Zohran Mamdani came into office promising to be the mayor who would finally protect New York’s most vulnerable renters. Instead, his first major test has left him sidelined by a federal judge while more than 5,000 subsidized apartments move closer to the auction block. For tenants who say Pinnacle let buildings rot, the prospect of a new owner without guaranteed resources feels less like rescue and more like roulette with their homes and futures.

The legal setback lands as Mamdani is already under intense scrutiny for appointing tenant advocate Cea Weaver, who is still dogged by her old “weapon of white supremacy” comment about homeownership. His decision to publicly oppose the U.S. military’s capture of Nicolás Maduro in a call to Donald Trump only heightens the sense that this mayor is willing to pick fights on multiple fronts at once. Whether that courage translates into real housing security for New Yorkers now depends on what he can salvage from a courtroom loss he could not afford.