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Ten of New York City’s worst landlords are on notice. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration has launched Fix the City, a program built to force chronic violators into compliance or hand their buildings to new owners entirely. For tenants stuck with broken elevators, mold and roach infestations, the effort promises overdue relief. For landlords already squeezed by rent limits and rising costs, it raises a harder question: could tougher enforcement push struggling owners toward foreclosure instead of repairs?
Inside the Fix the City Program
The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development is combining existing tools into one targeted campaign. According to HPD Commissioner Dina Levy, the city has long had authority to punish negligent landlords but rarely used it together. “We just decided we needed to layer the tools together in a way that is a little bit more strategic,” Levy said. Fix the City rolls out later this year, aiming for fast results against repeat offenders.
The Legal Tools Behind the Crackdown
Fix the City leans on New York’s 7A program, which lets courts strip negligent owners of day-to-day control over their buildings. HPD plans coordinated roof-to-cellar inspections timed with tenants, then follows up with its anti-harassment unit, the Department of Buildings and the Law Department. Officials say they will work with lenders to pressure compliance, or push straight into foreclosure when landlords refuse to fix what they own.
Meet One of the City’s Worst Landlords
A&E Real Estate offers a preview of who Fix the City is built for. The company’s portfolio racked up nearly 9,000 open violations on the city’s 2025 Landlord Watchlist. Tenant Anna Giannicchi described a leaking ceiling, broken stove, and roach infestation in her Washington Heights building. A&E called the accusations misleading, saying it has invested more than $800 million across its properties. The dispute captures the fight ahead.
How the City Plans to Transfer Buildings
Two mechanisms work together to move properties out of bad landlords’ hands. The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, or COPA, gives tenants and nonprofits first rights to buy buildings landlords choose to sell. Fix the City covers buildings that fall into violation instead. Owners who cannot keep up face pressure to transfer ownership to what officials call “responsible stewards”: community land trusts, nonprofits, or the tenants themselves.
The Woman Steering Tenant Policy
Cea Weaver, director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, helped draft the housing blueprint driving this crackdown. Weaver has long argued for stronger limits on landlords and previously called for challenging traditional views of private property ownership, positions that have drawn sharp criticism from real estate groups. Supporters see her as a fierce advocate finally empowered to act. Critics see a City Hall insider deciding which landlords lose their buildings.
Landlords Warn of a Squeeze
Property owner groups say the math does not work. “His campaign promise to socialize housing is becoming a reality,” said Ann Korchak, board president of the Small Property Owners of New York, according to the New York Post. Steve Fulop, president of the Partnership for New York City, called the plan “a squeeze at both ends of every deal,” warning it could drive away the private investment Mamdani needs to hit his housing goals.
Why So Many Buildings Are Already Struggling
The pressure predates Fix the City. A 2019 state law limiting rent increases has left many landlords unable to afford repairs on rent-stabilized units, and insurance and maintenance costs keep climbing. More than 26,000 rent-controlled apartments now sit vacant citywide, and vacancy among small landlords has reached 25 percent, compared with 1.4 percent citywide, according to the city’s housing and vacancy survey. That is the backdrop the new crackdown steps into.
The Cautionary Tale Next Door
Skeptics point to the New York City Housing Authority as a warning. NYCHA’s own buildings carry a repair backlog exceeding $78 billion, according to the city’s latest needs assessment, with nearly 40% of apartments requiring more than $500,000 in repairs each. Watchdogs like the Citizens Budget Commission warn that once maintenance costs outpace what a building generates, city-run housing can spiral into the same neglect officials are trying to punish landlords for.
A Test of Who Can Actually Fix New York’s Housing
Fix the City puts Mayor Mamdani’s promise to the test. Tenants tired of mold, broken heat, and ignored complaints finally have a program built around accountability rather than paperwork. Landlords argue the same pressure that punishes neglect could push financially fragile owners into the foreclosures the city says it wants to avoid. Whether the program produces safer buildings or simply new owners with the same old problems will come down to how well the city executes it.