The Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants

Abstract

This working paper translates Executive Order 3, “Revitalizing the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants,” into an actionable blueprint for rebuilding tenant power inside city government. It argues that MOPT should function as the administration’s coordinating hub for tenant protection, designed to strengthen tenants’ rights and embed tenants’ voices in housing policy and enforcement. The paper proposes a program of work organized around four core tenant rights: affordability, habitability, collective power, and housing security (including freedom from harassment). To deliver these rights, it lays out specific actions that integrate tenant organizing support, cross-agency enforcement coordination, anti-speculation strategy, and pathways to transfer distressed buildings into social housing. Finally, it makes a capacity case: to be effective, MOPT must be built as a robust institution, recommending a minimum $8 million annual budget and a staff of at least 35.