New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has followed through on a signature promise of his no-nonsense campaign, getting a “rent freeze” on nearly 1 million rent-stabilized units as of Oct.
Sometimes, city politics are like falling bosses. Take the $15 battle, for example. Seattle first introduced a $15 an hour minimum wage in 2014, and support spread to higher-cost cities like San Francisco before growing into a national movement. Sixteen states now have minimum wage rates of at least $15.
Right now, New York is on an island when it comes to frozen rents. But it’s not the only city known for jaw-dropping rental costs, and Mamdani is not the only democratic socialist in power. So could this freeze be the start of something big?
Money emailed 20 mayors to ask if they would support New York-style rental housing in their cities. We sought out Democratic mayors and cities known for progressive housing policy. However, none of the mayors we contacted said they would support a rent freeze in the Mamdani way.
Experts say this question may be confusing for elected officials who do not see a way to rent but who realize that the people under them are very worried about the high cost of housing. Rent control is a hot debate that may have strategies to avoid.
“Obviously there’s a reason why they don’t want to comment on New York City: It’s somebody else’s problem. It’s not their problem,” said David Schleicher, a Yale Law School professor of architecture and urban law.
Will other mayors copy New York’s rent freeze?
Schleicher says Mamdani was in a unique position to freeze rent because New York City had rent stabilization, meaning rent increases for covered units were already below the legal limit. The mayor appoints members of the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, which determines the rent increases allowed each year. This set-up enabled Mamdani to celebrate the rent freeze – a policy that prohibits the increase of stable units – just six months after it came into force.
In many other cities, a campaign to freeze rent will require the support of the city council, at least. An even bigger obstacle: More than 30 states prohibit local regulation of rent increases.
Nationally, rent control policies are popular with voters. More than 80% of US urban residents support limiting how much landlords can raise rents, according to survey data collected from 2020 to 2023 for a working paper by researchers at Harvard, Boston University and Georgetown.
No matter where other mayors stand on rent control, their power to do anything about it is essentially nonexistent, Schleicher said. (This may explain the silence when Mali asks if they will return the lease to their town.)
“It’s like asking a person, if they can fly, what can they do?” Schleicher says. “They don’t know.”
State bans have not always stopped cities from trying to implement rent control. But they make it doubly difficult.
Check out what happened recently in Boston. In February, Mayor Michelle Wu, whose office did not respond to our July request for comment, came out in support of a Massachusetts ballot initiative to repeal the statewide ban and cap rents at 5% or the rate of inflation — whichever is lower. It would also give Boston the power to exercise rent control.
But in June, the Massachusetts Supreme Court removed the question from the November 2026 election, finding that the exemption for religious institutions violated the state constitution. It was a setback for affordable housing advocates, who can try again in 2028.
Even in the dozen or so states where rent control is not banned, however, Schleicher says it’s “unlikely” that any city will follow New York City’s lead anytime soon. The mayors, who are not named after Mamdani, are not talking about the current rent freeze.
“I suspect they’re all looking at New York and saying, ‘I don’t know, man. That’s really complicated. Not for me,'” Schleicher said.
It is testing 20 mayors for a rent freeze
All 20 mayors contacted by Mali identify as Democrats. Our list intentionally included cities known for progressive politics and tenant protections.
One such example is Providence, Rhode Island, a liberal stronghold with a reputation for being one of the most affordable cities in the country for renters.
The city council passed legislation earlier this year that would limit rent increases to 4%. Mayor Brett Smiley voted for it, and the council fell one of the 10 votes it needed to override the vote.
Smiley says rent control hasn’t improved housing affordability in cities he’s tried.
“The primary goal of the Smiley Administration is to make housing more affordable for Providence’s neighbors. Too many Providence residents are feeling the strain of rising rents and limited housing options, and addressing this challenge remains at the core of our mission. That urgency requires solutions that are proven to work and are built to last,” Smiley spokesman Austin Grondin told Money in an email. “Rent control does not meet that standard.”
The history of rent control laws in the US goes back 100 years. One of the most recent experiments in rent control took place in St. Paul, Minnesota, where employment is below national levels – but so is household income.
In 2021, voters in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul both passed rent control laws. St. Paul negotiated a 3% rent increase for the next year; Minneapolis never did. (The Minneapolis law simply amended the city charter to allow the council to implement rent control.)
