NYC NOW - Newsflash, the Rent Is Still Too Damn High. And Other Things New York Renters Need to Know in 2026

Episode Date: January 14, 2026

Housing is the issue that shapes how long people can stay in New York and whether they feel secure once they do. With a new mayor taking office and major housing decisions unfolding in courts, boardrooms, and city agencies, we take a step back to explain what is actually driving affordability right now. Tenant rights attorney and city planning commissioner Leah Goodridge breaks down how the system works, why rent stabilization is under attack, what “affordable housing” really means, and what renters should be watching next as housing policy enters a pivotal moment.

Can I get your first and last name? Stella Embriatus. Stella, nice to meet you, lovely coat. Thank you. Would you say that your rent's affordable? Not at all. I split it with my sister and my splits around $3,000, which I think is a lot.

If you rent in New York City, you already know this. Housing here, it ain't cheap. We just heard from New York City transplant, Stella Embriatus, who shares a two-bedroom apartment downtown. But no matter where you are in the Big Apple, everyone's filling the weight of housing affordability and questioning life in the city that we all love. Like Christina Ajah, a South Bronx native.

I'm still with my family, but rent is definitely, like, raising. And with, like, my mom's income, like, we mainly rely on her. So it's just getting, like, a little harder. I'm very frustrated with it. And I see, like, NYC becoming less affordable. Like, I can see myself, like, just moving out, moving somewhere in, like, New England and just like having a life there inside.

From WNYC, this is NYC now. I'm Jenae Pierre. New York City has a new mayor, Zeranamam Dhani, and housing is one of the first areas where he's moving quickly, signing executive orders aimed at tenant protections and housing policy. But a lot of the housing decisions shaping people's lives right now were made in the final days of the Adams administration, including vetoes of bills aimed at making housing more affordable for New Yorkers.

At the same time, some of the biggest housing questions are currently being decided in court or through boards and processes that most New Yorkers we never get to see. To help us understand some of the housing decisions being made right now, we're joined by Leah Goodrich, a Brooklyn-based tenants rights attorney who's worked as a housing lawyer served on the Rent Guidelines Board and now sits on the City Planning Commission. Leah, welcome to the show. Thank you.

Happy to be here. We're happy to have you. So, yeah, yeah. Tell me about your time growing up in Brooklyn and what that was like. Sure. I grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, which is in the eastern part of Brooklyn. And I have to say as an adult, I do not have a lot of fear. And I think that is because I grew up in Brownsville.

Never ran, never will. That's the slogan. All New York City neighborhoods don't actually have a slogan, but Brownsville does. So I grew up there in Mitchelama, and that is a type of affordable housing opportunity. It's a co-op, and it's for low-to-moderate income New Yorkers. And it was very communal.

A quick story, I remember when I was about maybe 12, I got in a fight with some girls. She beat me up. And my mom, she just went right over to the next Mitchelama building. that the girl lived in and spoke with her mom, and then they hashed it out, and then, like, that was it. But it was a whole, like, you know, we live next door, we know where you live.

You know where we live clearly because you came to our apartment and, like, now our neighbors know we will shame you and, et cetera, et cetera. The good old days. The good old days. And I say that because probably today people would have involved a third party like the cops. And so it was enough back, at least when I was growing up, that, like, people knew about it that you were ashamed

that you did this. Yeah, yeah. So you made it up out of Brownsville, and since then, you have worn many hats in your career from representing tenants to helping shape housing policy. I'm wondering from where you sit right now, what would you say are the most important housing issues that New Yorkers face?

I would say the most important housing issue is affordability and how we define it, because affordability means different things to different people. Now, I think from where I sit, I think the prevailing view for a lot of New York City government that they have taken on and adopted is this view that affordability is simply just going to come with building more housing. So we don't need to focus on the exact numbers of how much these units are going for. So let's say, for example, if the studios that we're building that's affordable housing are $2,000 in Flabush,

okay, well, as long as we build more of those, the market is going to come down, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't agree with that. So my view on affordability is if we are a government, and I sit on the city planning commission, so technically I am, I think that we need to make sure that affordable housing is actually affordable. And we need to protect and build actually affordable housing, right? And so that means including low income, especially low income. When you say low income, what number are we talking here? Exactly, because there are figures. that all of the affordable housing uses,

they're by HUD, and they're called the area median income, and they're by percentages, so it might be 30% to 60% to 80%. But the most important thing people should know is that in New York City, low income is actually all the way up to, I think it's, is it 80 or $90,000?

