Can Homeowners Save New York State from Socialism?

 In November, the suburbs of New York City will be the pivotal arena for whether the Democratic Socialists of America cement their takeover of the entire state from their New York City stronghold. The decisive issue is not crime, deteriorating quality of life, or high taxes, but one that is arousing significant suburban anxiety: the DSA’s vendetta against the American Dream of homeownership.

Residents of Westchester and Nassau counties, which abut the northern Bronx and eastern Queens, and of whom 80% own their homes, are watching with increasing unease Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s mounting attacks on the city’s homeowners, and logically assuming that they are next.

Despite Westchester County’s nearly 3-1 Democrat voter registration advantage over Republicans and a 15% advantage in Nassau, the DSA’s Marxist belief that property ownership is evil may elect a Republican governor for the first time in more than 20 years. The electoral math is such that if Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman can earn a five-point swing in the metro area over Republican Lee Zeldin’s statewide 6% loss to Democrat Kathy Hochul in 2022, he clinches a Republican victory. Some political analysts believe that Zeldin lost because he failed to focus more on the threats to single-family housing.

Blakeman is the popular County Executive of Nassau, winning re-election in 2025 by 55%-45%; in contrast, Kathy Hochul’s favorability rating, according to the most recent Sienna poll, is 43%-44%, which is not good for an incumbent. Her support for the New York City mayor has contributed to her unpopularity.

The Mamdani administration is an avowed opponent of private property, excepting the Mamdani family’s residential assets here and in Uganda. Hochul and the Democrat-controlled legislature cravenly caved to his demand for a punitive surcharge on luxury second homes worth over $5 million under a new pied-a-terre tax. Not a peep was heard when the fine print revealed that the surcharge included every property worth $1 million or more, meaning more than 50% of the city’s homes. Crickets when he curated an easily searchable and doxable-friendly database of 960,000 of the city’s enemies of the people, previously known as property owners. Hochul informed the press that it was nothing “out of the ordinary.”

Democrats were silent when Mamdani’s Department of Finance followed up last week with letters to tens of thousands of homeowners whose primary residence is New York City, demanding payment by August 21, unless they prove a negative by coughing up massive amounts of documentation, including federal tax returns, driver's licenses, voter ID cards, and more if the property is owned by an LLC. These are demands that prove the Democrats’ objections to the SAVE act ludicrous. Due to massive outrage by the targets of the Mamdani administration, by Saturday morning, the deadline was pushed to September 18. The mayor is also threatening a property tax increase to 9.5% for all homeowners.

Some of the progressives who voted for him and believe in redistribution of wealth feel betrayed. An NYU professor appearing on the podcast Pivot sputtered, “He’s taken a legitimate source of revenue and he’s turning it into a wanted poster.”

Suburban homeowners are paying attention. Given the unfolding drama in New York City, it’s reasonable to assume that some demographic groups normally affiliated with the Democrat Party may change their normal voting patterns. They are concerned about mayor’s control over Governor Hochul, with unease intensifying after the DSA’s congressional and state legislature wins in June.

They should. Mamdani’s Marxist ambitions coincide with Hochul’s fixation on building 800,000 new affordable housing units, located mostly near train and bus stations on Long Island and in the northern suburbs.

To further understand the political dynamics, it’s worth recounting some history. The war on suburbia began decades ago, when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development initiated policies to force affluent suburban communities to eliminate racial disparities by building affordable housing and populate those structures with low-income people of color.

In 2008 under President Barack Obama, HUD was emboldened to focus on Westchester, forcing the county to build 750 affordable units under a federal settlement. When HUD upped the ante and demanded 10,000 new units and an end to local zoning, opposition was so fierce and bipartisan that the county’s voters elected a Republican as County Executive, who stopped HUD’s efforts.

Since her 2022 election, Hochul has been pushing her Housing Compact, which would override local zoning to allow accessory housing throughout the suburbs and high-density housing of 50 units per acre near transportation hubs. Costly infrastructure issues like schools, police, parking, sewers, and traffic are to be borne by the municipalities. The state's Association of Towns and the New York Conference of Mayors were adamantly opposed to Hochul’s attempts to eliminate the state’s constitutionally protected Home Rule for local zoning.

