The rent is too damn high. Most New Yorkers spend more on rent than anything else. I’ve experienced that struggle. I’ve lived, worked in, and worked for this district for over a decade. I know what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck, and often without the security of healthcare coverage.

Affordable housing is essential to the safety and dignity of all people. As the Chair of Community Board 3, I’ve advocated for increasing the supply of affordable housing, protecting existing affordable housing like HDFCs and rent stabilized units, and I’ve successfully worked to expand the number of Community Land Trusts (CLTs) in District 2, which has seen the most growth of CLTs compared to any other area in New York City. Working in a coalition with community groups and elected officials, I’ve helped secure hundreds of affordable and supportive housing units, and I won’t stop there.

We need comprehensive solutions that make our housing stock affordable, accessible, sustainable, and secure. As your next Councilmember, I will work to:

• Preserve and Expand Affordable and Public Housing: Whether it’s nonprofit housing providers, NYCHA, Community Land Trusts (CLT’s), Housing Development Fund Cooperations (HDFC), or limited equity cooperatives, I’ll work to build resident power by expanding funding and legislation for programs that keep housing permanently affordable and off the speculative market.

• Develop Local Green Affordable Housing Projects: Council District 2 is a waterfront community that has faced more than its fair share of pollution and environmental problems over the years. As your Councilmember, I am committed to building at least 400 units of green and affordable housing on our local public land that not only addresses our housing shortage but also fights climate change and creates good union jobs. I will champion these local green affordable housing projects that put community voices at the forefront and ensure long-term affordability, climate resilience, and economic security for all residents.

• Homeownership Opportunities: I will work to increase Housing Preservation and Development programs to help low- and moderate-income families purchase homes, including expanding down payment assistance and homebuyer education programs. As Councilmember, I will work toward expanding the Mitchell-Llama program and other programs so that middle-income families can afford to live in our city.

• Tenant Protections: I will work to strengthen tenant protections against eviction, harassment, and displacement, including the expansion of the Right to Counsel. I will work to reform and remove barriers to housing vouchers, making it easier for property owners and tenants to rent homes. 

  To accomplish this, I commit to hiring a full time housing organizer in my office who will work with residents to expand tenant power by ensuring your home is livable and your repairs are completed.

• Expanding Senior Housing: Our seniors laid the foundation of the beautiful city we know today, but many struggle to afford to stay here. I will work to ensure seniors can stay in their communities under safe, accessible, and livable conditions, by expanding our senior affordable housing programs. I’ll work to double the baseline of accessible units for people with mobility, visual, and hearing disabilities throughout all new developments.

• Fight for a Rent Freeze: More than two million New Yorkers live in a rent-stabilized unit, but under the current mayor, their rent has increased by 9%. Our city is becoming more and more expensive and the drastic rise in costs calls for necessary measures to ensure New Yorkers can afford to live here. As Councilmember, I’ll push the mayor and their appointees to the Rent Guidelines Board to freeze the rent for all rent-stabilized tenants.

• Create a Registry of Vacant Units: There are thousands of vacant units in New York City yet we currently do not maintain a comprehensive public registry of these vacant residential units. A registry will empower the City Council to hold landlords accountable to rent out their apartments to New Yorkers. I will work to create incentives for landlords to maintain affordable rents and will work to impose escalating fines on landlords who warehouse these units. We must create pathways for low and extremely low income households to receive these units and I will work to do that.

By implementing these policies, we can ensure that New York City remains an affordable and inclusive place for all residents, regardless of income.

As a resident of the waterfront and member of LES Ready, our local disaster preparedness group, I understand the need for climate justice as we work to build a more resilient Manhattan. The threat of climate disasters like extreme storms, floods, and heat waves require us to act now. As your Councilperson, I’ll work to ensure new solutions to combating, adapting, and mitigating the climate crisis work for all residents of District 2, but particularly communities who have lived through environmental racism.

I’ll work with all levels of government to implement a Green New Deal for NYC through effective interventions that work to fight climate change, like improving our neighborhoods’ infrastructure to make it more resilient, and make investments in green union jobs as technology changes and innovate our economy. I’ll work to expand dignified cooling centers during extreme heat emergencies, and assure that all seniors have access.

I’ll ensure that our neighborhood’s green spaces, parks, and community gardens, and other open spaces, are well maintained to address and provide reprieve from increasing frequency and severity of heat waves. I’ll work to transition our neighborhoods from Fossil Fuels to Clean Energy.

I’ve worked tirelessly to create educational opportunities that address the pressing issues we face—housing, public health, climate justice, and the struggles of small businesses. I’ve secured millions in funding to support our artists, sustain vital public programs like the City Artist Corps, and nourish our cultural ecosystem. I have collaborated with visionary artists and leaders who weave together our cultural legacies with grassroots organizing, lifting up the working class, our seniors, individuals with disabilities, people of color, and LGBTQI communities. I’ve worked to defend the culture of our neighborhoods for over a decade.

In the City Council, I’ll work to champion the many artists, creatives, independent venues and arts spaces that contribute to the cultural, creative, and artistic hub that is New York City, particularly in Greenwich Village, Lower East Side, East Village, Midtown South-Flatiron-Union Square, Gramercy, and Murray Hill-Kips Bay. With 10,000 cultural workers operating every day in our district, I’ll work to create programs and opportunities to put artists to work on making our streets, public spaces, transportation, schools, and senior centers more beautiful, cleaner, greener, and safer, and I have the experience to make it happen.

More coming soon.