One of them, it's just so wacky that it's what is really moderate income by any other stretch of the imagination. And so for me, when I represented working class New Yorkers, And these are folks who, you know, let me just back on say, when I say this, the $80,000, $90,000 is low income. Some people will say, oh, well, in New York City, that is low income. And I respond, who is delivering your food?

Okay. When you go in a restaurant, who is busing your table? And I don't mean it sound like, what's her name, Kelly Osborne. That's not what? Yeah, sure, sure. But, you know, like, you, I think people forget, like, there are working-class people in this city. And so because you are middle class, that's not, like, to say, these snappy slogans, they're actually quite offensive. There are a lot of people in the city who make $25,000, $30,000, or less than that.

They have an hourly wage. You know, they might be cashiers, home health aides, and they make the city run. And so these are the folks who need housing the most. And when they go to find these apartments, especially if there are these affordable housing apartments and their $2,000 for a studio, in Flatbush. Who can afford that? Who can afford that? They can't. Yeah. Yeah. And so if $80 to $90,000, if that person is considered low income, the person that's making $25,000 annually, what are they? Exactly. They're called extremely low income. And I would say that there is a report that is released by the mayor's office every year. It's called the mayor's management report. And it'll calculate how,

how many of these units that the city has built has actually been designated for extremely low income. And wouldn't you know that in those reports, it'll show that the units that actually have been built, that it's about 15% that have been for extremely low income, right? Yeah. So I think that's important to know because you also have to understand that we're talking about the housing lottery,

so they're not the most accessible. They're like, you know, it's really a crapshoot. Like you apply, but thousands of other people are also applying. And for these, you know, buildings that are mostly built by private developers, it's kind of like applying for a co-op, right? You got to have like a vial of blood, credit score, all of this information. A couple of years ago, at least when I was coming back from law school to me, applying for an apartment to some degree. It was much easier than it is today, right? It wasn't all of this.

We need references. We need a guarantor. We need a guarantor. We need to make. it was just you need to make a certain amount, and then that's it. And you need to have the money. Now it's like your credit score, you know, all of these different things. And so I think there are just a lot of barriers.

And the other thing, too, someone might listen to this and say, well, just go find a rent-stabilized department. First of all, there's no actual centralized database to find a rent-stabilized department. You can't just go online and say, ring me up all of the rent-stabilized departments in New York City and then go look for them. It's difficult to do that. And even if you did one big barrier that is at least removed now, but certainly was a barrier for years or is what? Brokers. Brokers were a huge barrier. You know what? I would have a bunch of clients and they'd find a rent-stabilized department. And then who would pop up and be the big boogeyman, the person who was a barrier, the broker, the broker would say, okay, this is a rent-stabilized department. If you want it, you have to pay me 15% of the annual rent. And so they wouldn't have it. And so here they are. they're extremely low income. They found something that's actually affordable. It's something that out of everyone, let's say, compared to someone who was more moderate income or wealthy, they should probably have it, right? And so they don't have that because the broker is now putting in this other barrier.

But there was recently a law pass by councilmember Chio, say, called the Fair Act, that removed the broker fee. So at least that's one good thing. Yeah, that's one good thing. And, you know, we're talking about rent-stabilized apartments. I know that you used to serve on the Rink Guidelines Board under former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Now, I've got to say, a lot of people have questions about the board and it feels, I don't know, like a bit mysterious. Yeah. First of all, tell us who are these people that make up this board and what exactly does the board do?

Okay, so there are nine people on the Rent Guidelines Board, and every single one of them is a appointed by the mayor. That's important to know because it means that all of them are likely going to be aligned with the mayor's views, right? And so, for example, Bill de Blasio was, I think, he was a lot more tenant-friendly than Mayor Adams. And so he appointed people that aligned with his view. The second thing to know is that there are different types of board members. So there are two tenant members, that means those two members are supposed to represent the interests of tenants. Then there are two landlord members. They're supposed to represent the interests of landlords. So we're at four so far. And then there are five what's called public members. Those are members in the

middle. They're supposed to be neutral. Both sides, the tenants and the landlord board members are trying to vie for the public member vote because you have to get five votes out of the nine to win. Not to get too like into the weeds here, but let me just simplify it. In the middle of the year, which is late June, the board votes on what should be the rent increases for rent-stabilized departments. And so some of that might be a rent freeze. That's a 0%. That means your rent will not be going up or it could be a 1% or it could be a 16%. Right?

