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The Democratic Socialists of America triumphed in Tuesday’s primary election in New York City. But with two anti-real estate candidates — Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier — getting one step closer to Congress, landlords are seeing red.
“Their ideologies may seem mainstream to them and their comrades, but in the 435-member Congress, they’re on the fringe,” said Ann Korchak, board president of Small Property Owners of New York, a membership of property owners operting nearly 5,700 housing units.
“These housing schemes would not see the light of day from lawmakers around the country who respect property rights and the value of these small businesses as the backbone of housing stock in New York City and other urban areas throughout the U.S.,” she added. “They bash financially struggling small owners as slumlords, when in reality it’s government-imposed mandates and restrictive laws that prevent us from repairing, maintaining and operating our buildings.”
State Assembly member Valdez — a Democratic Socialist whose district spans parts of Brooklyn and Queens — won the Democratic primary in New York’s 7th Congressional District. She defeated three other candidates, including Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, and is one step closer to replacing retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez.
On her campaign website she boasts that she will “be a champion for passing legislation in Congress to increase the supply of affordable housing, fully fund the New York City Housing Authority, and fight for a New York where working people can afford to stay. Claire is the only candidate in this race who has not taken real estate money.”
She promised to “take buildings away” from so-called slumlords and implement nationwide universal rent control if elected to Congress.
“The federal government has spent decades helping the real estate industry make billions off of working people,” Valdez claimed in a statement. “My housing platform serves New Yorkers who work hard to pay their rent, not the landlords who raise,” she said.
The plan explicitly calls for the government to seize property from bad building owners, declaring, “there is no right to be a slumlord.”
She called for “universal rent control,” and to amend the low-income housing tax credit to protect long-term rent stabilization.
Valdez, who had the backing of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the DSA, is a one-term assembly member representing the 37th district, including parts of Sunnyside, Long Island City, Maspeth, Ridgewood and Woodside.
She will face Republican Melvin Rivera in the fall general election, but is all but certain to win.
Valdez is just one of the Mamdani-backed lefties looking to support tenants over real estate developers to win in the New York City congressional primaries.
“We need to get the politics out of the housing business and put the practical business solution to move it forward,” said New York City property owner Adrian Lawrence, whose holdings include the six-unit rent-stabilized building at 102 Roebling St., in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
“Freezing rents are short-term solutions,” he said. “I’m not sure they’re even solutions. They’re short-term fixes. The permanent fix is more housing.”
“We have a problem in New York and across the country in terms of housing,” Lawrence said. “But there are very simple ways to fix it.”
He said the government should help property owners build housing and provide financial assistance to tenants so they can afford it.
Far-left Queens state Assembly member Avila Chevalier, a candidate for the 13th House District, beat out five-term Rep. Adriano Espaillat in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.
Espaillat faced a fierce re-election challenge from the Democratic Socialist insurgent, who also had the backing of Mamdani and the DSA. The 13th District includes parts of upper Manhattan and The Bronx.
Avila Chevalier is an activist and will likely win the election in her heavily Democratic district.
Chevalier has criticized Espaillat for taking corporate donations, like “nearly $250,000 from real estate developers and lobbyists who are driving up our rents,” she wrote on her campaign website.
Avila Chevalier, an investigator at a public defender’s office in Harlem and a CUNY doctoral student, unveiled a radical plan about seizing property from alleged slumlords and instituting nationwide rent control if elected.
She came under fire during the election for her old posts on X, then known as Twitter. For years, she shared her take on everything from politics to interracial dating, often using vulgar or offensive language.
“The federal government has spent decades helping the real estate industry make billions off of working people,” Valdez claimed in a statement. “My housing platform serves New Yorkers who work hard to pay their rent, not the landlords who raise,” she said.
SPONY’s Korchak blasted the candidates.
“Their campaign platform, which is in lockstep with Mamdani’s ‘Block by Block’ housing plan and the City Council’s reintroduction of [the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act], sets us up for failure and justifies their remedy of illegally seizing our private property and turning it into socialized housing,” she said. “Their schemes may play well in places like Cuba or North Korea, but here in the U.S. the Constitution protects against the taking of private property.”
In response to an inquiry for a comment about the positions of the candidates, New York City’s largest real estate trade association played it cool.
“We are prepared to engage with elected officials focused on increasing housing opportunities, creating jobs and strengthening New York’s economy,” said REBNY President James Whelan.
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