Testimony: A Landlords’ Recovery, not a Tenants’ Recovery
The Rent Guidelines Board's actions will impact millions of New Yorkers, many of whom are already struggling to remain in their homes.
2021 Voter Guide
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Ray McGuire (D)
rayformayor.com
Latest News from CSS
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PrintCOVID-19
+1. Workers who have been hit hardest by pandemic-related job losses worked overwhelmingly in low-paid service industries such as restaurants, hotels, and other sectors requiring in-person interactions. These sectors have experienced widespread layoffs and business closures. How will your administration ensure that these workers can transition back to full-time employment?
Ray will provide immediate financial support for struggling local businesses, and streamline permits, inspections, and approvals to help businesses open or reopen quickly. The Comeback Job Accelerator, a wage subsidy, will bring back 50,000 jobs by covering 50 percent of a worker’s salary for one year at small businesses that were hardest hit by the pandemic. Ray will introduce a major infrastructure program that will create jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges, fixing subway elevators, building and renovating affordable housing, and making our city more sustainable. He will work with our unions to help ensure good wages and benefits. He is committed to providing affordable childcare for all New Yorkers, which will grow jobs in early childhood education and help parents reenter the workforce. He will invest in targeted job training that gets more New Yorkers the skills they need to get good jobs.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
2. The pandemic has exposed the absence of an adequate social safety net for undocumented workers, app-based gig workers, and other New Yorkers in nonstandard work arrangements. These workers are ineligible for employer-provided health coverage, unemployment benefits, and emergency government relief. What is your position on providing more financial assistance and workplace protections to these workers?
The nature of work is changing, but worker protections and benefits have not caught up. We must not just look at regulation, but we need to expand government support services and the social safety net to make sure workers are not falling through cracks. Technology has a role to play – new startups have made it easier for small employers to provide healthcare and other benefits even if they only have a few employees or they work non-traditional schedules. Ray would work with the Freelancers Union and other experts to come up with effective solutions. He will also collaborate with the federal government on programs for a national scale.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
3. The pandemic and ensuing recession has destabilized the city’s low-income families, who were twice as likely as those with higher incomes to suffer permanent job loss related to COVID-19. The most vulnerable are children in households reeling from loss of income, food insecurity, and housing instability. What steps would you take to provide relief for low-income families struggling to survive as the city begins its economic recovery?
Many New Yorkers have not only been displaced from jobs but from entire industries that are unlikely to return at the same levels. Others have been working in low-wage jobs with limited opportunity to upskill and increase opportunity. Ray will raise and invest $100 million a year to provide 15,000 New Yorkers with seats in bridge programs, which pair basic education with jobs training, and put New Yorkers on the path to a good job. Ray will also work with the non-profit and private sectors to integrate New York City’s hundreds of existing job training programs and CUNY career services into a unified NYC job training network and directory, accessible online, and use a data-driven approach to pair workers’ existing skills and interests with locally available programs, real-time hiring trends, and job openings. He will match our workforce investments to high demand industries. For example, he will focus on preparing New Yorkers for infrastructure jobs by expanding capacity at the city’s Workforce 1 Industrial Career Centers, increasing focus on industrial and construction jobs within the Career Pathways program, and leveraging programs offered by labor unions.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
Economic Equity
+1. According to a recent report from the New York State Comptroller, New York City is currently facing a $4 billion budget gap. How would you strengthen the city’s fiscal outlook while minimizing the impact of potential cuts in critical public services on low-income New Yorkers?
Balancing the city’s budget requires a comprehensive approach. Ray will review spending in each agency and look for waste and redundancies, starting with non-personnel costs. This is not just a financial problem, it’s an issue of justice. When we have waste and inefficiency in our budget it takes resources away from the communities that need them most. We then need to evaluate the support we get from the federal government, and the revenue from sales and income taxes as the vaccine begins to turn the tide and visitors return. Afterwards, we may have to turn to tax increases and Ray is prepared to ask those who have done well, including him, to give a little more.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
2. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the devastating racial inequities that exist in our city – from healthcare access to housing discrimination to education resources. What will you do as mayor to address racial disparities in city policymaking?
My commitment to racial equity is weaved into every aspect of my effort to lead this city, beginning with the team I have hired to run this campaign. Too often politicians use platitudes to address racial inequities but I have a record in my career of actually getting it done. My vision for the city includes requiring communities of color in all boroughs and industries to have a seat at that table and concrete opportunities to live, work, and thrive. This is evident in my plan to invest in our children from cradle to career to close the achievement gap and to rebuild the city’s economy by creating good paying jobs and providing equitable access to capital for small business and MWBEs to fully participate in the economic recovery and infrastructure development of the city.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
3. Student loan debt is impacting about one million New York City residents, and first-generation college students and communities of color are bearing the brunt of this debt. What role can New York City play in tackling student loan debt and how would you start to address these disparities?