Whatever vote passes, that is by a majority vote. So five out of these nine board members will have voted for it. So that means that the board members are trying to get each other to vote in unison with a proposal so that it wins out. And I asked this question because, as some of our listeners know, former mayor Eric Adams made last minute appointments to the rent guidelines. Yeah. Adding four new people. He was rubbing his hands, boy. He said, I just want to leave a little gift before I go.

Yeah, yeah. But some experts say that that move was, you know, to make it hard. for Mamdani to carry out his affordable housing plans. But it's recently been announced that two of those appointees have dropped out. And I'm wondering how significant that is for Mayor Mundani. Yeah. So just to provide New Yorkers and listeners with a little bit of context, board members have term limits.

So when they're appointed, it's not like you're just appointed. You have like a year term or two-year terms. So when Mayor Adams was trying to appointees. point these board members, what he was trying to do is put in board members who would have these term limits. So let's say if he had, like I said, you need the majority of the board. If he had four, like five members or four members on this board and they each had at least a year left, that means that Mamadani would not, or at least it would have been very difficult for him to remove these board members. Because you have to have some cause to remove them. And if, for example, if mom

Donny's people said, you just need to go. Theoretically, it could be a lawsuit, right? And so it's not as easy to say, I just want to, like, just remove you. You have to have a reason. So what it means that these folks dropped out, well, number one, people generally do not want to smoke with the mayor's office. So, you know, you might appoint people, but if you're going to have millions of New Yorkers mad at you because you were the pawn of the former mayor who messed. And you work at Merrill Lynch, which I think was one of them at that. Yeah, you're going to have millions of New Yorkers angry at you.

And so I suspect that that's one of the reasons why that person dropped out. Trolling you in your neighborhood. Yeah. Yeah, it's a real thing. Now, what does it mean overall? It means that the rent freezes back in play. It means that Mayor Adams people will not have the majority of the board. So Mayor Mamadani can appoint people.

And it'll at least be either a straight, like, half for the majority of the board, which means that that would be enough for him to appoint people who would approve a rent-free. There are some people on there as of now who are Eric Adams' appointees who have said they're not voting for a rent-free's. So, you know, that's, there's that. So we covered this lawsuit on WNYC and Gothamist, and we reached out to you for comment at the time.

Yeah. The case focuses on a relatively small number of apartments that have been vacant for many years now and how New York's rent stabilization rules limit what landlords can charge after major repairs. Now, on its face, it affects a small slice of housing, but you've said that it could have national ramifications. Can you explain that? Sure, yes. So this lawsuit is very particular. It's about these small property owners who are saying, listen, my apartments are vacant right now, and I have no actual economic reason to put them back on the market to get new tenants because they need repairs and it would be too expensive. So I'm just going to keep them vacant. And therefore, this is a taking. We're suing.

We're in federal court. That's the lawsuit. And so it is, it could affect, if we were looking at a larger number, up to 26,000 units, they say, in the lawsuit. And that's not a small number. But I think the thing that New Yorkers should know, overall, there are about one million rent stabilized departments. So obviously $26,000 is a small chunk of that, even though it's a big number. But the thing New Yorkers should know is that this lawsuit is actually one piece of a larger puzzle. Landlords have been suing the city to try to weaken rent stabilization and challenge rent stabilization for years now. So when I was on the board back in 2019, I was sued as a board member, me along with all the other board members, because this is the same as this lawsuit. We were sued.

And that was a very similar lawsuit. And basically they were saying, you know, rent stabilization is a taking. You know, this is my private property. The city is forcing me to renew leases to people. I don't want to renew leases to. Meaning in a private apartment when it's not rent-stabilized, once the lease is up, you can just say, I don't want to renew the lease. I want a new tenant buy, right?

In a rent-stabilized department, you can't necessarily do that. You have to have a reason to kick them out. It has to be for a cause. So if they haven't done anything wrong, you have to renew the lease, right? And so they can stay there for years, and then there's also succession. You know, there are all these other things. So landlords hate it. Their take on it is like, this is literally my private property and the government is intruding on this.

So technically, you have like taken this from me. That has been their legal argument. Now, when this was brought in 2019, I don't know that it was taken super seriously. Because at the time, the political climate was different. And it was sort of like, well, this is New York City, rent stabilization isn't going anywhere. But now things are different, and there is a much wider critique of rent stabilization, and that comes with the move to privatize everything. So one of the major critiques that I'm hearing a lot more from just the general public is this sort of like, well, we think that rent stabilization is bad because you need to free up the market. And actually, this is, this is again the build more.

