Where NYC's Council Candidates Stand on Key Housing Issues

Where NYC’s Council Candidates Stand on Key Housing Issues

By City Limits.

Published June 25, 2023

As the city faces dual affordable housing and homelessness crises, City Limits asked the candidates’ running in Tuesday’s primary for their stance on a number of key related issues. Are they a renter or a landlord? Do they support the idea of “member deference” on local land use votes? What’s the best route for funding repairs at NYCHA?

Adi Talwar/City Limis; Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office

Editor’s note: This story has been updated since original publication to include additional responses from candidates received after press time.

Primary Election Day is Tuesday, when candidates vying for their party’s nomination will be on the ballot in 23 City Council races, as well as in contests for Queens and Bronx district attorney.

Fewer than half of the city’s incumbent council members—who last ran for office in 2021, serving rare two-year terms as a result of redistricting—are facing primaries Tuesday. The winners will go on to compete in the general election in November.

Those who take office in 2024 will face significant challenges: New York City is experiencing record homelessness, as elected leaders struggle to respond to a humanitarian crisis of asylum seekers, an ongoing affordable housing shortage and historically high rents in some neighborhoods.

To gauge how the city’s next set of lawmakers will handle those issues, City Limits sent a set of questions related to housing and homelessness policy to Council candidates in active primaries whose campaigns we could find contact information for. We received responses from 16.

We asked seven questions, including if the candidate rents or owns property in the city. We asked if they support the concept of “member deference”—the tradition in which City Council members defer to the representative whose district a project is located in when voting to approve or reject land use applications. We also asked what they would personally want to see a development proposal include for it to earn their support.

Our survey asked the candidates if they think Mayor Eric Adams’ recent attempts to weaken the city’s longstanding right to shelter rules was justified, and how they would handle local push-back to the siting of new homeless shelters and affordable housing projects in their districts. We probed them on the latest plans to raise repair funds for NYCHA (the RAD/PACT and Preservation Trust initiatives) and how they think the city should enforce new rules to reduce building pollution.

Below are links to the candidate responses we received, organized by Council district. Responses have been lightly edited for style and clarity.

To find your district and see if it has active primaries happening Tuesday, check here. To confirm you’re registered to vote and to what party, check here.

If you’re a candidate who missed our deadline but would still like to take part in the survey, email jeanmarie@citylimits.flywheelstaging.com.

City Council District 1 (Map)

Also running in this district: Christopher Marte (Democrat, incumbent) and Ursila Jung (Democrat)

City Council District 2 (Map)

City Council District 9 (Map)

Incumbent Democrat Kristin Richardson Jordan is still on the ballot for this district, but publicly announced in May that she was dropping out of the race and is not seeking re-election.

City Council District 10 (Map)

Carmen De La Rosa (Democrat, incumbent)

Also running in this district: Guillermo A Perez (Democrat)

City Council District 12 (Map)

Aisha Hernandez Ahmed (Democrat)

Also running in this district: Kevin Riley (Democrat, incumbent), Pamela A. Hamilton-Johnson

City Council District 13 (Map)

Kristy Marmorato (Republican, Conservative)

Also running in this district: George Havranek (Republican, Conservative), Hasime Samantha Zherka (Republican, Conservative), Marjorie Velazquez (Democrat, incumbent), Irene Estrada (Democrat), Bernadette Ferrara (Democrat), John Perez (Democrat)