Housing
The Right to Housing
The City needs to take an active role in housing its citizens, and our campaign seeks to advocate for the rights of our residents; this includes ending the privatization of public lands. Public lands should be used for conservation, community spaces, or public housing projects that can house our homeless and low-income citizens. Properties like Hudson Yards serve as playgrounds for the rich and are massively undertaxed. New York City needs this revenue to fund social welfare programs and public housing projects directly. The City should raise taxes on these existing properties to increase its revenue in these trying times.
A New AMI
We need to reform the Area Median Income formula to reflect the cost of life in local communities more accurately. Currently, when we discuss AMI in NYC, we include income levels from across the 5 boroughs, Westchester, Putnam County, and Rockland County. Not only is this wildly inaccurate, but it also limits housing options for low-income New Yorkers in an already expensive city.
Fully Fund NYCHA
We need to end the privatization of NYCHA full stop. It is the City’s responsibility to provide for its residents, and we can’t afford to shore off responsibilities to private companies due to a poorly run government with a consistent disinterest in the lives of low-income residents. New York City needs to invest in our residents, and that means investing in NYCHA, funding capital projects, and repairs, so our residents are living comfortably and not forced to stay in poor living conditions because of their income status.
Privatization often includes a staggering lack of transparency between the building management company and the residents, along with a lack of communication. These private management companies have no oversight and face no accountability while providing the same poor living standard to residents.
Public Lands for Public Use
It's time we focus on protecting public land for a) environmental protection purposes and b) for further development of low-cost public housing that is open to homeless and low-income New Yorkers. We have the opportunity to explore innovative ways to give city land a new purpose and ability to service the needs of neighborhoods, and we can potentially do this through public land trusts. Public land trusts allow the people to take ownership of the land and democratically elect people who will oversee land use. Let's work to create more public land trusts and let communities decide how land should be used.
Establish Good Cause Eviction
We need to protect tenants from unlawful and unjust evictions by establishing good cause eviction. I will make sure that similar legislation is enacted in the City Council, and I'm in full support of passing Good Cause eviction statewide.