Mamdani Hogging a Rent Stabilized Apartment While New Yorkers Sleep on the Streets 

How dare Mamdani occupy his $2,300-a-month rent-stabilized one-bedroom in Astoria, Queens — one of the city’s most coveted, affordable apartments — while thousands of desperate New Yorkers, including single mothers and their kids, live in homeless shelters? 

Somewhere right now, a family is living in a shelter because Mamdani is sitting pretty in a rent-controlled apartment he doesn’t need. This is an insult to every struggling New Yorker who’s been priced out of their own city. 

Mamdani is no struggling fighter. He was born into wealth, married an even richer wife, and threw extravagant weddings across three continents. He owns property in Uganda — a country where LGBTQIA+ people face brutal persecution — and pulls down a $142,000 salary from the state, not to mention the income from his illustrator wife, Rama Duwaji. 

And yet, despite all this, Mamdani and his wife cling to a rent-stabilized deal that could transform the live of low-income or homeless New Yorker desperate for affordable housing. “We are in the midst of a historic affordability crisis,” said one outraged housing activist. “That apartment should be occupied by someone who actually needs it — not a political celebrity who can easily pay market rent.”