Brian Cunningham (Incumbent) - NYS Assembly District 43

Why are you running and why are you the best candidate for tenants?

I'm running because Brooklyn is lacking our fair share of resources. Our community needs to be represented by people from the neighborhood and understands our needs. We can’t wait for progress, we must lay the groundwork for it. We need social, criminal, and economic justice now. Our District needs an Assembly Member who will be a forceful advocate for their interests. With my combination of non-profit, government, and community experience, I'm the candidate best prepared to represent our community and fight for tenants. As a lifelong tenant myself, I've got the lived and legislative experience to fight for working people.

What are the top three priorities of your campaign?

I am going to continue focusing on the issues that matter most to my constituents: housing, hospitals and health, and education. I’d be happy to expand on these topics more but to offer some examples of the work I’ve done in my extremely short time in Albany, I’ve 1) co-sponsored good cause eviction, 2) fought for more money for public schools in the state’s budget, and 3) co-sponsored the LICH Act.

How do you define affordable housing?

Affordable housing depends on the neighborhood. What's affordable on the Upper East Side is not affordable in PLG or Crown Heights. No single cost of rent can be deemed affordable. However, what I will say is that housing is a human right, and no person should feel burdened by the cost of their rent. Put in other terms, affordable housing is housing in which the price does not result in financial or emotional hardship.

What do you consider the most important issue facing New York State in terms of housing supply and affordable housing, and how would you address it?

Neighborhoods are getting gentrified because of housing stock that is going up that we can't afford to live in. Furthermore, there's not enough affordable housing stock going on the market. We need to 1) make it easier to build housing in NY and 2) ensure that the housing that is going up is actually affordable to the people who already live there.

If you had the power to enact one change to our rent and eviction protection laws, what would it be?

Good Cause Eviction. I'm a proud co-sponsor of this bill (co-sponsoring it was one of my first actions after I got sworn in). Good Cause Eviction would cap rent increases from landlords at 3%, or 150% of the CPI, whichever is higher, for 2022. In addition to this, it would require landlords to have “good cause” to evict tenants. So, if a tenant pays rent on time and has not caused any structural damage to their rented space, they would be protected from eviction. The letter from Congress members highlighted that the bill also allows landlords to raise rent for necessary renovations and repairs.

If elected, what services and resources will you commit to help tenants organize and receive timely repairs?

I have called HPD personally to try and fix issues on behalf of my tenants. I did that before I was an Assembly Member and I have continued to do it now that I'm an Assembly Member. When I say that I'm a workhorse, not a show horse, I really mean it.

The tenant leaders and staff at Tenants & Neighbors are predominantly Black and Brown women, and this is not just coincidence. Because of centuries of structural racism and ongoing discrimination in the housing market, people of color are far more likely than white Americans to face evictions and experience homelessness in the United States today. What is your plan to remedy these injustices and promote housing stability for communities of color?

As Black and Brown people, we need to build generational wealth. Fighting homeless is not just a housing issue: it's a wealth issue. For so many reasons, people of color are in a worse financial position than their white counterparts. This will only be fixed with robust investments to public education so that all people, regardless of their race, are able to generate strong incomes, provide for their families, and attain wealth that goes beyond "getting by."