Press Room

"As I continue to isolate following my COVID-19 diagnosis, I am encouraged by some of the announced efforts to protect New Yorkers amid an Omicron wave and the holiday season, and deeply frustrated that they were not already in place. While expansion in testing and provision of at-home rapid tests are essential, the long lines across the city waiting for those tests show an abundant lack of preparation by the city. Barriers to testing also disproportionately harm lower income communities of more color, showing that we are still failing to learn from the mistakes of 2020.

"Given his apparent acknowledgement of the severity of risk, it is unclear to me why the Mayor has not yet shifted city workers to remote work wherever possible ahead of the holidays, with government offices leading by example. That shift should occur immediately. It also seems clear that despite calls since September, the Mayor and administration have not prepared the necessary infrastructure to make it possible to do the same for schools ahead of the holidays. They should begin preparations now in case a remote option should be necessary after the holidays, and follow the recommendation of incoming Comptroller Brad Lander to test students and educators ahead of a post-holiday return to classrooms.

"It’s not enough, as cases increase, to tout our vaccination rates in some areas. Vaccination and booster shots are the best and most essential tool we have to protect New Yorkers, but in this moment, they are not the only tool. We need to adapt – to mask up and get tested, and also to avoid large holiday gatherings and unsafe environments – to limit this wave, reduce the burden on our healthcare system, and prevent greater restrictions. New Yorkers know what works and what they can do to protect themselves and each other, and government needs to provide the infrastructure to make those precautions possible."

In the last week, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams has announced multiple initiatives and actions aimed at advancing affordable, safe, equitable housing programs and policies for New Yorkers.

On Wednesday, the Public Advocate released a report on the shortcomings of the outgoing Mayor’s affordable housing policies, with a particular focus on Mandatory Inclusionary Housing. The report, Reviewing the Mayor’s Housing Plan to Bolster Affordability and Equity, outlines major changes the city should make to ensure our city’s housing policy no longer ignores those who are housing insecure or severely rent burdened, and prioritizes keeping New Yorkers in their homes. This analysis comes five years after the Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) policy was implemented, and as Mayor-elect Eric Adams is about to take office. It spotlights the ways in which MIH failed to address the needs of extremely and very low income New Yorkers, the benefits that it provides developers at the expense of neighborhoods, and the manner in which rezonings under MIH have exacerbated gentrification and displacement.

This follows last week’s confirmation of the Public Advocate’s appointee to the City Planning Commission, tenant’s rights attorney Leah Goodridge. Leah Goodridge has spent her career fighting for housing rights, racial justice, and community empowerment. On her appointment she said that “Development in our city is too often focused solely on profit, not on people – I believe it is not only possible, but essential to pair economic growth with community strength, and the City Planning Commission has an essential role in that work.”

Thursday, Public Advocate Williams released the annual Worst Landlord Watchlist, which spotlights the most egregiously negligent landlords in the city.The Public Advocate highlighted the city’s past failures to hold bad landlords accountable under Mayor de Blasio – and history as the worst landlord itself through NYCHA – and called on the incoming Mayor and City Council to prioritize landlord accountability as they prepare to take office next month.

The number one worst individual landlord for 2021 is David Schorr, who amassed an average 1,442 open violations across 17 buildings featured on the watchlist. Schorr ranked #75 on the 2020 list. The New York City Housing Authority, which continues to rank as the overall worst landlord in the city for the fourth year in a row, saw a dramatic increase in the number of deteriorating or dangerous conditions. As of November 2021, there were 600,480 open work orders in NYCHA buildings across the city. The de Blasio administration will end with a significantly greater number of open orders than when it began in January of 2013, when NYCHA reported a backlog of over 420,000 work orders citywide.

Public Advocate Williams also called on the incoming City Council to move swiftly to pass the Worst Landlord Accountability Act, a package of bills aimed at correcting and preventing disingenuous tactics used by some of those landlords in order to attempt to remove themselves from the list.

“The housing and homelessness crisis in our city must be addressed with action on many fronts, from planning and development to maintenance and negligence.” said Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams. “As a former tenant organizer and Housing Committee Chair, I’m committed to continuing the work with my office to push for housing justice and equity. From misplaced land use to misconduct by landlords, New Yorkers are facing increased cost and deteriorating conditions – it’s time to implement policies and programs that meet this moment and this need.”

"I want to congratulate Chief Keechant Sewell on her selection to become the first female Commissioner of the NYPD. I believe that new leadership from outside the Department’s ranks could be crucial in bringing the changes in culture, policies and practices that are critical as the new administration takes office.

