In the course of the early days of the COVID pandemic, then-Metropolis Councilman Brad Lander was a number one champion of the #CancelRent motion. However on the similar time he was pushing for a hire moratorium, Lander — now a number one candidate for mayor on this yr’s election — charged his Brooklyn tenant greater than $1,600 per thirty days in hire, based on a assessment of his monetary disclosures.
Lander’s disclosures solely provide ranges versus actual greenback figures, however his marketing campaign confirmed Monday the tenant at his Park Slope property paid him $1,625 per thirty days in 2020, 2021 and 2022, tallying as much as $19,500 per yr. Lander and his spouse dwell in the identical constructing.
Brad Lander. (Barry Williams / New York Day by day Information)
A spokeswoman for Lander, who was elected metropolis comptroller in November 2021 and has sought to distance himself from a few of his most progressive stances since turning into a mayoral candidate, mentioned his tenant in 2020 and 2021 was an Afghan refugee employed by the town authorities who didn’t lose his job throughout COVID.
The spokeswoman, Dora Pekec, additionally famous the quantity Lander charged his tenant was beneath market price, with a examine from the MNS actual property company discovering the common hire in Park Slope in January 2021 was $2,759 for a one-bedroom and $3,698 for a two-bedroom.
“What Brad was advocating for in 2020 was that folks who lost their jobs should not be evicted and should receive rental assistance from the state, which is something Andrew Cuomo failed to do,” Pekec mentioned, referencing how then-Gov. Cuomo didn’t enact hire reduction packages that had been as in depth as some housing advocates had hoped.
“All this shows is that Brad Lander has the heart to rent out a unit to a political refugee in need,” she added.
Lander’s push for pandemic hire reduction at occasions went past calling for an eviction moratorium and rental help.
The #CancelRent motion was decentralized and composed of a number of factions pushing completely different proposals. Some supporters wished hire cancelled just for New Yorkers who misplaced their jobs, with the understanding that the state would additionally compensate landlords by way of the so-called Emergency Rental Help Program. Others advocated for a extra expansive plan that’d abolish hire for all tenants.
Lander urged his Twitter followers on Could 1, 2020 to signal a petition that known as on metropolis tenants to go on “rent strike” by refusing to pay their landlords if Cuomo and the state Legislature didn’t enact a common moratorium “for the duration of the public health crisis.” Together with sharing the petition, Lander posted a photograph of himself sporting a face masks with “#CancelRent” written throughout it in black Sharpie.
“You shouldn’t be surprised there’s a movement to #CancelRent,” Lander tweeted a couple of months later. “You should be surprised there’s not a revolution.”
Task – CUOMO
Andrew Cuomo. (Theodore Parisienne for New York Day by day Information)
In the end, state lawmakers and Cuomo — who resigned as governor in August 2021 amid sexual misconduct accusations and is now one other main 2025 mayoral candidate — by no means cancelled hire, a call Lander panned in March 2021.
“Albany has continued to kick the can down the road,” Lander tweeted March 1, 2021 earlier than thanking organizers of a “Sunset Park march to #CancelRent & #InvestInOurNY.”
Although hire was by no means canceled, the state enacted a moratorium on evictions for a lot of the pandemic. The town additionally froze hire will increase for all stabilized tenants in 2020.
Affordability, particularly with regards to housing, is a key difficulty in June’s Democratic mayoral major race, which options practically a dozen candidates vying to unseat Eric Adams, whose reelection bid is in turmoil amid his federal corruption indictment and surrounding scandals.
Essentially the most left-leaning candidate within the race, Queens Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, has vowed to if elected freeze hire for all stabilized tenants within the metropolis for at the very least 4 years. Lander wouldn’t make the identical dedication as Mamdani at a mayoral candidate discussion board final month.
“If the data supports it,” Lander mentioned on the discussion board when requested if he’d as mayor freeze hire for stabilized tenants.
Initially Printed: March 25, 2025 at 3:31 PM EDT