On the city level, Ray will look for opportunities to create or expand loan repayment assistance programs to help recruit New Yorkers to work in underserved communities. However, this is not a problem that any city can solve on its own, so Ray will advocate for the federal government to provide relief for the hundreds of thousands of people who are struggling with student loans.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
4. More than 220,000 New Yorkers have enrolled in Fair Fares, a program that provides half-priced MetroCards to New Yorkers living at or below poverty. Yet the program was slashed by $65 million in the city's Fiscal Year 2021 budget. Most low-income New Yorkers continue to rely on public transit for their daily commute and jobless New Yorkers struggle to afford the fare as they attempt to return to the workforce. What is your position on ensuring adequate funding for the continued expansion of Fair Fares?
Ray supports the expansion of Fair Fares. We need to determine areas of greatest need for New Yorkers who are struggling and weigh the cost of expanding the program now against other initiatives like rent relief, hunger prevention, or supportive housing for those experiencing homelessness.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
Housing
+1. Under the de Blasio mayoralty, affordable housing has been a key priority, but the housing that has been produced has not met the needs of the bottom 40 percent of income earners. How would you re-align both the city’s affordable housing programs and its land use policies to promote deeper levels of affordability at a larger scale?
Ray will partner with local nonprofits to build housing that will address the needs of individual communities, including more senior housing. He will also work with the federal government to update AMI calculations to reflect the real median income of working New Yorkers, so that public dollars go toward truly affordable housing. We cannot take a cookie cutter approach to affordable housing. We need to create a comprehensive citywide plan in collaboration with each community – a plan that creates jobs, respects neighborhoods, and protects residents from gentrification. We also need to update our building codes to support and encourage innovation. Building in our city is the most expensive in the country. We need to embrace new technologies and environmentally-sound building materials that will ensure a sustainable and affordable future.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
2. NYCHA and its 500,000 residents are an integral part of the city, and homelessness has reached record highs. Yet public housing and homelessness are often treated as afterthoughts or outliers in city planning discussions. How should the next mayor integrate preserving public housing and ending homelessness into their comprehensive affordable housing plan?
Ray believes that we have a moral responsibility to care for individuals experiencing homelessness. That moral responsibility means investing in transitional housing with support services for those who are able to live alone, as well as providing full wrap-around services in shelters and supportive housing for those who need more permanent support. It also means ensuring family shelters have access to WIFI and childcare. We must expand safe havens to help homeless folks on the street feel that they have safe options. As mayor, Ray will work with the Biden-Harris administration to secure additional funding for NYCHA, leverage public-private partnerships to improve services, and update administrative rules and procedures that can stand in the way.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
3. Despite new city investments in NYCHA public housing during the de Blasio administration, the data indicates these investments have not kept pace with worsening, accelerating deterioration of resident living conditions. What initiatives would you take to improve NYCHA living conditions and address its $40 billion capital backlog?
Ray will invest in the construction of new housing that is affordable for the lowest income New Yorkers and in the preservation of affordable housing. That investment in affordable housing will prioritize affordable senior housing, which will also provide services to older New Yorkers and allow them to remain in their communities. Another priority is supportive housing that can help move people out of shelter and help prevent homelessness. We need to pay more attention to NYCHA repairs and take a closer look at the underlying conditions and issues that are harming residents’ health.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
4. Decades of risky financial practices have left rental buildings overleveraged and vulnerable to foreclosures or debt buy-outs, with pandemic-related rent arrears adding to their financial distress. As a result, many landlords are having difficulty maintaining payments on their buildings. What would you do as mayor to prevent speculative investors from buying up these buildings and their debt, and to instead promote their preservation as permanently affordable forms of social housing?
Ray will create a menu of financial relief options that can be made available to small property owners in exchange for forgiving or lowering rent for small business tenants, or providing early lease breaks, subleasing, and other tenant benefits and protections. Offerings would be based on a building owner’s total rent collections for 2020 and projected collections for future years.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
Health Care
+1. Immigrants are disproportionately uninsured due to federal and state policies that limit eligibility and discourage access to health programs available to citizens and lawful residents. As mayor, what types of programs or policies would you champion to maximize enrollment of immigrants in quality insurance coverage that they can afford?
Ray will engage in conversations with local nonprofits within immigrant communities to ensure language and cultural competency in our healthcare system. He will aggressively push to get more people signed up for coverage through NYC Care.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
2. In 2020, Manhattan had 6.4 hospital beds for every 1,000 residents, while Queens had only 1.5 hospital beds for every 1,000 residents. Similar disparities exist in the Bronx and Brooklyn. The COVID-19 pandemic is exposing the devastating toll these maldistributions have had on New York’s communities of color in the outer boroughs. What would you do as mayor to ensure that healthcare infrastructure is distributed equitably?
When it comes to health and healthcare, the top priority is ensuring that there is true equity in our city. That means investing in education and outreach to make sure that the communities that were most greatly impacted by the pandemic are not left behind when it comes to vaccine deployment. Ray will invest in high quality healthcare facilities in underserved communities and address social determinants of health – making sure all neighborhoods have access to affordable, healthy food, open space, and reducing pollution in communities of color.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
3. Policy experts and advocates have long argued that New York City’s public Health and Hospitals system that serves hundreds of thousands of low-income uninsured patients annually is under-funded by the state lawmakers that control the allocation of billions of Indigent Care Pool and Medicaid dollars. Mayors typically have been unable to turn this situation around. What would you do to improve the financial stability of NYC Health + Hospitals?
