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New York’s Moment for Community Land and Affordable Housing


Council Member Rivera, one of the co-authors, at a CLT rally (photo: John McCarten/NYC Council)


In the midst of a persistent housing crisis, there are tens of thousands of rent-stabilized apartment units sitting vacant across New York City, as speculators and unscrupulous landlords contribute to scarcity and a lack of affordability. 

In March 2021, The Real Deal reported that landlords had removed over 1,800 apartment listings in Manhattan alone, a number three times higher than in February 2020, and that they were leaving them empty in response to the 2019 Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act passed in Albany, which was intended to strengthen tenant protections and make the housing market more fair. At a time when 50% of New Yorkers do not earn enough to meet their basic needs, and when about 30% of families are spending more than half of their income on rent, we have an obligation to ensure every habitable housing unit is online. New Yorkers don’t need more luxury development -- we need affordable housing and spaces that meet the needs of our communities. 

Nonprofits and Community Land Trusts (CLTs) provide an alternative for housing development that puts community needs first by prioritizing people over profits. The Community Land Act (CLA) is an urgently-needed City Council bill package that would increase opportunities for CLTs and nonprofits to acquire land, remove housing from the speculative market, build new deeply and permanently affordable housing, and enhance public input on public space. 

One fundamental pillar of the legislative package is the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA). For decades, landlords and private equity have leveraged their market power to buy rent-stabilized buildings, seeking to deregulate units, and ultimately gaining profits as working class New Yorkers feel cornered financially dealing with increasing prices and reduced availability. COPA seeks to increase the stock and would require that qualified and eligible nonprofits are notified of sales and provided with the opportunity to submit the first offer matching any competing offers for the property.

This legislation has been implemented in other localities to discourage displacement of legacy residents and to strengthen tenants’ bargaining power. Given the demand on land and housing in New York City, we ought to be intentional in stewarding development in a way that meets the needs of our communities for generations. 

CLTs like the Bronx CLT, founded by NWBCCC, have a long history of amplifying tenant associations’ power to take over buildings when landlords sell and are a critical leader in the fight for permanent affordable developments. When the Council helped secure a new Council Initiative to fund organizing for CLTs building on the work of community-based organizations in El Barrio, Port Morris, East New York, and Cooper Square, the $850,000 went directly toward community organizing in order to maintain, develop, and incubate CLTs throughout the city, resulting in an expansion of affordable properties. Even more groups are poised to benefit from COPA when it passes — right now, East New York CLT and Brooklyn Level Up are
working with tenants to negotiate acquisitions of their buildings.

Another critical piece of legislation in the package is the bill to mandate Public Land for Public Good. It will finally ensure that in the city dispossession process related to public land, CLTs and nonprofit developers are prioritized over for-profit developers. New York City nonprofits and CLTs have a proven track record of reaching deeper and longer-term affordability levels, and add additional benefits like community control, permanent affordability, and long-term stewardship.

Our communities have reaped the benefits that result when public land is developed by organizations with deep ties to the community. 

In Council Member Rivera’s district, the Cooper Square CLT, which took on an urban renewal plan pushed by Robert Moses at its inception, is the oldest active CLT in New York City, with a portfolio of over 22 affordable buildings. They are core to the work of protecting and empowering tenants on the East Side of Manhattan. 

At the Broadway Triangle in Council Member Restler’s district in North Brooklyn, land was transferred to Unified Neighborhood Partners, made up of local nonprofits St. Nicks Alliance, Riseboro, Los Sures, UJO, and Mega Contracting. That development will result in 390 units of permanently affordable housing, and permits the development of landscaped open space, a workforce development center, a shared community center space, and a coffee shop with youth employment programming.

Too often public land is sold to for-profit developers for unimaginably low costs, resulting in rental rates that lead to displacement and financial stress. These projects aren’t solving our housing crisis -- they’re often adding to it -- and New York City should not be in the business of selling public land at steeply discounted costs to for-profit developers when we know that CLTs will bring meaningful, much needed affordable housing to our neighborhoods. 

We must pass the Community Land Act to ensure we are giving these organizations every possible opportunity to build more housing and address NYC’s worsening affordability crisis.

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City Council Members Carlina Rivera and Lincoln Restler represent parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn, respectively. On Twitter @CarlinaRivera & @LincolnRestler.

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Investment in Community-Based Harm Reduction is the Right Path Ahead


Mayor Adams overdose reversal treatment (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)


New York City’s overdose crisis has reached historic levels: 2,668 people died of drug overdoses in 2021, a 78% increase since 2019. As with many public health crises, the impacts are uneven. People with a lower income are more than twice as likely to die of an opioid overdose compared to more affluent groups. And last month, the CDC reported that Black Americans are dying of fentanyl overdoses at significantly higher rates than other communities.

