Housing

I’m a tenant and believe that tenants, not landlords, should democratically control their apartment buildings. This is what it means to make housing a human right. And it’s why I’m rejecting all money from landlords and real estate interests.

Three years ago, I worked with my neighbors to organize our tenant association when our landlord told us he was going to convert our rent-stabilized apartments to condos. We fought back and stopped harassment, forced our landlord to make repairs, and kept our neighbors in their homes. In June 2019, I participated in a mass civil disobedience as part of the Housing Justice for All campaign — which won some of the strongest tenant protections NY State has seen. We must build on these protections to end homelessness and guarantee everyone a home. That’s why I proudly support a Homes Guarantee and will fight to:

• Make universal rent control a reality for all tenants, by passing good-cause eviction and eliminating the Major Capital Improvement loophole.
• Create democratically controlled social housing by:
• Allowing tenants to collectively purchase and run their buildings to meet human need, not line their landlord’s pockets.
• Investing $3 billion in public housing, prioritizing NYCHA residents who have faced winters without heat and can’t get needed repairs.
• Housing our homeless neighbors by funding 20,000 units of supportive housing for those leaving our shelter system.
• Tax the rich to solve our housing crisis, by ending 421a and 485a tax breaks and passing new taxes on the wealthy, such as the pied-a-terre tax.

Together we can pass universal rent control, develop democratically controlled social housing, and make the wealthy pay to solve the housing crisis that they created.