City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander on Saturday unveiled a plan to protect Black New Yorkers and reduce the racial wealth gap.
Lander's plan, titled “A Better Deal for Black New Yorkers,” looks to boost the pathway for Black New Yorkers to homeownership, supporting entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses, and city investments in the safety, health and culture of New York City’s Black communities, according to a press release.
"New York City can respect, preserve and strengthen its diverse Black communities, even during – especially during – a time of racial backlash from this racist President," Lander said.
Lander’s plan comes with support from a cohort of Black leaders including Public Advocate Jumaane Williams; Assemblymembers Khaleel Anderson, Phara Souffrant Forrest and Monique Chandler Waterman; Council Members Sandy Nurse and Chi Ossé; Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us, and others.
“Too often, it feels like Black New Yorkers have done more for New York City than New York City has done for Black New Yorkers – and this is a critical moment to turn it around," he said, as he announced the plan over the weekend at the National Action Network’s Action Rally.
Lander's plan includes:
1. Expand and protect Black homeownership and housing opportunities in NYC
-
Build a new generation of affordable co-ops for working- and middle-class families.
-
Enable New York City municipal employees to achieve home ownership through Homes for City Workers program.
-
Prevent racial discrimination in the housing market by passing legislation to require co-ops to provide a reason for any denying applicants.
-
Help young Black professionals find housing to stay here by exploring the creation of a stipend program for recent graduates to go toward monthly rent or be used as a down payment for a home.
-
Rehabilitate thousands of New York City Housing Authority units each year through multiple pathways for comprehensive rehabilitation, chosen by majority resident vote and implement “Yelp for NYCHA Repairs” to hold contractors accountable and get repairs done.
2. Support Black entrepreneurship and economic opportunity
-
Double the size of the city’s minority- and women-owned businesses and enterprises (M/WBE) program by expanding it to cover the city’s billions of dollars in nonprofit and emergency contracts.
-
Create a new Minority Business Accelerator to help growth-stage businesses scale by providing access to capital, technical assistance and support.
-
Deposit more city resources with Black-owned and Minority Depository Institutions and continue to advance diverse and emerging managers for the city’s pension funds.
-
Pilot free CUNY education for public service jobs with the city, like public school teachers, nurses, child care workers, social workers and cops.
-
Make Summer Youth Employment Program universally accessible, beginning with universal access for young people in NYCHA, and neighborhoods with higher rates of gun violence.
3. Invest in safety, health, arts and culture in NYC’s diverse Black communities
-
Support and support the City’s Crisis Management System, a network of community violence intervention organizations, to decrease gun violence.
-
Expand and strengthen evidence-based, community-led strategies proven to reduce violence and interrupt cycles of retaliatory violence.
-
Address unacceptable racial inequities in maternal health and mortality for Black women by improving health care for Black women and building a pipeline of Black doulas and midwives, in a partnership wit NYC Health + Hospitals, City University of New York and others.
-
Safeguard and celebrate Black culture and history by significantly increasing funding and support for individual Black artists, small arts organizations and borough-based local arts councils.