"We need a new era of transparency and accountability, and a new approach to co-producing public safety that recognizes law enforcement’s role without solely relying on it. This means more fully embracing and structuralizing successful strategies such as the crisis management system (CMS) as full partners in public safety. It was very encouraging to see the appointment announced at 696 Queensbridge, a CMS site that has shown impressive results. Amid a nationwide rise in gun violence and other crimes, the work ahead is real and daunting. It will require ignoring the loudest voices that fear monger against any kind of progress, and resisting a push to return to failed over-policing policies of the past. As even the creator of the distorted broken windows theory agreed when I spoke with him many years ago, police do not have to be the ones responsible for fixing a broken window.

"There is an immense amount of work to be done to reimagine and protect public safety, and I look forward to speaking with the incoming Commissioner about what the role of police will be in our city, and how we can create new systems to make and keep New York safe without relearning painful lessons."

"Throughout the pandemic I’ve encouraged masking requirements – masks work, and they’re a simple measure we can take to protect ourselves and one another. Today’s policy is an important measure to limit the spread of the virus, particularly as people travel and gather indoors for the holidays. Vaccination screening requirements in indoor venues not only protect people in these establishments and encourage them to patronize businesses, but incentivize people to get vaccinated. They’ve worked extremely well in New York City, and the Governor should expand screening requirements statewide.

"At the same time, we know that amid the rise of Omicron and the prevalence of Delta, breakthrough cases are a real risk. I urge New Yorkers to be diligent in masking up indoors, regardless of the vaccination requirements of the venue. As we have seen, we cannot delay and risk greater harm or additional restrictions which could have been prevented and avoided. We must take the precautions now to prevent New York from again becoming the epicenter of the epicenter of a deadly surge."

The New York City Council will vote Thursday afternoon on Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams’s nomination of tenants rights attorney Leah Goodridge, Managing Attorney for Mobilization for Justice, to serve on the City Planning Commission. This follows a unanimous committee vote to approve the nomination on Thursday morning.

Leah Goodridge, a Brooklyn native, has spent her career fighting for housing rights, racial justice, and community empowerment. A Fulbright scholar with a focus on community economic development, which centers community stakeholders in urban planning, she became a housing rights attorney after witnessing the effects of displacement and gentrification in New York. Over the last decade, Leah has won several eviction defense cases with published decisions and has argued before the New York State Court of Appeals. She has served as a tenant representative on the Rent Guidelines Board since her appointment by Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2018.

If confirmed, Goodridge will fill a seat on the 13-member body which also includes an appointment by each Borough President and six by the Mayor, who also appoints the commission’s Chair. Her nomination, as a tenants’ rights advocate, would help to shape the work of the commission and the future of the city to better serve New Yorkers. Commissioners serve for five years, and may serve multiple consecutive terms.

“Development in our city is too often focused solely on profit, not on people – I believe it is not only possible, but essential to pair economic growth with community strength, and the City Planning Commission has an essential role in that work,” said Leah Goodridge. “Throughout my work to uplift and empower tenants and communities across our city, I’ve centered racial justice and equity. I’m eager to bring that perspective and lens to the work of the City Planning Commission, and I thank Public Advocate Williams for this opportunity to help shape our city.”

The City Planning Commission is responsible for the conduct of planning related to the orderly growth and development of the City, including adequate and appropriate resources for the housing, business, industry, transportation, distribution, recreation, culture, comfort, convenience, health and welfare of its population. The Commission meets regularly to hold hearings and vote on applications, as described above, concerning the use, development and improvement of real property subject to City regulation.

“The City Planning Commission should prioritize community impact, and center community involvement, in making decisions about the future of our city,” said Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams. “Leah Goodridge will be an invaluable voice on the commission, empowering marginalized and disadvantaged communities as she has throughout her life and work. The Commission helps to shape the city, now and for decades to come, and Leah’s background, experience, and dedication, is perfectly suited both to this moment and to the long-term growth of the city as we pursue progress that is beneficial to all communities across New York.”

"After likely the final crime statistics announcement under this administration, as we look ahead to the next, it is critical to acknowledge both the successes and failures of the city’s public safety strategies.

"Despite the effectiveness of new approaches that I and others pushed for which helped make New York City the safest it had been in decades through 2019, this administration's failure to more fully integrate and structuralize some of these successful approaches contributed to crime in our city rising with the national tide that accompanied a global pandemic.

"If this administration had not been so reluctant to fully embrace the innovative, and comprehensive approaches to public safety that were called for, New York would likely be a safer city today and better prepared for the future.

"While we should look to and learn from the past, we can’t simply go back – not to the way some things were pre-pandemic, and not to the overpolicing, or the hyper-focus on policing that harmed communities and detracted from more comprehensive public safety policies. Instead, we need to more firmly integrate holistic, community-centered strategies into our overall approach to public safety – not as supplements, but essential elements.

"In looking at the current statistics and environment, we have to ignore the voices that decry any attempts at progress or reform, regardless of the results. The surest way to bring back the bad old days is to revert to the reactionary. To play on fears and slogans rather than forward-looking solutions. In defining the future for New York, we cannot go back to the mindsets of the past."