www.wedderburnforthepeople.com
Wedderburn for the People
What type of housing do you live in? Own co-op, condo, or private home
Are you now, or have you ever been a landlord? Yes
If yes, how many units and briefly describe what your experience has been. One unit. A good relationship.
Does your campaign accept contributions from real estate developers (including related individuals), corporate lobbyists, organizations that participate in the carceral system, and/or landlords? No
Have you ever worked in, or had another affiliation with, the Real Estate industry? No
Have any of your campaign or advisory staff held a position as a corporate lobbyist or an executive role with the Real Estate industry? No
If so, how can we be assured you will have tenants’ interests in mind?
Do you believe housing is a human right? Yes
If so, what does that mean to you, and if not, why not? A stable home is the foundation of being able to live a life that meets the needs of shelter, security and safety.
What actions have you taken in the past to fight for housing justice? As chair of CB8’s Housing Advocacy and Land Use Committee, we introduced a number of requirements in a recent rezoning that speaks to the fight for housing justice. They include: prioritizing the return of community members who faced displacement pressures as new units came online as well as more robustly funding legal representation in the case of evictions.
What are the most pressing housing issues, and what would you do as an elected official to address them? Primary, secondary and tertiary displacement; returning warehoused apartments to active rental stock and working towards a larger percentage of new apartment upon local worker based wages and not just he average median income.
Have you or anyone close to you (family, friend, etc) been evicted or been threatened with eviction? No
Have you ever had to fight a landlord for repairs or faced harassment? No
Do you believe that housing should be decommodified (publicly owned and tenant-controlled)?
Yes
Please explain your answer. Decommodify, yes. That solution could require that limitations are placed upon how private equity, investment banking and LLCs acquire foreclosed properties. This is very important when houses are bundled into mortgage backed securities.
I carefully support tenant controlled properties because of the recent experiences with HDFC properties placed in a position where they cannot meet tax, water, utilites and repair responsibilities. A bank like option vested at the state level would go a long way to assure that tenants can keep their homes.
What is one rent and/or eviction protection you would enact if you had the opportunity?
If facing eviction because of circumstances beyond their control, the renters would be able to draw upon a fund to catch them up that was begun by the city and/or state and funded by bad actor landlords as a means of restitution,
Do you agree that all evictions are violent? No
Why or why not? All evictions are devastating. Not all evictions are violent. All evictions change the notion of what having a secure home means.
Do you support the concept of universal rent control? No
For decades the Rent Guidelines Board has fueled the affordability crisis it was created to address. Most NYC tenants are rent-burdened, and hundreds of thousands of families, primarily Black and brown, are forced to deprive themselves of necessities to keep a roof over their heads, while owners’ profits hover near the 40% mark. Do you support freezing or even rolling back rents given these circumstances?
no
Do you support proposals to revise the RGB to make it more responsive to the needs of the tenants it was created to protect? No
Why or why not?
THE RGB has proven to be landlord centric. A more thoughtful approach could allow for tenants to become more rent burdened as rents rise. It is also important to make distinctions between large landlords and mom and pop landlords.
Do you support the NYCHA 2.0 Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) and other privatization schemes? No
Please explain why or why not: RAD will have a deleterious affect on public housing owned income based housing in the future.
NYCHA has suffered from chronic underfunding, neglect, and disrepair. What do you see as the best strategies to rectify these problems?
The best strategy is to work with colleagues at different levels of government to reverse the deleterious effects of disinvestment by the Federal government, policy changes to staunch accelerated neglect as imposed by local elected officials and create and utilize skilled trades training program for NYCHA residents to be readily available and pool the cost of labor.
How would you use your office to put pressure on landlords to make repairs and stop harassing tenants?
I would work collobaratively with colleagues in other boroughs to identify cross agency solutions that would include the collection of fines, assessments and code enforcement.
Do you support regulating the 300,000 deregulated rent-stabilized apartments? Yes
Do you support significant expansion of HPD’s emergency repair program, including adequate funding, with the city correcting hazardous violations when the landlord doesn’t act promptly, then bills the landlord for the repairs and takes title to the building if the landlord doesn’t pay, keeping it as social housing? Yes
Why or why not? Hazardous conditions should be corrected as quickly as possible. For small landlords who may not have the ability to access capital for repairs, the city must take a holistic approach as to not unfairly burden small landlords with additional costs or obligations.
Do you support stronger penalties against landlords that practice source of income discrimination? Yes
Despite the city’s commitment to a right to counsel for low income families facing eviction in housing court, currently fewer than half of eligible tenants are getting lawyers. Meanwhile, landlords have pressed the courts to speed up the eviction process so they can take advantage of record high rents, negating efforts to reduce homelessness. Do you support fully funded right to counsel and slowing down the housing court eviction mill?
Yes
What other ideas do you have to address the housing crisis, and what is your strategy for accomplishing them?
Essentially, NYC must examine its sources and uses of funds for housing especially with regard to how those funds are accessed in the capital markets.