A group of left-leaning mayoral candidates accused Andrew Cuomo on Friday of deepening New York City’s housing crisis as governor—and warned he would prioritize wealthy real estate interests over working-class tenants if elected mayor.
The four New York Working Families Party-endorsed candidates gathered with party leaders and tenant advocates in City Hall Park on April 19 to paint Cuomo — the front-runner in the mayor’s race — as “your landlord’s favorite mayoral candidate.”
The candidates present included City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, City Comptroller Brad Lander, state Sen. Zellnor Myrie (D-Brooklyn), and Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens).
“Andrew Cuomo cannot give a rat’s ass about the lives or future or housing justice for every single New Yorker,” Lander said. “He is a corrupt, abusive ego maniac who shows time and time and time again that he cares about only one thing, and that is Andrew Cuomo.”
The rally marked the latest effort by the mayoral hopefuls to highlight Cuomo’s record as governor as a reason he should not return to elected office.
Cuomo resigned in 2021 amid multiple allegations of sexual harassment, which he denies.
So far, the attempt to resurface his past controversies has done little to dent his campaign—he continues to lead in the polls and rack up institutional endorsements.
NYWFP Co-Chair Ana Maria Archila argued that Cuomo’s policies during his 11-year tenure as governor drove up rents and contributed to a surge in homelessness.
She said that under his leadership rents soared 33% statewide, homelessness doubled in the city, and 50% of tenants in the five boroughs were rent burdened—meaning they spent over 30% of their income on rent.
“We are here to remind New Yorkers that we don’t need to settle for a person who has abused his power in office, who has neglected the needs of working families, the needs of tenants,” Archila said.
“We don’t need to settle for men that abuse their power and use our communities to get votes while using their power to deliver for the rich real estate, corporate donors.”
In response, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi touted what he described as Cuomo’s “decades-long record of fighting for tenant rights” both as governor and as U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under former President Bill Clinton, while dismissing his rivals’ criticisms.
He specifically pointed to Cuomo’s creation of a “tenant protection unit” and his launch of a statewide initiative to finance 100,000 affordable housing units and 6,000 supportive housing units during his time as governor.
“New Yorkers know he’s the candidate with the experience and the record to help fix what’s broken in this city and they are not going to be swayed by this gaslighting from far-left political operatives and a clown car of career politicians with no vision or achievements of their own,” Azzopardi said.
However, Cuomo’s competitors see his record on housing differently.
Speaker Adams charged that Cuomo contributed to the city’s homelessness crisis by cutting millions of dollars in funding for a state rental-assistance voucher program in 2011, known as the Advantage.
She said that move, which led to the program’s collapse, pushed more than 16,000 New Yorkers into shelters over three years.
“When he says that he is stepping over homeless people, and somebody should do something about it, he should have done something about it when he was heading our state,” Speaker Adams said.
“He can’t fix our city if he couldn’t fix our state.”
Cuomo’s team has pushed back on that criticism by arguing that he replaced Advantage with other housing subsidy programs that were funded at higher levels.
Mamdani, a Democratic socialist who has been placing second in recent polls, slammed Cuomo over the $2.3 million in real estate donations that reportedly flowed into the super PAC supporting his candidacy — “Fix the City.”
He said the financial support from real estate interests shows Cuomo is “disconnected” from everyday New Yorkers’ struggles with affordability, including paying for housing.
“Ultimately, he does not have an answer for how he could fix the state that he broke,” Mamdani said.
“He does not have an answer for how he could make the city more affordable when he has worked arm-in-arm with those who have made millions from inequality.
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