With a Hochul victory in November, the state’s Democrats will accede to the DSA’s demands to decolonize private property and eliminate Home Rule, which has long been a protection against overbuilding.

Outside of Manhattan, homeownership levels in Staten Island and parts of Queens and Brooklyn reach levels similar to the suburbs. For example, in both white and black majority neighborhoods in eastern Queens along the Nassau County line, homeownership percentages are over 70%. The neighborhoods of Riverdale, Douglaston-Little Neck, and Cambria Heights are indistinguishable from their nearby Westchester or Nassau counterparts.

In late 2024, New York City’s Democrats enacted the City of Yes, a zoning law that enabled developers to erect high-density units without any local input. This happened over the near-unanimous objections of community groups in the single- and two-family areas of Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx. and Staten Island.

It is also worth noting that the DSA is 85% white and skews very young. Hispanic and black homeowners are not buying into their proletarian rhetoric. They’ve achieved or aspire to the American Dream. As one black minister in Westchester’s Mount Vernon put it, “Maybe we have to break the Democrat monopoly.”

Homeownership is not just a white demographic statistic. While white homeownership is 78% and 87% in Westchester and Nassau, according to the U.S. Census. Black homeownership is 39% in Westchester and 74% in Nassau. Hispanic is 69% and 60%, respectively.

Homeownership represents a lifetime of achievement and an invaluable way of creating intergenerational wealth. One’s home is not something to be taken away by elite white Marxists with little life experience. Property rights are worth fighting for because they are the key to America’s economic success and our societal strength.

Republicans statewide and particularly gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman need to loudly champion the values of homeownership and local control over land use as the foundation for making New York great again.

Linda R. Killian is a retired financial executive and a local Republican chairman in Westchester County.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2026/08/can-homeowners-save-new-york-state-from-socialism/

Mamdani admin extends $1.86B ‘emergency contract’ for NYC hotels-homeless shelters

 The Mamdani administration re-upped a $1.86 billion contract that will see hotels across the five boroughs provide emergency space for the homeless.

The three-year- contract with the Hotel Association of New York City Foundation, which represents nearly 300 hotels, runs from July 1 of this year through June 30, 2029.

“Over the last 15 years, [the Department of Homeless Services] has faced numerous crises that forced it to rely on commercial hotels to temporarily house clients,” a DHS spokesperson said.

“DHS is focused not only on upholding New York City’s right to shelter but improving outcomes for all the New Yorkers we serve,” the spokesperson added. “As such, we continue to work to transform the city’s shelter system by opening new, high-quality shelters while gradually phasing out the use of commercial hotels for families with children.”

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Homeless encampments near Hudson yards and the Javitz Center.Lone Pine Press for NY Post
But the city has to continue to maintain capacity during the transition under “Right to Shelter Laws” which mandate access for anyone seeking shelter in the city. There were 82,929 adults and children in Big Apple shelters as of July 31, according to the department.

“By exercising the renewal option of the agency’s master contract with HANYC, DHS will be able to retain critical hotel capacity, as needed, while we work to bring more traditional capacity online, reduce reliance on hotels, and rightsize our shelter footprint over the coming years,” the spokesperson said.

The hotels will only be activated as shelters if needed and the DHS representative emphasized that the city may not spend the full $1.86 billion allotment.

The city relied heavily on using hotels for emergency shelter to help curb COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic shutdown and continued to utilize the space during a migrant crisis where thousands of asylum seekers were bused into the Big Apple.

About 150 hotels, motels and inns were converted to shelters during the peak of the migrants influx.

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A tent set up by a homeless person on 36th street and 11th avenue in Manhattan.Stephen Yang for NY Post

The hotel association said the original contract was finalized in January 2025 after the group beat out dozens of other bidders.

“It is a continuation of HANYC’s well-documented role as a responsible stakeholder since the COVID crisis when the organization moved, pro-bono, over 18,000 people from shelters to hotels on an emergency basis from May 2020 to December 2021,” said Vijay Dandapani, CEO of HANYC.

Meanwhile, DHS awarded two other contracts valued at more than $87 million combined to social service providers as part of its “Integrated Commercial Hotels Program.”

Housing Works was awarded $47.2 million and Neighbors 4 Neighbors $40.28 million to assist homeless individuals and families sheltered in the hotels with their daily needs.