Like, you know, these apartments can't even rent. So you need to, if you were to remove these from rent stabilization, then they could go on the market and we could build more and that's it, problem solved. And obviously that's really scary and problematic because you have people, everyday people who are now wondering if rent stabilization is even worth it anymore, even though we've had it for a long time. Wow. So I'll just say, like, I think the difference here is, When the Supreme Court is looking to take a case, one of the things they look at, obviously, is the strength of the case. When they brought their other case, which was the one I was part of, that one, they said no, the Supreme Court. This went all the way to the Supreme Court, meaning that they were asking the Supreme Court to review it.

And when the Supreme Court said, no, Clarence Thomas actually wrote a separate decision and said, hey, guys, we're actually interested in this. This is a really interesting issue. And if you want to bring it, here's my suggestions of how to bring it again so that we can actually take up this issue. That is scary as hell. Wow. That's scary. Yeah, definitely. So this is, you know, when the Supreme Court is thinking of taking something up, number one, they'll signal it outright.

The other thing is they'll see if it's a national issue, if it's been a nationwide conversation, which it has been. Yeah. You know? The other thing to keep in mind is that rent stabilization is very political. and has become very controversial, even more so, in the last couple of years. So, for example, in Boston, Mayor Wu, she has been pushing for rent stabilization. We've had other controversies in, say, California, right, for rent stabilization. And so this will not just affect New York if the Supreme Court takes this case up.

And you talked earlier about, like, where landlords stand in all of this. and we know that they often argue that rents need to go up because they have repairs, maintenance, and all these things that they need to do. But in the context of rent-stabilized apartments, what are they pointing to when they make that case? They're pointing to the same thing. The rent guidelines board hearings were quite interesting

because just in case anyone hasn't been, let me paint the picture. There are literally hundreds of New Yorkers who show up, and when I say show up, I mean they're tenants, hundreds. And they show up sometimes with drums. They show up with signs. And a lot of people, when I say this, they're envisioning, I'll just be blunt, young white DSA people with like glasses. Oh, no, these are people in their 50s and up.

Those are the majority of the crowd. Yeah, who've been in those apartments for decades. Who's been in those apartments. They're terrified. The retirement is coming or retirement is already here. and, you know, they move to South Carolina when I'm not from there. What are you talking about? So this is it.

This is it. They're like, I want to stay in New York. So they're the ones who were coming out and they're strong. They're loud. They're chanting. I'm telling you, I should show some of the videos. They have their canes. They're in wheelchairs.

They are just extremely angry about it. So just to paint the picture, you have all of these folks, these tenants who are coming. They're shouting. The landlords are saying, we want a rent increase. The tenants. shout back and say, a rent increase for what? You guys are not even taking care of the buildings. There are repairs in these buildings. Now you want to raise the rent. And then the landlord shout

back, yeah, we can't do anything. We can't do those repairs unless we raise the rent. So now there's a standstill. Because a lot of these landlords have had the buildings for like years, right? So some of these, some of them have had the buildings for like literally 10 plus years. And so from the tenant perspective, it's like, you know it's a rent stabilized building. So if you don't agree with it, and don't purchase it. But the second part of it is, how long do you want to have this excuse for 10, 20 years of like, oh, I can't raise the rent?

Like, okay, this is New York City. This has been around for, what, 50, 60 years, right? And so we need some form of affordable housing and this is it. Welcome back. We're talking to Leah Goodrich. She's a Brooklyn-based tenants rights attorney who's worked as a housing lawyer, served on the Rank Guidelines Board

and now sits on the City Planning Commission. And Leah, in your line of work, you hear a lot about the cost of living in New York and whether it's feasible to be here for a long time. You know, I'm sorry I had to take a deep breath because it's something that even I, you know, struggle with. Housing is a big part of that, but transportation costs have gone up,

food prices, child care, damn there, everything. You're from Brownsville, Brooklyn, as you mentioned, can you talk a little bit about how you felt some of these changes personally? Sure. One of the things I've realized is that me being from a working class family, number one, and me being a tenant right now, number two, has really impacted how I see this work in a way that, quite frankly, is uncommon. And I know that that might sound strange to people.

