us move closer to a fairer, more affordable New York,” Mamdani said in a statement. “At a moment when so many families are struggling to stay in their homes, this work could not be more important.”

The six new members appointed by Mamdani to the nine-person board will give him an edge in making good on his campaign promises to freeze all rent increases on the city’s rent-stabilized housing units.

The RGB will begin collecting data and holding public hearings in the spring before deliberating on what kind of rent adjustments will be amenable to landlords and tenants in the five boroughs for leases taking effect between Oct. 1, 2026, and Sept. 30, 2027, according to the mayor’s office.

Mitchell is the program director at the New York Community Trust, where she specializes in deploying grants. She is also co-chair of two organizations: the Change Capital Fund and the New York City Workforce Funders Collaborative.

In addition, she served as an executive director of the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, the city agency responsible for maintaining the housing stock through enforcement action.

The new mayor’s majority on the RGB didn’t bode well for the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), however.

“Many of the city’s heavily rent-regulated buildings are facing severe financial distress, which continues to lower apartment supply and deteriorate the city’s housing stock,” James Whelan, president of REBNY, said in a statement. “While it plays well on the campaign trail, a rent freeze is an ill-advised approach to addressing a complex issue.”

The New York Apartment Association (NYAA), a political action committee supporting landlords that financially backed former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for mayor in last year’s race, was similarly discomfited.

“Any objective review of the data shows that freezing rents would be destructive to pre-1974 rent-stabilized housing, which is about to face a significant property tax increase,” NYAA CEO Kenny Burgos said in a statement. “We believe the law requires RGB members to evaluate all relevant data and make a decision based on facts, not political ideology. If they choose to ignore the consensus view, then they will be opening up the process to legal scrutiny. Worse, they will be responsible for the deterioration and eventual destruction of thousands of rent-stabilized buildings.”

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.