Nixon slams Cuomo on housing after winning activist group endorsement
Cynthia Nixon took aim at Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s record on housing issues Monday after accepting an endorsement of her primary campaign from the prominent liberal activist group New York Communities for Change.
She received cheers from housing advocates and tenants at a rally in Crown Heights as she blamed the governor for homelessness and displacement issues, charging that he’s prioritized real estate industry interests over tenant concerns.
“Andrew Cuomo promised to strengthen our rent regulations — did he do it? No. He promised to stand with tenants — did he do it? No,” she said. “I will tell you, it is hard to fight for rent regulation and it is hard to stand with tenants when you’re accepting literally millions of dollars from the real estate industry, from developers, from landlords.”
The organization’s board voted unanimously to endorse Nixon this past weekend. Leaders said Cuomo has failed to address their concerns on housing issues and cited developers donating large sums to his reelection campaign. Executive Director Jonathan Westin called the governor “the main impediment to any real movement on the tenants’ side to making sure families stay in their homes and making sure the rent laws are as strong as possible.”
The group is pushing for reforms to the state’s rent laws that would close various landlord loopholes, such as a practice that allows landlords to raise rents on rent-stabilized units when they become vacant, and preferential rents, which give landlords the ability to hike rents on tenants who have previously paid a “preferential” figure under the maximum a landlord can charge.
“It is a vicious cycle of poverty and building discrimination and eviction and sometimes, unfortunately, homelessness,” Nixon said of the landlord practices Monday, vowing she would fight for changes if she’s elected.
“The crushing inequity that we see in our housing … it’s a choice that we’re used to seeing made by Republicans like Donald Trump,” she added. “But in New York state, it is a choice that we are seeing made again and again by our governor, Andrew Cuomo.”
The crowd gathered Monday outside a Crown Heights building that’s facing a number of violations as rent-stabilized tenants allege their landlord is attempting to push them out. Attendees broke out in chants at multiple times during Nixon’s remarks, shouting at a few points, “He’s a liar!” referring to the governor.
T.J. Shivers, a member of the organization from Long Island, detailed her frustration with growing displacement issues in her community.
“Every month on my block, you can see storage trucks coming — five, six, seven storage trucks, putting people out of my building,” she said at the rally. “[Cuomo] hasn’t addressed any of our issues; what kind of governor is that? He’s worried about the wrong things.”
Cuomo’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.