Like, what do you mean the people who do housing policy who create these policies? Yes, I am saying that a lot of the people who are engaged in creating the housing policy in New York City are homeowners, number one. And so I know this because oftentimes when I raise these points about who the hell can afford $2,000 affordable housing studios, it's like, huh. And I think to myself, I'm like, wow, I'm amped up about it. Sometimes I'm like, is it me? Like, am I being gaslit? What's going on? And I realize, no, it's because I'm, I literally am a tenant. This is very personal to me. And then not only that, I'm talking, right? I've spent like a lifetime of helping tenants. And these are the bulk, about 70% of New York City residents

are tenants, right? This is a bulk of the city. And so it is very personal to me. Sometimes people ask me, wow, you're a city planning commissioner. You're going on Instagram. You're going on Twitter. just like speaking off the cuff. And I think that's also, I think there's just been a lot of steel put in my back from actually, you know, the more you do, the more of the sauce you get to see how it's made and the more angry you get. Now I understand why the 50, 60, 5 year olds are showing up to the rent guideline. Yeah, I'm going to be one of them because now I get it because you just get a lot more like, oh, okay, so this is, I thought this was how it was. But now I have confirmation. And so this needs to change. So, you know, to answer it in a lump sum, I am from a working class background.

And I was born here. I grew up here. And I've seen the city like change. I've seen all these spots that I used to go to. And now it's like different. It's unaffordable. And it's really personal for me. Yeah. Yeah. What about your family? Yeah, a lot of them have moved out of New York City. My mother has moved out. My uncle, he passed recently. But he passed last year, but he moved out. He moved to Virginia. You know, a lot of folks moved out. In a large part, you have to remember, my family, like most New Yorkers, they worked in jobs where they were servicing the city. My uncle was a security guard at the Brooklyn Museum. Shout out to the Brooklyn Museum for many decades, right? You know, my mother worked in hospitals as an administrative assistant and other jobs for many decades. And these are jobs that service the city. But no matter how many hours you work, they could not afford to buy a house, right? They couldn't afford anything other than a one-bedroom co-op.

And even for a one-bedroom co-op, you would have to scrounge. You know, remember, we lived in a Mitchelama already. But even to, like, move out of that to, like, buy something. something more. It was practically just untenable. Case and point, I grew up in Brownsville. I checked on Zillowell the other day. The houses in Brownsville are $500,000 for a three-bedroom house. You know, I can't afford that. I can't afford. And there was a report by the Center for New York City neighborhoods that showed that 40% of home buyers in New York City are cash buyers. So they're not even relying on. Yeah. Who has 20% of $500,000? It's not even, they're buying the whole thing.

They're buying the 500K. They have 500K. Exactly. You know, you asked me this before. I have, I have a lot of, um, the steel in my back and why I'm able to like speak so loudly is because I am often reminded of like my background as a working class person. And for a hot minute, sometimes I'm like, do I have it wrong? And then I just talk to tenants. I'm like, no, you don't have it wrong. You're just one of the few at the table. Yeah. You know, the story of your family moving out because they can't afford to live in this city is a story that just keeps happening over and over again. When people hear affordable housing, they usually picture something they could realistically pay for. And we talked about the studios on the housing lottery, that's $2,000, right?

But what does it actually mean in practice affordable housing? What does that mean? For me, I think that it means that the actual, both the rent and if it is means testing, which means that it's based on income eligibility, that the income match. So, for example, I kid you not, a lot of these affordable housing, they start at $50,000. dollars. That is the little, that's a starting point. So that's number one, that it be actually for low income. And then number two, that the rent actually be an actual affordable price. Now, we go back to this talking point of like, hey, why don't we just get rid of rent stabilization?

Why are we, this is another thing, a new term that's evolved. The New York Times had it. they're like, oh, developer advocate, right? There's this, I mean, yeah, there's this whole thing of, let's stop talking about developers in a bad way. Let's stop talking about landlord. You know, my father's an landlord. But I'm saying people will say, oh, my father's an landlord. I'm a landlord. And I'm like, listen, I don't have time to do the ego thing.

Like, I've been doing this work for a long time. We need to touch base in reality. I don't have time to do the kumbaya. You're talking about kumbaya. They're going to try to go to the Supreme Court, right? And when it comes to developers, for example, developers will sit and make a decision like, hey, I have to do affordable housing, but to me, I'm going to get more revenue if that affordable housing income eligibility is higher, like say, $100,000 that would be classified as affordable housing. So why am I going to build affordable housing for people who make $20,000 as opposed to someone who makes $80,000 to $100,000? So yes, I'm going to do that.

