“We are made strong by our diversity. Preserving and creating affordable housing is critical to promoting this diversity by ensuring seniors can stay here, young people can start here and the middle class can prosper. Hard working New Yorkers who built their neighborhoods, lived there for years must be able to continue to live here.”
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
As a tenant leader and a founding member of Northern Manhattan is Not for Sale (NMN4S), Robert’s in Albany fighting to keep people in their homes and protected from wrongful eviction. His support for tenants rights is why he’s endorsed by TenantsPAC and Metropolitan Council on Housing.
As State Senator, he’s introduced bills to allow courts to intervene when landlords refuse to make necessary repairs, prevent landlords from charging tenants legal fees for operating buildings, and mandate fire safety compliance inspections to prevent tragedies like the one that killed 17 people in the Bronx.
He’s fighting to pass Good Cause Eviction, fully fund NYCHA, a just rezoning for Inwood, and to stop landlords from harassing tenants out of their homes.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Co-sponsored landmark rent reforms causing a tectonic shift in the balance of power from landlords to tenants.
Provided assistance and grants to community groups like Community League of the Heights and Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement to protect affordable housing and provide housing code enforcement, tenant education and advocacy and tenant organization;
Helped Northern Manhattan Improvement Corp and West Harlem Group Assistance to implement a grassroots-based approach to protect affordable housing; and Palante Harlem, Legal Services NYC and the Northern Manhattan Improvement Corp to fund ant-eviction legal services, tenant harassment protection and advocacy.
Sponsored important legislation including a bill that would require every apartment building in New York City to have a summary of basic tenants' rights posted in the lobby and handed to every tenant along with their lease; Resolution 700 in 2011 calling upon the New York State Legislature to renew and strengthen rent regulations and eviction protection; Intro 436 to require building-wide remediation of asthma-triggering housing code violations; and Intro 90 in 2010 to provide legal counsel for senior citizens facing eviction or foreclosure proceedings.
Worked to build new affordable housing including championing the Sugar Hill Project that will offer 124 apartments for low-income or previously homeless families and an early education center for preschoolers and the Boys and Girls Club of Harlem Project to renovate a school building that had been vacant for over a decade to provide 86 units for low income families and individuals.
Worked daily with tenants in his district to deal with their housing issues including supporting start up tenant organizations, personally knocking on doors of TIL tenants who were about to lose property, calling and reaching out to seniors one-by-one concerning their SCRIE applications, helping building tenants fight back against slumlords and following up with tenants displaced by fire or other emergencies.