As someone with lived experience with substance use, I know that harm reduction is far more helpful than the failed War on Drugs and telling people to “just say no.” Harm reduction is often misunderstood or stigmatized, but it has been shown to reduce the risk of infections and overdose. By meeting people where they are and helping them reach their goals, this approach ensures individuals who use drugs are treated with dignity and respect—not judgment.

I am also a manager at Alliance for Positive Change’s Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center, and I see every day how the tools and resources we provide are helping people. The good news is that harm reduction is starting to become more widely accepted. A big step in the right direction was the FDA’s recent approval of over-the-counter sale of Narcan, which will go into effect this summer. Getting this safe and easy-to-use overdose reversal medication into the hands of more people will certainly save lives.

However, barriers to accessing Narcan will persist. People who do not have the resources to purchase the drug will likely continue to face challenges obtaining it. It remains to be seen whether over-the-counter Narcan will be covered by private and public insurance plans, and regardless, it may still be inaccessible to those who are uninsured. Also, not everyone will feel comfortable going into a pharmacy and purchasing Narcan due to fear of being judged.

Community-based harm reduction organizations like Alliance for Positive Change can help to break down these barriers. In addition to providing free support, harm reduction organizations have spent years building trust with participants, so they feel comfortable coming to us for Narcan. We also go further than a pharmacy can, providing fentanyl testing strips, individual and group counseling, syringe exchange services, and more.

Our resources are in great demand: last month, we saw a record number of participants, and handed out a record number of fentanyl test strips.

Local and federal leaders should build upon the momentum of Narcan’s over-the-counter approval and invest in organizations that offer no-cost, nonjudgmental harm reduction resources in communities most impacted by the overdose crisis. It will save lives.

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Joel Teron is a harm reduction manager at Alliance for Positive Change’s LES Harm Reduction Center. On Twitter @thealliance_nyc.

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The People’s Money: Your City, Your Budget, Your Voice


The People's Money in action (Civic Engagement Commission)


Not everyone knows this about Mayor Eric Adams: he is the first Mayor in the City of New York to give every New Yorker, ages 11 and up, regardless of citizenship, a direct say in how to spend a part of the city budget. This is New York City’s first citywide participatory budgeting program, run by the Civic Engagement Commission (CEC), and it builds on the Mayor’s legacy of supporting participatory budgeting in schools and Council districts in Brooklyn.

Here are four key reasons for New Yorkers to participate:

First, citywide participatory budgeting prioritizes the lived experience of every day New Yorkers, and it lets residents lead on solutions to the most pressing problems in their communities.

Community voice has been central for each step of the process. Over 12,000 New Yorkers came together in small groups to generate more than 4,000 proposals for solutions to problems such as public safety, youth development, and mental health. A volunteer group of New Yorkers then came together in assembly committees to carefully review these ideas and they created ballots for each borough and each of the 33 equity neighborhoods designated by the city as hardest hit by COVID-19.

Now, New Yorkers are invited to choose which proposals they want to see in their boroughs and neighborhoods. The funding for implementation will go back into the community, to organizations that will complete the winning projects. 

Second, the program is grounded in dignity and equity for groups that deserve more voice in decision making, and better service from government.

The CEC divided Mayor Adams’ commitment of $5 million across the boroughs based on poverty level and population size. It also gave $50,000 to each of the 33 equity neighborhoods, so that residents will vote on projects both for their neighborhood and their borough. Partnerships with community-based organizations will ensure that youth, seniors, people with disabilities, veterans, public housing residents, justice-impacted individuals and families, faith communities, and people who self-identify as LGBTQIA receive special outreach.

Paper ballots are available for those who may not have access to vote online. Translated ballots are available for New Yorkers with limited English proficiency. And there are no geographic barriers to participation by borough, council district or neighborhood.  

Third, New Yorkers will see fast results of their engagement.

Once the vote period is completed by Sunday, June 25, projects receiving the most votes will be announced in July for each borough and the 33 neighborhoods. Community-based organizations will lead the implementation phase and complete winning projects by June 30, 2024. 

And finally, it’s a moment to celebrate that our democratic system works.

The reason New York City is implementing participatory budgeting citywide is because voters asked for it in 2018 as part of the charter revision process. New Yorkers wanted a direct voice in shaping the city budget, and they were confident in their own ability to influence critical spending decisions.

Paying close attention to moments when democracy is working is important because democracy is a living, breathing relationship between people and government; giving attention to the successful parts of the relationship will help democracy to flower and thrive.  

To participate in citywide participatory budgeting, go to on.nyc.gov/pb to vote online.

You can also vote on a paper ballot at in-person voting sites around the city such as local libraries and community organizations.

Encourage your family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors to also vote. Participatory budgeting is for you, and when you add your voice, you will help make inclusive democracy even more real.

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Dr. Sarah Sayeed is Chair & Executive Director of the New York City Civic Engagement Commission. On Twitter @SarahSayeedNYC & @NYCCEC.

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