Zohran Mamdani housing official Cea Weaver criticized by NYC landlords

New York City homeowners are harshly criticizing comments made by a top housing official in Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration who previously linked homeownership to white supremacy, calling the comments “racist” and disdainful of immigrant property owners.

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

Speaking about housing policy and equity in a DSA video released in March 2021, Weaver said: “For centuries we’ve treated property not really as a collective good, but as an individualized good, and as we move towards treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity, it’s going to require us to think differently about that.”

“Families, particularly White families, but also some POC families who are homeowners, will have a different relationship with property than we have now,” he added.

Weaver also faced backlash for a tweet she wrote in 2019: “Private property, and especially homeownership, is a weapon of White supremacy disguised as a ‘wealth building’ public policy.”

Weaver’s statement caught the attention of Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. “The DOJ Civil Rights Division is on high alert regarding the radical agenda promised by Mayor Mamdani, many of which contradict our federal Constitutional and civil rights norms,” Dhillon told Fox News.

Small property owners in New York City who spoke to Fox News Digital say Weaver’s views are “derogatory” and portray a broad and unfair approach to homeowners.

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Cea Weaver (left) speaks at a press conference with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (far right) on Thursday, January 1, 2026, in New York. (Mayoral Photography Office via Michael Appleton/AP)

Jan Lee, a third-generation Chinatown property owner and board member of Small Owners of New York (SPONY), said Weaver’s comments ignore both the history and lived experiences of immigrant homeowners.

“I think the real socialist views on housing and getting housing from people like me have a racist element to it,” Lee said. “I think when you start lumping us all together and saying we’re the bad thing that’s keeping people out of housing, that’s racist. We’re out the door in this administration and we’re starting out with extreme hostility towards property owners.”

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

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He strongly opposed the idea that property ownership equated to white supremacy and pointed to the history of immigrant communities striving and struggling to achieve a piece of the American dream.

“I think the comments coming from a White woman who is currently in this seat of government, saying that homeownership is a form of White supremacy, have not lived the lives of my family and the lives of many non-White families who own small property in New York,” Lee said. “Black owners were banned from owning property. Laws were passed about Japanese Americans in the United States owning property against the Chinese, so to say that owning property is a form of White supremacy is completely out of line.”

“And it denies the history that people of many different races have had to leave. It’s so insulting to have the privilege of sitting there and saying these things in 2026 without understanding that the Chinese Exclusion Act existed when my family bought our properties. We weren’t even allowed to come to this country,” he continued.

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The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was the first major U.S. federal law to ban the immigration of a specific ethnic group, namely Chinese workers, to the United States. It suspended immigration for 10 years and denied citizenship to Chinese residents. It was not repealed until 1943.

Ann Korchak, SPONY’s executive director, echoed Lee’s concerns and said the rhetoric was divisive.

“I think such language is derogatory,” Korchak said. “[Weaver] “He should come to a SPONY meeting and be blown away by the diversity of our organization.”

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“New York has a rich tradition of immigrants achieving the American dream through property ownership,” he said. “Many people who didn’t even know our members and we existed came to America because they had no rights where they came from. Owning property was out of reach for them where they came from,” Korchak said. he said.

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

Landlords worry that socialist policies will push small landlords out of the city, leaving tenants at the mercy of big corporations. (Nikolas Lanum/Fox News Digital)

In a statement announcing Weaver’s appointment in January, Mamdani said: “You can’t hold landlords who violate the law accountable unless you have a proven, principled and tireless fighter at the helm. That’s why today I’m proud to announce my friend Cea Weaver as the Director of the Mayor’s office, revitalized to protect tenants.”

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Weaver said last year that she found his past comments about homeownership and White supremacy “regrettable,” but According to the New York PostHe stopped short of an apology.

“I think some of this was definitely not the way I would say it today and I regret it,” he told NY1. “I think my decades of experience fighting for more affordable housing stands alone.”

Lee argued that the Mamdani administration’s anti-landlord rhetoric has negatively impacted both housing providers and tenants, leaving tenants at the mercy of big corporations.

“I think it’s more important to work with property owners face-to-face, to understand who they are, their value to the community, and what will keep them in the community, than to start with someone who is extremely hateful towards property owners and actually views property ownership through a very narrow myopic lens. [and] “It can only hurt tenants and property owners,” he said.

He also mentioned that there would be wider consequences if smallholders were expelled.

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

Ann Korchak noted that her organization is full of immigrant hosts from a variety of ideological and ethnic backgrounds. (Nikolas Lanum/Fox News Digital)

As the Mamdani administration begins to shape its housing agenda, comments from landlords underscore an early and sharp divide between City Hall’s tenant-focused leadership and the city’s small property owners.

According to Korchak, small property owners feel unfairly targeted by rhetoric they believe oversimplifies the complex housing crisis and ignores the immigrant experience.

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He also stated that the immigrant families in his organization see property ownership as the result of years of sacrifice.

“Immigrants, or children of immigrants, grandchildren of immigrants, they know the sacrifice that either they or their parents or their grandparents made to buy a property,” he said. “To be shot down and criticized for their desire to do this is hugely unfair.”

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

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