Cordell Cleare (Incumbent) - NYS Senate District 30

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

I have lived and worked in this district all my life. I have been fighting for these communities and my neighbors for my entire career and I’m so proud to represent them in Albany.
I am many things - a mother, an activist, an organizer, a community member, and a legislator and a proud daughter of Harlem. I have dedicated my whole life to serving my community and I was so proud and so very humbled to be chosen by my community to represent them in Albany last year. I am running because I have been doing the work for years and know how much more there is to be done. I started as a tenant organizer, chaired the Coalition to End Lead Poisoning, fought for landmark health and housing legislation, co-founded the Michelle Obama Democratic Club, served as president of School Board 3 & CEC 3, and as an elected District Leader. My core value is service to others and my vision is to see all of our communities and especially our marginalized communities - black and brown communities, immigrant communities, working class communities, and more - lifted up together in a city that prioritizes equity, affordability, and justice.

What are the top three priorities of your campaign?

Tenant protections and quality affordable housing.
I want to ensure that tenants have a voice at the table and strengthen protections against unscrupulous landlords, fully fund NYCHA repairs so residents can live comfortably and with dignity, extend the eviction moratorium until at least the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and make sure our neighbors aren’t pushed out of their homes.

Public education.
To ensure all students have access to a quality education, I want to strengthen the remote learning curriculum and ensure all students obtain remote devices, include civic engagement and Black history in the New York City public school curriculum, and support teachers and fully fund New York City public schools so that every child has the chance to succeed.

Public safety/Ending mass incarceration.
I will fight to combat gun violence and make sure residents are safe on our streets and in our homes. I want to push support for CURE Violence intervention and to address the underlying causes of gun violence and crime like poverty and racism. I will also fight to eliminate racial profiling in policing, protect the civil rights of all our residents, increase the use of treatment, alternative sentencing, and pathways to rehabilitation and reduce the use of incarceration.

How do you define affordable housing?

For too many years, whenever a mayor or governor touted a new luxury development having “affordable housing” units, I would ask myself, “affordable for who?” We need true, deeply affordable housing that is affordable to everyday New Yorkers, people and families living below - often far below - the “area median income.” Affordable housing means we are housing every New Yorker who needs it, in safe, dignified, permanent housing. Low rent by itself isn’t enough, the housing needs to be a place that can be a home, not just four walls and a roof. Affordable housing means a place where communities are built up, not broken apart through gentrification.

Affordable housing is housing for all.

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?

There are so many facets to the issue of affordable housing.

One of my biggest priorities is to help keep our communities intact and in their homes through Good Cause. We cannot keep allowing landlords to evict tenants and flip homes to high-rent, displacing our communities. In the same vein, we need to make it a right for tenants to organize and form tenant unions to protect themselves from predatory landlords.
We also need to fund the affordable and public housing units that we have now - especially NYCHA. We need funding for critical repairs, maintenance, and safety. That’s one reason I support the Our New York revenue platform that will hold the richest few accountable for their fair share of taxes and those funds can be used for public housing, public education, and public healthcare.

We also need to build new affordable units and invest in our communities. I was proud to be a part of overturning the 421a developer giveaway so that finally we can start constructing buildings that are for regular New Yorkers. Instead, we need to aggressively pursue creating social housing by requiring new developments to include housing that is affordable for the poorest families.

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

I would pass Good Cause and make it law. It is one of the most important pieces of legislation for strengthening our communities and making New York a more affordable place to live.

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

I will gladly work with tenants to help them form associations, receive services, and call out abusive landlords.

My entire career has been about working together with community organizations and bridging the gap between communities and government. Even now, in office, I work hard every day to make sure that people are being heard - by me, by Albany, and by agencies across the city.

I believe that my office needs to be more than just open; I believe that I and my staff need to proactively go out and meet organizations and community leaders where they are, inviting them to work together to build a better tomorrow, together. That’s what we do, every day.

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 a Black woman who lives in and knows this community, uplifting and centering Black and Brown women are at the core of all that I do. My platform is equity, justice and empowerment for Black and Brown people. The top issues for me and my campaign as I work for my constituents in Albany is racial equity, social justice and economic empowerment.

That is why I fight for Good Cause and the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act as well as fully funding NYCHA.

Outside of housing directly, I am working to uplift our communities - and particularly Black and Brown women - by ensuring that those financially impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic are taken care of and can stay in their homes; that gun violence prevention is a top priority so that our communities, especially our Black and Brown young people, feel safe going to and at school, while at work and out in the community; and that MWBE small business can thrive by providing financial and technical support.

We also need to pass universal childcare and universal healthcare to reduce economic burdens. We need to fully fund and integrate our schools. We need care, not cages; decarceration and fair parole, and equity in treatment across the board.