Demented: Mamdani launched a plan to expropriate private buildings as a solution to the housing crisis in New York.

The communist mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, announced a plan to expropriate buildings from their owners and transfer them to new hands in a plan he has called "block by block" (in Spanish, manzana por manzana).

"Through our new citywide campaign, Fix the City, we will focus on the worst landlords in New York City. When necessary, we will take aggressive legal action to remove negligent property owners and managers. For buildings that have suffered chronic abandonment, we will work to transfer ownership to responsible managers, including community land trusts, nonprofit organizations, or even to the tenants themselves

The Democratic Party member assured that his program will involve the construction of 200,000 "new affordable housing units" in the city that taxpayers will have to finance with an approximate expenditure of $22 billion over the next five years. An additional 200,000 units will be converted into stabilized rental properties.

Mamdani plans to use an unconstitutional program to confiscate

However, the municipal chief did not detail how the expropriations of private property and their subsequent delivery to tenants will be legally carried out. One possible avenue is the Third Party Transfer (TPT) program of the city, a controversial mechanism that allows the government of New York to execute the mortgage of crisis buildings whose owners have fallen behind on tax payments and fines.

This program was suspended in 2019 after its constitutionality was contested in the courts, more precisely for violating the property rights of owners. This year, a bill was introduced in the New York legislature seeking to reactivate the TPT.

Mamdani argues that with this communist measure, "it will be demonstrated that the government can deliver solutions to the most difficult problems, not just debate them" and that his government will be able to "build the solutions we now need" for housing.