Read our feature article “NYC Public Housing Tenants Organize Against Slum Conditions and Privatization” here.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and US President Donald Trump met at the mayor’s mansion on September 21 to discuss Mamdani’s plan for an expansive housing project atop the Sunnyside rail yard in Queens with federal support.
Trump made the planned visit before speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, where he threatened to “annihilate the Islamic Republic”.
The two spoke jovially, with Trump saying that Mamdani will be “hopefully, a really great mayor.” Mamdani announced that he and the president agreed to advance talks to a technical level to discuss carrying out the project.
According to the mayor’s office, the proposal entails building a $21 billion platform above the rail yard that would allow real estate monopolists to construct housing on the platform.
Mamdani claimed the project would lead to the creation of 12,000 housing units, and 30,000 jobs in the process.
The idea of housing above the rail yard has long been flirted with by NYC administrations for decades, given its prime location near the East River and Manhattan.
Mamdani has worked closely with real estate monopolies with the stated aim of increasing the supply of cheaper housing in the city.
In August, Mamdani invited 15 executives to join his administration’s business advisory council, including several real estate monopolists.
One of these real estate executives, RXR chairman and CEO Scott Rechler, told real estate news outlet The Real Deal in late August, “The economy’s thriving, the commercial leasing market is thriving, people were saying that people were going to flee New York and the reality is, we’ve seen an enormous influx of talent and the wealthy buying condominiums at record levels.”
The news outlet writes, “Since the mayor took office eight months ago, many of the concerns about his agenda and its potential impact on the business community have proven to be overstated, according to Rechler, who said a ‘caricature’ painted in the media and even the administration’s own rhetoric has clouded the reality.”
The outlet also remarks the administration has launched two city tasks forces to speed up approval and construction of housing developments, and is set to lead another later this year “aimed at overhauling building codes to facilitate new construction and upgrades by finding cost savings for developers, according to the mayor’s housing plan.”
Mamdani’s administration has also given its support to privatization of public housing through the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program, a vicious cycle in which public housing is left to deteriorate as the land it is on increases in value and then sold to private real estate monopolies for management and renovation during which tenants are evicted and rents are raised.
As part of this program, the mayor is moving forward with the eviction of New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) residents from Fulton Elliot-Chelsea (FEC) for “redevelopment” by Related Companies, the largest real estate monopoly in the city. Some tenants at FEC have refused to leave and are actively resisting city efforts to force them out.
New developments can involve demolition of existing housing and raise prices in the area, forcing lower-income residents out of the neighborhood, according to a number of urban research studies.
About 263,000 housing units sit vacant in NYC for various reasons, according to a 2023 study by the city. Of these, 33,210 units are available for rent, and 230,200 units are vacant and not available for rent or sale. The top three reasons given for unavailability are: “Held for occasional use”, “Awaiting or undergoing renovation”, or “Held as vacant”.
Today, about 26,000 rent-stabilized apartments and 6,200 NYCHA apartments are vacant. Add to this the tens of millions of square feet of office vacancy (12.5% of NYC office space is vacant as of July, according to the city comptroller), and it becomes clear that the housing crisis is not simply a matter of supply and demand, but private ownership and profitability.
Image: Zohran Mamdani (2024) and Donald Trump (2011) speaking at separate events; photographs cropped and composited by The Worker. Credit: Bingjiefu He, CC BY-SA 4.0; “Donald Trump” by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0.
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