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Advocates, like David Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, call hotel use an “unfortunate necessity.”James Keivom for NY Post

Critics have complained that New York City has among the highest hotel rates in the country — and taking thousands of rooms offline doesn’t help make the tourist-reliant metropolis more affordable.

But advocates combating homelessness said the reliance on hotels was an unfortunate necessity.

“The City’s use of hotels to serve as emergency shelters is obviously far from ideal. But given that the City has both a legal and moral obligation to provide shelter to all in need, it must make sure that they have enough beds,” David Giffen, executive director of the Coalition for the Homeless, previously told the Post.

He mentioned that numerous people froze to death on the streets last winter.

“The best way to end the use of hotels is to dramatically reduce the number of people who need shelters in the first place by building more housing that’s actually affordable to the lowest-income New Yorkers,” Giffen said.

https://nypost.com/2026/08/02/us-news/mamdani-admin-extends-1-86b-emergency-contract-for-nyc-hotels-to-serve-as-homeless-shelters/

Surprise: Mamdani’s ‘socialist’ NYC rent freeze benefits wealthier tenants the most

 Mayor Zohran Mamdani has declared the rent freeze “a historic victory” that provides “the relief that working people across our city deserve.”

In reality, a large number of those tenants could actually well afford to pay more.

Ironically, they also tend to get the biggest savings.

And the fact that they have a sweet deal pushes up prices for those facing today’s non-regulated rental market.

Here’s the key: The Mamdani initiative has frozen the rent for all 960,000 rent-stabilized tenants, but Census records show 30% of them earn $100,000 or more; that’s 288,000 affluent households enjoying the rent freeze.

There’s no requirement to be poor to score a rent-regulated apartment, a fact Mamdani, who lived in a rent-regulated unit before moving into Gracie Mansion, conveniently overlooks.

So affluent households in the city’s top neighborhoods have benefited from rent regulation for decades while newcomers to the city crowd into small apartments and face high market-rate rents.

Note, too, that those $100,000-plus households are raking in more than the citywide $85,000 median income for all households, whether homeowners or renters, including those in market-rate apartments.

One might ask how many of them earn even more than that. But the city’s Rent Guidelines Board, which conducts its own housing research and which just approved the rent freeze, isn’t curious about such questions.

In its 2025 Income and Affordability study, part of the basis for deciding on rent increases, the RGB masks the number of high-income rent-stabilized tenants by citing only a single gross figure: “For all rent stabilized tenants, the median household income was $60,000”

The board prefers such questions as how many rent-stabilized tenants are still paying off student loans — a core Mamdani voting group.

But there’s good reason to believe the extent of rent subsidies for the rich are even more significant in well-off neighborhoods such as the Upper West and Upper East Sides.

It’s been a while since anyone looked at such questions but when New York University’s Furman Center on Real Estate at NYU reviewed regulated units in top Manhattan neighborhoods below 96th Street back in 2013, the results were eye-popping.

Sure enough, the median income of rent-stabilized households in those areas was higher than that of market-rate tenants in all of New York City except for eight neighborhoods outside of the core of Manhattan.

In other words, median-income tenants in rent-stabilized units in much of Manhattan were likely paying lower rents even though their incomes were higher than that of median-income tenants in non-stabilized units.  

What’s more, these well-off households stayed in their apartments a long time, even if their kids moved out, leaving them empty bedrooms. 

Below 96th Street, 35% of stabilized households lived in the same unit for over 20 years, compared with just 2.7% of market-rate households, Furman found.

Such “slow turnover” leads to “inefficient use of the city’s housing supply — and overcrowding in other places.”

Only 4% of white city households live in overcrowded apartments, while 10% of Asians do.

White baby boomers on the UWS and UES are aging in place with rent-subsidized good deals, while new immigrants must crowd in.

It’s possible the picture has changed dramatically since that 2013 study — and that rent-regulated apartments below 96th Street are all now occupied by low-income households.

But the Housing and Vacancy Survey stopped asking about rent-stabilized tenant incomes by neighborhood, and the Rent Guidelines Board has not been interested enough to do its own research.

But that 30% of rent-stabilized tenants who earn more than $100,000 live somewhere — and it’s not likely in the South Bronx.

