Amid a 2025 NYC mayor’s race in which several Democratic candidates have shown interest in freezing rent increases for stabilized tenants, Mayor Eric Adams not only declined on Monday to do the same but also challenged his rivals to pair their proposals with plans to protect small landlords from taking a financial hit.

During an unrelated April 28 press conference in Brooklyn, the mayor did not directly answer a reporter’s question about whether he would support freezing the rent for the city’s roughly one million stabilized tenants. Instead, he argued that small landlords facing rising costs need to be able to increase rents to hold onto their buildings.