Today, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Jackie Bray as Director of The Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants. Bray currently serves as the First Deputy Commissioner at the New York City Department of Homeless Services. In this role, Bray helped develop and implement the Mayor’s “Turning the Tide on Homelessness in New York City” plan to transform the City’s haphazard shelter system and improve homeless services citywide. The Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants will spearhead the City’s anti-harassment initiatives, enhance interagency enforcement and closely engage with tenants and advocates.
“Bad landlords – you’re on notice,” said Mayor de Blasio. “As Director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, Jackie will be the fighter in the corner of every New Yorker experiencing harassment. She will make existing programs better, and create new strategies to root out abuse.”
“I’ve spent the past three years working with New Yorkers experiencing homelessness. The more I did this work the more it became clear that securing stable, affordable housing has to be the highest priority for all of us. Rooting out bad landlords and supporting the right of tenants to live free from harassment and displacement cannot be the work of any single individual program or agency. As Director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, I will ensure the entire force of City government is coordinated and laser focused on helping New Yorkers stay in their homes and holding bad landlords accountable for abuse,” said Jackie Bray, Director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants.
Protecting tenants is a core part of the City’s strategy to confront the affordable housing crisis. On January 10th at the State of the City, Mayor de Blasio signed an executive order establishing the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants to lead comprehensive outreach on anti-harassment initiatives and be the central point of contact for tenant advocates.
The office will:
Serve as central point of contact for advocacy groups and tenants to raise issues and get results from agencies
Lead policy development to strengthen tenant protections and better target problematic buildings and owners
Bring government and advocate task forces together to address challenges
Convene and coordinate activities of key city agencies including Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Department of Buildings, Human Resources Administration, Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Law Department, Department of Finance, Mayor's Office of Special Enforcement, the Commission on Human Rights, and the Mayor's Office of Data Analytics
Strengthen the Tenant Harassment Prevention Task Force
Track outreach efforts across agencies and metrics at a building and neighborhood level