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey had an up-close look at the rent control saga in St. Louis. Paul around him – often cited by critics as one of the biggest failures of rent control – and strengthened his opposition.
“Mayor Frey supports the goal of making housing more affordable, but she does not support rent freezes or traditional rent controls because evidence shows that these policies reduce housing production and ultimately make it harder to deal with long-term affordability,” Jennifer Lor, the Mayor’s press secretary, told Imali by email. “Policies that stifle new rental development are moving the city in the wrong direction.”
A June analysis from researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis was more measured, confirming that rental housing developments “slowed down after measures to tighten employment” while citing interviews with owners and developers describing a “chilling effect” from the law. The report acknowledged that there is no “hard data” about what caused the decline.
Frey argues that better solutions to rising taxes include government investment in affordable housing and ending single-family zoning.
“These pro-housing policies have helped Minneapolis lead other cities, including St. Paul, in housing production,” Lor said.
By 2025, St. Paul lifted its rent control when former Mayor Melvin Carter asked the city council to exempt buildings built after 2004 from the stabilization ordinance, saying developers were struggling to find money to build housing. The council agreed on a 4-3 vote, although many older buildings in St. Paul are still subject to the 3% rule.
The search for a mayor in support of a rent freeze continues.
Other cities on the West Coast have restrictive rent laws that limit rent hikes to a smaller percentage than St. Paul.
In San Francisco, where 172,000 rental units are regulated, the maximum rent increase allowed is 1.6% through Feb. 28, 2027. Another 43,000 units in Oakland, California, are covered by the same plan, which will allow for a maximum increase of 2.3% next year. Los Angeles froze rents for about 650,000 rent-stabilized units during the violence; The maximum allowable increase is now 3%.
Even in these California cities that regulate rent in older units, none of the mayors’ offices we contacted could say whether they support a rent freeze today. And Nithya Raman, a progressive council member in a competitive race that could unseat Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
In Seattle, Mayor Katie Wilson took office in January after a successful campaign on her background as an activist and founder of the local transit rider association. A democratic socialist who was appointed after Mamdani, Wilson is often compared to him.
While Mamdani campaigned in 2025 to freeze rent in New York City, Wilson was asked directly during the October mayoral debate if he agreed with the rent freeze.
“It’s not a rental property, no,” he said, according to Center Square. “I support rent stabilization, and I think the devil is in the details about how we design a policy like that, and we’re actually not allowed in Seattle by state law. But, yes, I certainly support — if we could do it locally and certainly statewide — a rent stabilization policy.”
Like California, state laws in Washington (and Oregon) are stepping up and prohibiting cities from implementing rent control.
“We have no comment on this matter at this time,” Wilson’s office told Money.
Current and possible future mayors of Washington, DC, did not participate in our inquiry, either. Mayor Muriel Bowser, whose term ends in January, will likely be succeeded by Janeese Lewis George, a social democrat on the city council.
Bowser’s staff responded to our request – praising the progress on the “regeneration[ing] our post-pandemic housing ecosystem” by investing in affordable housing — but avoided a specific question about the rent freeze. Lewis George did not respond.
Rather than demanding a rent freeze, mayors often say that inventory is their priority. Bowser executives report that DC has gained nearly 73,000 homes since 2015, including 22,000 affordable units.
“More housing is driving down rents,” the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development wrote in an email.
Schleicher says it makes sense for mayors to stay focused on housing supply as it is within their power to fix and the cause of high prices – the problem they are trying to solve in the end.
“There is politics around rent control in many different areas, but on the other hand, something that has been common to all mayors in the recent past is focusing on increasing the provision of basic services, including New York City,” he adds.
Issue: A 20-point platform on affordable housing development and zero-demand rental funds has no call for a rent freeze, a simple idea that can fit on the back of a shirt, and doesn’t resonate quickly with voters.
Still, much of New York is still warm to Mamdani, and if the mayor’s snow brings relief from the woes of St. Paul, opinions can change outside of town.
Mayors of Los Angeles; San Francisco; Chicago; in Boston; Seattle; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Miami; Denver; Detroit; San Diego; St. Paul; Portland, Oregon; Raleigh, North Carolina; Santa Ana, California; Oakland, California; and Salem, Massachusetts; they did not comment on this story, but they will probably be watching what is happening in New York.