Many of the communities that were hardest hit by the pandemic are the ones that lack robust healthcare infrastructure. In the long term, we need a comprehensive plan to expand clinics and quality urgent care in underserved neighborhoods. In the short term, we need to make sure people getting vaccinated are connected to primary care in or near their neighborhood and have a relationship with a good healthcare provider that lasts beyond the pandemic. All uninsured New Yorkers should be encouraged to enroll in NYC Care. Ray will work to increase investment in our public hospitals and health centers, which will make care more affordable for all New Yorkers. We also need to expand telehealth opportunities that have been launched during the pandemic and assure that there is an adequate number of clinics specializing in post COVID-19 health issues in communities hardest hit.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
4. Over 6,000 New York City residents have been sued by New York’s non-profit charitable hospitals for medical bills, often at a 9 percent commercial interest rate. Hospital lawyers usually win these cases on default – most patients do not appear in court and none have lawyers. What would you do as mayor to protect patients and prevent non-profit hospitals from filing these lawsuits and other unfair and/or discriminatory hospital policies?
Ray knows that medical debt can be devastating for families and this pandemic is only going to exacerbate the problem. Some may be able to afford bills over time with a payment plan, but many will need some form of debt forgiveness. At the same time, if hospitals are going to forgive debt, we need to make sure that it doesn't blow holes in their budgets – we've seen too many hospitals close in this city. Ray will work with the federal government and fight for greater hospital funding to help hospitals forgive debt.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
5. Black women in New York City are much more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related causes. What would you do as mayor to address the maternal mortality crisis experienced by Black and Brown women in New York City?
The numbers are staggering: Black mothers here are 12 times more likely to die from pregnancy related complications. I would create a maternal morbidity committee, accountable to the mayor, that would focus on this issue and deliver actionable solutions. I would also require implicit bias training for doctors and nurses at city medical facilities and medical schools. I also know we need to collect much better data on maternal morbidity and its underlying causes. We can’t solve this issue without good data – and as mayor, I’d make sure we had the foundation of data to build policy upon.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
Criminal Justice
+1. Following a series of highly publicized police killings of civilians, police reform is on the nation’s agenda. Here in New York City we’ve been concerned over the NYPD’s troubling lack of accountability for officer misconduct, as well as general lack of transparency and apparent lack of real action concerning disciplinary issues. What would you do as mayor to hold officers accountable for misconduct, and how would you reform the NYPD to minimize that misconduct, if not eliminate it?
Ray believes that we must aggressively change the culture at the NYPD, the scope of policing, undertake a comprehensive review of its budget, and provide greater transparency into police conduct. New York City needs a reimagined approach to public safety, with local police officers that look like the communities they serve and have relationships and established trust with community members. Ray supports restructuring the NYPD to shift more resources to social services and mental health professionals who are better equipped to handle situations that today end up being assigned to police officers. NYPD officers have been forced to deal with any number of situations for which an armed response is not required. Shifting some of the responsibility for those interactions to social workers, healthcare specialists, or civilian staff is not only good for our communities, it will help police officers focus on real public safety issues and avoid situations for which they are not properly trained.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
2. The enduring consequences of a criminal conviction history can result in a “civil life sentence” that denies individuals access to jobs, housing, higher education, bank accounts, and credit. Given this reality, how would you work to ensure that fewer New Yorkers become entangled with the criminal justice system in the first place? In your answer please include any diversion programs you think should be introduced or expanded, particularly those that could obviate the need for arrest in certain circumstances.
Ray will support second chance hiring and will ensure that formerly incarcerated individuals find jobs in his administration. We need to shift investments to programs that prevent New Yorkers from becoming entangled within the justice system in the first place. That needs to start early with a cradle to career approach to education. We must provide programs that help kids succeed – like ensuring every child can read by third grade with early interventions and extensive tutoring programs. We need to give summer employment to every high schooler and take responsibility for where young people land after they graduate.
We must have adequate career counselors to help students start planning for college, their career, and to catch those who are getting off track. Ray will invest in Cure Violence and other programs that prevent violent activity and justice system involvement and focus on reducing recidivism. Ray will also work with elected officials in Albany to fix our broken parole system.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.
3. Of the 13.3 percent of Americans currently looking for work, individuals with a criminal record will almost certainly be among those last hired once jobs do reappear. What are your thoughts on legislation that allows individuals to have their record expunged after a certain period of time?
Ray believes that there are numerous types of non-violent crime for which we should consider expungement and he will work with Albany to support the right approach. He will also focus on providing underserved communities with a quality education, access to job training that leads to a good job, substance use and mental health treatments, and stable housing.
We are currently waiting on a response to this question.