Adams Makes 4 Appointments To RGB, Stymying Mamdani's Rent Freeze Promise

In the eleventh-hour of his mayoralty, Mayor Eric Adams made four appointments and reappointments to New York City's Rent Guidelines Board, throwing a wrench into Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s plans for a rent freeze.

In a Thursday evening announcement, Adams reset the clock on the tenure of officials serving on expired terms. Those members were previously at risk of being replaced by Mamdani appointees, who would be more likely to vote in favor of freezing rents on the city’s one million stabilized apartments.  

The new board ensures that Adams’ appointees make up the majority of the nine-member board for at least the next year. Terms range from two to four years. 

“We’re using every tool in our toolbox to tackle our city’s housing crisis, and that includes appointing smart, seasoned experts to the city’s Rent Guidelines Board,” Adams said in a statement. “These respected appointees bring decades of experience in the housing sector and I am confident they will serve as responsible stewards of our city’s housing stock, using facts and data to reach the right decision for both tenants and property owners.”

Sagar Sharma, the deputy director of nonprofit advocacy group Legal Services NYC, was appointed as a tenant representative, and Merrill Lynch senior financial adviser Lliam Finn was named as a public representative.

Sharma replaces Genesis Aquino, the executive director of Tenants & Neighbors, a grassroots organization that advocates on the behalf of tenants. Aquino was appointed by Adams in 2023.

Finn replaces former Mayor Bill de Blasio appointee Alex Schwartz, a professor in the Public and Urban Policy program at the New School for Social Research.

Two representatives, who were both appointed to the board in 2022, were reappointed to their positions. Smyth Law PC founder Christina Smyth will continue to serve as an owner representative, and New York University Stern School of Business associate professor of finance Arpit Gupta will remain as a public representative.

The appointees join three others that Adams named to the board in March. Doug Apple, president and CEO of 1811Consulting, is the board chair. Niskanen Center Senior Housing policy analyst Alex Armlovich and urban planner and educator Reed Jordan are both public members.

Legal Aid Society attorney Adán Soltren serves as a tenant representative, and Lazarus Karp Ehrlich McCourt partner Robert Ehrlich is an owner representative.

Mamdani still will be able to make four appointments in 2026: the chair and representatives for landlords, tenants and the public. The next time he will be able to flip the board to gain control will be in 2027, when terms for the remaining five positions expire.

"We are just as committed to a four-year rent freeze for the more than two million rent-stabilized tenants who call this city home and deserve relief amidst this affordability crisis,” Mamdani said in a statement. “We will use all the tools at our disposal to deliver it and last minute appointments do not change these facts.”

The RGB goes through a monthslong process each year to examine the state of rent-stabilized housing stock in the city. After a series of public hearings and the review of economic data, the members are tasked with deciding how much landlords can raise rents on tenants living in regulated units.

Though members are appointed by the mayor, they are expected to act independently. The RGB has voted on an increase every year under Adams, with rents for stabilized units up a cumulative 12% during his tenure.

Property owners argue that even those rent hikes haven't been enough to keep up with inflation and damage done by the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019. The legislation closed loopholes that allowed landlords to deregulate apartments but, in doing so, caused building values to plummet.

Many landlords have found themselves underwater on their mortgages as a result. Nearly 60% of owners are in the red after paying expenses and debt, a spike from 25% in 2019 before HSTPA took hold, according to a study by nonprofit affordable housing providers National Equity Fund and Enterprise Community Providers.

HSTPA also restricted landlords’ ability to raise rents after building improvements and tenant departures. Due to succession rights, tenants often live in rent-stabilized units for decades or even generations. 

An inability to pencil rents with renovations has caused an increase in unit warehousing and building deterioration. The New York Housing Conference estimates at least $1B is needed to prevent widespread defaults among the city's rent-stabilized housing stock.