New York City Council

This budget comes at a time when the Trump administration is taking healthcare away from the neediest, violating the rights of transgender New Yorkers, trying to instill fear in our immigrant communities, and doing incredible damage to the cultural, social, social and legal fabric of our country.”

That approach may boost unit counts, But it ignores the lived reality of families across our city. It’s families with children and even multigenerational households. The consequences are clear. Families with young children are leaving New York City at alarming rates, and roughly 70% of people in our shelter system are members of homeless families.”

I’m going to pull a Tiffany Caban and stand up. Today’s settlement— see, she even shows me how— today’s settlement, the fiscal year ‘27 budget, and this legislation represent a historic agreement that will finally expand housing vouchers for New Yorkers facing homelessness.”

Every tenant in New York City deserves to live free from harassment regardless of their citizenship status. Yet we are in a moment where the federal government is targeting immigrant communities.”

I’m voting no on Intro 55A. The requirement to post signage in city buildings including schools promoting sanctuary city policies is inappropriate and politicizes the immigration enforcement.”

I just want to say, does anybody think about NYCHA? And the tenants that live in NYCHA and how we— what we could— should do to already city-owned buildings that are falling apart and dilapidated, and these people are living without kitchens, without heat, and everything else.”

We’re at a crossroads in the history of our country. The brutal assault on Minnesota is just the beginning, and it is our duty to protect our communities. And the Safer Sanctuary Act was designed precisely to protect New York City from the Trump administration’s authoritarianism. This legislation introduces critical expansions to our existing sanctuary city framework.”

We have been vigilant as a council to continue to fight for that, and it is going to be imperative that the administration comes and pours money into that program so that the most vulnerable folks are getting housed. I know it’s probably going to be mentioned by other folks, but we have thousands of students who live in shelters.”

Doing nothing in a housing crisis is not an option. Jackson Heights and Elmhurst and across Queens, we have seen rents rising to historic highs while while wages for working families have remained stagnant, forcing too many longtime residents to the brink of displacement.”

The Speaker and Councilmember Sanchez have been tremendous champions for CityFEPs, and I really, really hope that we can get a deal done because this is a proven and effective strategy to prevent people from going into shelter and getting people out of shelter.”

The bill will strengthen our sanctuary city protection apparatus and make sure that no future mayor can bring ICE operations back onto Rikers Island to engage in well-documented illegal behavior.”

Tonight, more than 100,000 people, including thousands of young people, will sleep in New York City’s shelter system.”

In December, the Department of Homeland Security launched Operation Metro Surge, which saw the deployment of over over 3,000 masked and armed federal agents in the Twin Cities, which destabilized and traumatized our neighbors.”

As New York continues to face an affordability crisis, far too many of our neighbors remain unhoused.”

Its focus is on NYCHA residents. This bill requires that the city create a formal business directory for NYCHA tenant-owned businesses, coupled with a robust marketing campaign.”