Keep in mind owners of regulated buildings have zero incentive to rent to the poor; if one is going to receive a below-market rent, better to make sure the tenant earns enough to pay at least that much.

The number of wealthy tenants whose landlords are forced to subsidize them should be a priority for the Rent Guidelines Board when it undertakes its next annual “income and affordability” study.

But the Census finding about $100,000-plus rent-stabilized households already makes clear that the situation needs reform.

The rent freeze should not apply to high-income households. Period.

Those earning, let’s say, more than $200,000 a year with assets of more than $2 million should not qualify for the rent freeze.

Instead, their rents should increase either with the rate of inflation or the Consumer Price Index, which reflects the expense cost for property owners.

Mamdani delights in calling out those who’ve committed the sin of becoming wealthy.

But his rent freeze helps more of them than anyone else. It’s the precise opposite of the kind of socialism he promises.

Howard Husock is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of “The Projects: A New History of Public Housing.”

https://nypost.com/2026/07/27/opinion/surprise-mamdanis-socialist-nyc-rent-freeze-benefits-wealthier-tenants-most/

Demand For "Squatter King Removal" As Md. Left-Wing Housing Utopia Backfires

 A Baltimore-area contractor operating under the names "Squatter King Removal" and/or "Eviction King" has emerged as one of the premier, go-to property recovery services. This reflects a growing enforcement gap in Maryland, a one-party-ruled state controlled by the Democratic Party.

Years of expanding tenant protections and slow civil court procedures have weakened landlords' ability to regain possession quickly, creating an opening for organized squatter gangs who use fraudulent leases to occupy properties throughout the Baltimore metro area.

Fox Baltimore reporter Gary Collins interviewed Sanchez Deandre "Mikey" Lewis, who has built a business removing squatters.

Mikey, also known on the street as "Eviction King," charges landlords about $2,000 for his service, which includes removing doors and windows, towing vehicles, and restricting access in a full-blown pressure campaign against occupants.

Collins spoke with Mikey, who calls his team the "Wolf Pack" because its members swarm properties and wage an asymmetric pressure campaign designed to compel suspected squatters to leave - without assaulting or physically removing the occupants.

"Police said we can't remove somebody, so lawfully, the only thing we can do is what we could do," Mikey said.

Collins explained, "The tactics occupy a legally precarious space. Maryland generally requires property owners seeking to remove unauthorized occupants to use the courts, including wrongful-detainer proceedings. Self-help measures can carry legal risks, particularly when an occupant claims to be a legitimate tenant."

Because of Collins' previous reporting on squatting rings running amok across crime-ridden Baltimore over the last year, left-wing Gov. Wes Moore has been forced to acknowledge the chaos for landlords and introduce bills that target squatting rings.

Fox Baltimore explains just how bad squatting has gotten in the Baltimore area:

Spotlight on Maryland's investigation found that homeowners and neighbors often faced a legal maze after unauthorized occupants claimed tenancy rights, while those purportedly profiting from breaking in and selling fake leases benefited.

In one Baltimore incident, University of Maryland School of Medicine professor Ze Wang said he returned from winter break to find strangers unloading belongings into his home and showing police what he said was a fake lease.

Full Report Here:

The bigger issue here is that none of this should be happening. Yet it is unfolding in a state plagued by one-party Democratic rule that has steadily weakened protections for landlords and property owners. The squatting crisis is only one symptom.

Maryland's decline is ultimately a political failure. Baltimore risks losing its standing as a major American city and becoming little more than a diminished regional town. Unless the state's left-wing governing framework changes, Maryland faces a worsening fiscal crisis, continued population flight and further erosion of its tax base.

Total Population Collapse Under Left-Wing Regime 

What is unfolding is the slow-motion economic implosion of a state as a left-wing political regime steers Maryland toward a fiscal and economic iceberg, raising the question of whether the destruction is the result of incompetence or deliberate policy.

The city's tax base has collapsed. Use this as a case study showing that the party of socialists destroys, not builds.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/demand-squatter-king-removal-erupts-maryland-democrats-housing-utopia-backfires

Detroit developer cites tax hikes as reason big blue cities like NYC are struggling

 America’s once-iconic industrial hub is primed for an economic comeback as major metropolitan areas continue to bleed residents to lower-tax states, a prominent Michigan developer told Fox News Digital.

