Zohran Mamdani housing official Cea Weaver criticized by NYC landlords

New York City realtors are sharply criticizing the comments of a top New York housing official Mayor Zahran Mamdani The administration, which has previously linked homeownership to white supremacy, called the comments “racist” and rejected immigrant landlords.

Cea Weaver, a longtime housing activist and member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), was appointed by Mamdani to serve as director of the Mayor’s Office of Tenant Protection.

Speaking about housing policy and equity in a DSA video in March 2021, Weaver said: “For centuries, we have treated property as an individual good rather than a collective good, and the … transition to treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity will require us to think about it differently.”

“Families, especially white families, but some POC families who own homes as well, will have a different relationship to ownership than we currently have,” she added.

Jean Lee previously told Fox News Digital that many immigrant landlords came to America to escape socialist and communist countries. (Fox News Digital/Nicholas Lannom)

Weaver also faced backlash for a 2019 tweet in which she wrote: “Private property Including and the type of homeownership in particular is a A weapon of white supremacy It masquerades as public policy aimed at “building wealth.”

Weaver’s statement caught the attention of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon, who told Fox News that “the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is on high alert regarding the extremist agenda promised by Mayor Mamdani, much of which is inconsistent with our federal constitutional and civil rights standards.”

New york city small landlords Those who spoke with Fox News Digital say Weaver’s opinions are “insulting,” and paint realtors with a broad and unfair brush.

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Sia Weaver, left, speaks during a press conference with New York Mayor Zahran Mamdani, far right, Thursday, January 1, 2026, in New York. (Michael Appleton/Mayor’s Office Photography via AP)

Jan Lee, a third-generation Chinatown landlord and board member of the Small Landlords of New York (SPONY), said Weaver’s comments ignore the history and life experiences of immigrant landlords.

“I think the real socialist views on housing and housing expropriation from people like me are the racist element in this,” he told me. “I think when you start lumping us all together and saying we’re all the bad thing that keeps people out of housing, that’s racist. We’re right out of the gate in this administration, and we’re starting to be very hostile to landlords.”

Lee emphasized his family’s deep roots in the city, noting that his family had been providing housing in New York City since the early 1900s.

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He strongly opposed the idea that property ownership equated with white supremacy, pointing to the history of immigrant communities seeking and struggling for a piece of the American dream.

“I think the comments from a white woman who now occupies this statehouse that homeownership is a form of white supremacy have not been lived up to by my family and many families who own small properties in New York who are not white.” He told me. “Black landlords were prohibited from owning property. There were anti-Chinese laws against Japanese Americans in the United States owning property, so to say that owning property is a form of white supremacy is completely out of context.”

“And it denies the history that many people of color had to leave. It’s very insulting when you have the privilege to sit there and say these things in 2026 without understanding that when my family bought our property, Chinese Exclusion Act existing. We were not even allowed to enter this country.”

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The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first major U.S. federal law to prohibit a specific ethnic group, Chinese laborers, from immigrating to the United States. This law suspended immigration for 10 years and deprived Chinese residents of citizenship. It was not canceled until 1943.

Anne Korczak, president of SPONY’s board of directors, echoed Lee’s concerns and called the speech divisive.

“I think language like that is insulting,” Korczak said. “[Weaver] You should attend a SPONY meeting and you will be amazed at the diversity of our organization.”

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“New York has a rich tradition A type of immigrant arriving to the Americans “We dreamed through property ownership,” she said. “A lot of our members and others who don’t even know we exist came to America because they didn’t have rights where they came from. Owning property is out of reach for them where they come from.”

“To say that owning property is racist is an insult to every immigrant who came here,” she added.

Landlords worry that socialist policies will push small homeowners out of town, leaving renters at the mercy of big business. (Nicholas Lannom/Fox News Digital)

In a January statement announcing Weaver’s appointment, Mamdani said, “You can only hold landlords who violate the law accountable if you have a proven, principled, and tireless fighter at the helm. That’s why I’m proud today to announce my friend Sia Weaver as president.” Newly activated manager Mayor’s Office of Tenant Protection.

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Weaver said last year that she found her previous comments about homeownership and white supremacy “unfortunate,” but, According to the New York PostStop apologizing.

“I think some of those things are definitely not what I’m saying today, and I’m sorry,” she told NY1. “I believe my decades of experience fighting for affordable housing stands on its own.”

Lee argued that the anti-landlord rhetoric of Mamdani management It negatively impacts both housing providers and tenants, leaving tenants at the mercy of large corporations.

“I think working one-on-one with property owners, understanding who they are, their value to the community, and what will keep them in the community, is more important than starting with someone who is scathing, very averse to landlords, and actually views property ownership through a very narrow, myopic lens. [and] “It can only hurt renters and landlords themselves,” she said.

He also hinted at wider consequences if smallholders were evicted.

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“If you really care about rent and the quality of life of renters in New York City, especially these people of color, you shouldn’t want small landlords to leave, especially people who have been embedded in the community for a long time,” Lee said.

Anne Korczak noted that her organization is full of immigrant landlords from different ideological and ethnic backgrounds. (Nicholas Lannom/Fox News Digital)

as Mamdani’s administration begins to take shape Its housing agenda, landlord comments highlight an early and defining divide between City Hall’s tenant-focused leadership and the city’s small landlords.

According to Korczak, small landlords feel unfairly targeted by rhetoric that they believe oversimplifies the complex housing crisis and ignores the immigrant experience.

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She also noted that immigrant families in her organization view property ownership as the culmination of years of sacrifice.

“Whether immigrants or children of immigrants, descendants of immigrants know the sacrifice they made of themselves or their parents or grandparents to buy a piece of property,” she said. “To be criticized and criticized for wanting to do this is completely unfair.”

Weaver and the mayor’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

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