New York tenants face $400 winter utility bills as Mamdani zeroes in on the costs

For many New York renters, the cost of staying warm in winter is becoming a housing problem of its own, with some tenants reporting electric bills of around $400 a month — or far more — as Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration puts renewed focus on utility affordability.

What's happening?

As part of that effort, Mamdani tapped public utility advocate Annel Hernandez to push for lower bills and wider access to energy affordability programs, while the city opened a survey asking tenants about what they spend on heat and air conditioning, according to The City Reporter.

An official recap of the mayor's "Rental Ripoff" hearings said tenants repeatedly raised unexpected utility charges on top of already high housing costs.

Cea Weaver, who directs the Mayor's Office to Protect Tenants, said renters often sign leases without understanding what their winter energy bills may eventually look like.

"There's a reality of looking for an apartment in New York City, that if you find one you can afford, you're going to take it, and you may not know that later on, during the winter, the electric bill is going to be much higher," Weaver told reporters in July.

According to state figures cited by the Reporter, nearly 400,000 Con Edison customers were more than 60 days behind on payments, with over $891 million still owed.

Why does it matter?

The issue lands in a city where most households already meet the definition of rent-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities. Costlier heating only deepens that strain.

For some renters, the way a building is electrified is a big part of the problem. Residents in buildings with landlord-paid central boilers often do not get a separate heat charge, but individually metered electric heating can leave tenants with very high winter bills.

In Harlem, renter Jen Wu said poor insulation and an inefficient electric heating system in her one-bedroom apartment push her winter bills to about $400 a month.

"All winter, I'm chronically underheated because I can't afford it, and it's extremely stressful," Wu said, per the Reporter. "It's been really hard, but everything else about this apartment is so right for me."

Even so, electrification can also bring major gains for indoor air quality and reductions in climate pollution.

"The city's switch to electrification is to improve air quality and improve the residents' experience inside buildings," said Anhthu Hoang, deputy director of the nonprofit WE ACT for Environmental Justice. "Affordability is not just about money — it's about your health and wellbeing."

What's being done?

Before moving toward a broader policy response, the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development says it is still working to get a clearer picture of the problem.

Andrew Stern, a spokesperson for the agency, said, "These answers are critical to developing a comprehensive response to this emerging issue."

Hernandez said her office is trying to help more New Yorkers enroll in energy affordability programs and better understand their utility bills. Some protections already exist: rent-stabilized tenants may be eligible for rent reductions if landlords newly shift heating costs onto them after changing a system, and some state electrification incentives prohibit landlords from passing those costs to tenants.

Advocates said the kind of electric heating installed also makes a difference, with heat pumps generally more efficient than baseboard heat or older wall units.

Francis Rodriguez, director of weatherization at the Association for Energy Affordability, said, "Mandating that you don't switch the cost from the building owner to the tenant is a good protection."

That difference was evident in a Crown Heights building, where replacing inefficient electric units with heat pumps cut one resident's bill from about $1,000 to about $300.

As tenant Eric Thurm said of the new system, "They're way more reasonable … I think everybody feels like the building is a lot more habitable now and [feels] less terrified in the winter."

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