Rodney Lockwood, Board Chairman of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, warned that high-tax cities like New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are facing serious structural trouble.

“I think we have to look at both sides: what is not working, and then what will work,” Lockwood said.

“Right now, socialists are on the march, and Zohran Mamdani in New York is perhaps the best example of that. They’re winning races, and their answer is always the same: more taxes and more free stuff.”

Lockwood’s comments come as progressive-led cities nationwide—including New York, Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles—struggle with taxpayer flight driven by high state and local taxes, lingering crime concerns, and an astronomical cost of living.

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“Right now, socialists are on the march, and Zohran Mamdani in New York is perhaps the best example of that,” Rodney Lockwood said, in part.vichie81 – stock.adobe.com

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Los Angeles is one progressive-led US city struggling with taxpayer flight driven by high state and local taxes, lingering crime concerns, and an astronomical cost of living.frank peters – stock.adobe.com

A new study by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF), released April 7, 2026, confirmed that taxpayers are fleeing high-tax environments for more fiscally friendly states. 

While Texas and Florida remain the top targets, states like North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee are also seeing record gains.

Notably, the NTUF “Migration in Minutes” metric found that Texas surpassed Florida in 2022 as the state gaining a new taxpayer most frequently — one every four minutes and 40 seconds.

“I sort of see it as a case of suicidal envy,” Lockwood explained.

“Belle Isle would be on the opposite side of that equation. We would have a taxation system aligned with the best of human characteristics. If you want people to work for the income and dignity of it, don’t tax work—so there’d be no local income tax. If we want people to come, invest, and produce the tools of productivity, don’t tax investments.”

Lockwood is championing a proposal to transform Detroit’s Belle Isle into a self-governing “Freedom City” aimed at setting a new blueprint for urban revival nationwide.

First developed as a public park in the late 19th century, Belle Isle spans 982 acres in the Detroit River—making it roughly 140 acres larger than New York City’s Central Park.

While the city owns the land, it is currently leased to the State of Michigan and operated as a state park under a 30-year agreement signed in 2013.

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Visitors walk along a path on Belle Isle as the Detroit skyline is seen in the background during a hot day in Detroit on July 14, 2026.USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Under Lockwood’s proposal, private investors would purchase or lease the island from Detroit to build a mixed-use residential, retail, and commercial district.

The goal is to generate massive economic activity and private-sector jobs for a city recovering from decades of population loss.

Lockwood pointed to recent polling by Michigan pollster Steve Mitchell indicating strong interest in bold economic solutions, with 68 percent of likely Detroit voters and 51 percent of voters statewide approving the concept of special economic freedom zones.

Detroit’s economic trajectory highlights the stark reality of post-war urban decline, Lockwood noted.

“We’re trying to restore it back to being the world-class city it once was,” Lockwood said. “Back in 1950, it was the world’s richest city. Today, it ranks among the poorest in the United States. We’ve gone from 1.85 million people down to around 600,000.”

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A woman paddle boards in the 90 degree morning heat at Belle Isle on July 1, 2026.USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Lockwood believes the island represents a vastly underutilized asset ideal for conversion into a tax-friendly special economic zone designed to draw global capital.

His vision projects a permanent population of 50,000 residents across 20,000 households—all built without relying on taxpayer dollars.

The “Freedom City” concept, supported by free-market advocates at the Mackinac Center, hinges on courting private venture capital through light-touch regulation and a growth-oriented tax framework.

Lockwood pointed to long-standing socioeconomic challenges across the Motor City as evidence that conventional municipal governance has failed.

“Detroit is stuck,” Lockwood asserted. “Its population has struggled to rebound, and it faces a looming fiscal issue. COVID-era federal relief funds sustained municipal budgets for a few years, but that money is exhausted.”

Lockwood argues that transforming Belle Isle could provide the spark needed to revitalize the entire region.

“What Belle Isle would do with 50,000 residents and $50 billion in private investment is attract an entrepreneurial class,” Lockwood said.

“These are business leaders looking to take proven concepts and expand into the heart of the world’s largest economy.”

https://nypost.com/2026/07/25/real-estate/detroit-developer-cites-tax-hikes-as-reason-big-blue-cities-like-nyc-are-struggling-socialists-are-on-the-march/