At Hostos, Where Community Organizing Built a College, NYC Mayor Mamdani faces the Next Generation of New Yorkers fighting for a Future they Can Afford

   
Long before the first question was asked, there was a sense that something important was about to happen. Inside Hostos Community College's Repertory Theater, hundreds of students, tenants, organizers, educators, and community advocates gathered on May 28 to confront one of the defining questions facing New York City: Can young people still afford to build a future here? The setting could not have been more fitting.
 
Before taking the stage, New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani met with Hostos President Dr. Daisy Cocco De Filippis, who welcomed him to a college born from the same spirit of grassroots activism and community organizing that brought people together that evening. Founded in 1968 after years of advocacy by South Bronx residents and students demanding access to higher education in their own borough, Hostos stands today as one of New York City's most enduring examples of what can happen when communities organize and refuse to be ignored.
   
“I was delighted to meet with Mayor Mamdani and reaffirm how important the issues of housing and food security are in our South Bronx community,” said President Cocco De Filippis. “We are also so grateful that he recognizes the incredible value of Hostos and CUNY, and I look forward to continuing working with his administration when we meet again in June.”
 
That same spirit of gratitude and hope filled the theater Thursday night as students and tenants spoke directly to the Mayor about housing insecurity, displacement, negligent landlords, homelessness, and the soaring cost of living threatening the future of working-class New Yorkers.
 
Hosted by More Perfect University, the higher education program of More Perfect Union, a nonprofit media organization focused on economic justice and civic engagement, in partnership with the Mayor's Office, the hearing became a rare public conversation between City Hall and the people living the housing crisis every day. Attendees were greeted by a DJ set from Saphe, while singer-songwriter Eliza McLamb opened the evening with a live musical performance before the discussion began.
   
Elise Joshi, Manager of More Perfect University, the university engagement and organizing initiative within More Perfect Union, welcomed attendees and spoke about the organization's work connecting students across the country to campaigns focused on housing, labor rights, economic justice, public power, and civic participation.
 
Joshi highlighted More Perfect University's efforts to support student organizing and described the event as an opportunity for tenants and students to realize that the housing struggles they face are not isolated experiences but part of a broader affordability crisis affecting communities nationwide.
 
The hearing came just days after the release of Mayor Mamdani's sweeping "Block by Block" housing agenda, a plan centered on strengthening tenant protections, supporting tenant unions, increasing enforcement against negligent landlords, preserving affordable housing, and building hundreds of thousands of permanently affordable homes across New York City.
 
"We never want you to come to the conclusion that you must leave this city in order to live your life," Mayor Mamdani told the audience. "We want you to stay in this city so that you can build your life."
   
Throughout the evening, students and community members challenged the Mayor on some of the most urgent issues facing New Yorkers, including tenant organizing, environmental health hazards, homelessness, affordability, displacement, and immigrant protections.
 
One of the evening's most powerful exchanges came from a Bronx-born college senior and tenant organizer who shared that his family had been forced to leave the South Bronx because of rising rents. Referencing the administration's newly released housing plan, the student asked how City Hall would work directly with tenant unions and ensure that organized tenants have a meaningful role in enforcement efforts.
 
Mamdani responded by outlining one of the administration's most ambitious proposals: coordinated citywide enforcement actions triggered by organized tenant unions. "When a tenant union reaches majority membership in a building and comes together around an issue, city government is going to coordinate enforcement days where multiple agencies come together to do a roof-to-basement inspection of the entire building," the Mayor said.
   
He described tenant unions as essential partners in holding negligent landlords accountable and emphasized that organized tenants would play a central role in the city's housing strategy moving forward.
 
Another significant exchange focused on public health and housing quality. A teacher in the community, speaking on behalf of students participating in the National Clean Water Collective Youth Council, challenged the Mayor about the continued presence of lead service lines and unsafe housing conditions while tenants pay some of the highest rents in the country.
 
"When tenants are paying premium rents, shouldn't safe drinking water be considered a basic standard of decent housing?" she asked.
 
Mamdani agreed, arguing that affordability cannot be separated from housing quality."The crisis in New York City is not just the cost of housing," he said. "It's also the condition of housing."
 
He pledged increased investments in inspectors and enforcement personnel, stronger accountability measures for chronic housing-code violators, and efforts to transfer persistently neglected properties into the hands of nonprofit organizations, community land trusts, or tenants themselves.
   
The conversation also highlighted the unique challenges facing New York City's college students. Among those who addressed the Mayor was Brittany Lanzano, a graduate of Hostos and now a student at Lehman College, and Lead Advocate with CUNY CARES. Lanzano introduced attendees to the work of CUNY CARES, which serves students at Hostos Community College, Lehman College, and Bronx Community College by connecting them with critical campus and community resources that help address barriers to academic success and personal stability.
 
Speaking on behalf of students navigating economic hardship and housing insecurity, Lanzano asked what specific elements of the administration's housing strategy would help low-income students and young people in the Bronx who are struggling right now.
 
The Mayor praised the work of CUNY CARES and emphasized that affordable housing policy must reflect the realities facing students. "There are a lot of programs and services in New York City, and there are a lot of people who have no idea that they exist," Mamdani said. "We need people like you who are telling New Yorkers what they can actually have at their fingertips."
 
He pointed to the administration's commitment to permanently increased funding for CUNY, expanded affordable housing production, and housing opportunities designed to reach New Yorkers at the income levels where many students currently live.
   
The discussion was moderated by Faiz Shakir, Founder and Executive Director of More Perfect Union. Shakir emphasized the importance of creating spaces where ordinary people can directly engage elected officials on issues affecting their daily lives and praised the willingness of students and tenants to organize around housing affordability.
 
Following the Mayor's departure for a previously scheduled commitment, the conversation continued with Cea Weaver, Director of the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants, who remained on stage to answer questions and provide additional details about the administration's housing agenda. Weaver fielded questions on homelessness, housing preservation, university-driven displacement, tenant organizing, lead exposure, rent-impairing violations, and protections for immigrant communities.
 
Responding to concerns from residents who had experienced homelessness and housing instability, Weaver highlighted the administration's plans to dramatically increase housing opportunities for New Yorkers currently living in shelters and temporary housing. She also discussed efforts to modernize housing regulations, strengthen tenant enforcement tools, and update policies that have not been significantly revised in decades, including regulations related to health and safety violations.
   
Throughout the evening, a consistent theme emerged: the people most affected by New York City's housing crisis are demanding a direct role in shaping its solutions. The hearing featured testimony from tenant organizers, students, immigrant advocates, environmental justice leaders, residents who had experienced homelessness, and community members determined to remain in the neighborhoods they call home.
 
For Hostos Community College, an institution created through community organizing nearly six decades ago, the event served as a powerful reminder that transformative change has often begun when ordinary New Yorkers come together, raise their voices, and refuse to accept the status quo.
 
One of the College’s mission pillars has always been to serve as a resource for the community. On Thursday night in the South Bronx, that tradition continued. Students, tenants, organizers, educators, artists, and city leaders gathered under one roof to discuss the future of New York City, and to insist that the next generation deserves a city they can afford to call home. The College will once again serve as a civic gathering place when the NYC Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) will hold its annual Bronx Public Hearing on Monday, June 8, 2026, bringing residents together to share their perspectives on housing and affordability in the city.