That's a clear example of what I mean when I say profit over people. This is what happens when you allow, like, private developers to take over. And let me just step back and say, I am not saying that every single piece of housing needs to be public housing. Because some people will say, oh, public housing is bad. It hasn't been successful. But I want people to understand that there's the other side of this coin, too, which is like everything that's privatized and left up to private. developers ain't good either. Earlier we talked about the bus boy who works at the restaurant who makes at least $20,000 annually, right?

And you call them extremely low income. Right. And I'm wondering, like, is there extreme affordable housing? Because, like, when the city calls an apartment affordable, how is that number actually decided? And who comes up with that number? Yeah, I should say the wait list for public housing is like 10 years. That's number one. Yeah. And then if you can get on an expedited waitless if you meet certain criteria like domestic violence or other issues, and that might bring it down to four or five years. So that's number one. Number two is who decides the actual numbers. HUD. These are called area median incomes, and they will make the decision of how much the income brackets are for affordable housing. So that's the federal housing and urban development agency. Okay, okay. So Leah, with a new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who campaigned on affordability,

housing affordability specifically, what should New Yorkers realistically expect to change and what might take longer than expected? Well, my hope for the Mamdani administration is that they truly focus on affordability. And that means literally the actual number of So when we're talking about building and approving these housings, making sure that a huge percentage of that actually includes low-income numbers. So that's one, right? And I say that because, like I mentioned earlier, a lot of the thinking around affordability is simply supply and demand, like the more you build and you rely on the market, the more that ultimately the prices will go down. And I think that that's an incredibly passive approach. And it's an irresponsible approach for government to take.

That's a talking point for private developers to say, but it should not be a talking point for any government actor who is serious about housing policy. What do you think are some of the most important laws tenants should know these days? Well, I named the Fair Act, which is that you don't have to pay a broker's fee if you didn't hire the broker. What else? I know there's so many. the curse of like being a tenant's right attorney. So now when you have to think of one thing, you can't even think of what else.

I think that broker's fee one is a big one. I mean, that saves you at least $5,000. Yeah. I mean, there is a national one. It's settled. But there was a federal lawsuit where, again, we talk about, you know, again, we're like, well, why don't we just, what's wrong with letting private developers like take over? and build, right?

This even was part of the national election, by the way, when during the presidential election, it became a talking point. Like, let's allow private developers to build our way out of the housing crisis. Now, there was a lawsuit because, you know, when you're a landlord and you're trying to set the rent,

a lot of the landlords were relying on, like, rent software. And so they're like, how much should I... Just imagine you're a landlord asking chat GPT, literally, like, how much should I charge for rent? in Greenwich Village for a one-bedroom. And chat says, instead of chat, it's a rent software. And it says, oh, $6,000 for a one-bedroom. And they're like, all right, I'm going to charge $6,000.

Well, this was happening on a larger scale. And these rent software and the landlords, as the lawsuit alleged by the Department of Justice, were colluding to increase the rent. And so they were actually artificially raising the rent to the point where it was affecting rent nationally. And so at the very least, that lawsuit settled. But even the governor of New York was saying that she would make sure that locally

that it didn't happen in New York as well. So that's one thing to be aware of of just landlords colluding with AI to artificially increase your rent. So here we go again. On the one hand, they're saying, well, let's let the market do what it does. And then the other hand, we're like,

yeah, we're manipulating the market so that your rent goes. up. Yeah. Leah, you laid out a lot. And I don't know, your Instagram bio said that you lay it out in a digestible way, but stomach hurts. But Leah, thanks so much for joining me for this conversation. Thank you. This was eye-opening. It hurt. It was good, but it hurt, you know. Thank you so much. We needed to know. Yeah. It's ripped the Band-Aid off. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. That's housing lawyer, Leah Goodridge, helping us answer some of the pressing questions facing renters this year. Also, check out Leah's Instagram, where she breaks down housing policy in a digestible way.

You can follow her at Leah from Brooklyn. That's Leah, L-E-A-H from B-K-L-Y-N. Of course, that's short for Brooklyn, y'all. Thanks for listening to NYC now, where we go beyond the news headlines and into the why. Hey, got an idea for the show? Hit us up at NYC now at WNYC.org. I'm Jenae Pierre. See you soon.