City Council Candidate Responses
District 19
Candidate: Richard Lee
1. Please briefly share your background and note any experiences you may have in engaging older adults, whether professionally or personally, and in connecting with the non-profit sector.
When I graduated college, I hadn’t figured what I wanted to do, so I aimlessly entered the private sector in law and financial services. I discovered my passion when my grandfather was being harassed out of his apartment. He lived in rent regulated housing, and the landlord was hoping to vacate my grandfather so that he could deregulate the unit. My grandfather had to endure winters without heat or hot water, stoves that weren’t being repaired, and entire sections of the ceiling not being fixed after coming down. I was able to find help through a non-profit called Asian Americans for Equality. Soon after, I quit my job and joined the organization as an organizer. I first organized tenants that were facing similar issues as my grandfather, but my work quickly evolved into organizing around other issues like immigration, language access, land use, and budget. While organizing small business owners who were afraid that a major development project would displace them, I met then-Council Member Leroy Comrie, who offered me a position as Director of Budget and Legislative Affairs which I accepted hoping to bring government access to the community. When his term ended, newly elected Queens Borough President Melinda Katz appointed me as Budget Director. With the same hope of being a resource to the community, I joined the Office of the Queens Borough President to oversee budget responsibilities, including the Borough President’s response to the Mayor’s budget and overseeing the appropriations of $500 million in capital funds. Now, I’m running for City Council with the hope of utilizing my experience as an organizer to build bridges in my community, and my extensive knowledge in the budget process to help lift my community and the city as we brace for a fiscally challenging recovery.
2. As we live longer and healthier lives, what are your priorities with respect to promoting equity across all ages in our City?
District 19 has one of the highest percentages of seniors out of any Council in the City while receiving the lowest amount of funding for services like home delivered meals, senior transportation, and senior housing. We must ensure that our senior centers, meal delivery programs, and ride share programs are fully funded instead of nickel-and-dimed in each year’s budget.
We’re also facing an affordable housing crisis in the City, and I look forward to using my office to expand low cost housing options for seniors in our communities.
3. Do you support increasing the budget for the Department for the Aging (DFTA), which funds programs such as Senior Centers, NORCs, home-delivered meals, and more? Please give rationale for your response and specify any specific funding changes you are most committed to achieving.
As outlined above, I absolutely support increasing the DFTA budget. As Budget Director, I was charged with drafting the Borough President’s response to the Mayor’s budget. Every year, we advocated for the increase of funding for key programs like Social Adult Daycare, which is seeing a $1.5 million cut in the Preliminary Budget, Elder Abuse Prevention, Home Delivered Meals, Transportation, and NORC services.
4. Do you support implementing a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) increase for city-contracted human service workers and the full implementation of the Indirect Cost Rate (ICR) initiative for non-profits? Please explain your response.
Yes. Currently, nonprofits that serve our seniors do not receive the full funds they need to implement programs, and adjusting such would more fully allow organizations to serve our communities properly.
5. Given that many older New Yorkers rely on limited fixed incomes and would prefer to age in community, rather than entering costly nursing homes, how will you address the need for affordable senior housing with services for a growing older population? How will you evaluate/respond to affordable senior housing proposals during ULURP?
One option I’d like to explore is rehabbing our numerous vacant single family homes into low-cost, dorm-style housing for seniors in conjunction with a support system for seniors who need it. This would not only help the community, but would allow seniors to age in their own space with appropriate resources to address specific needs.
In terms of ULURP, having worked as a housing organizer and advocate for the creation of more affordable housing, I would vote in favor of any project that expands affordable housing. I would like to expand the use of HPD’s SARA program to increase senior affordable housing stock.
6. While many older adults wish to be connected, many lack the financial resources or training necessary to fully access technology, exacerbating the digital divide. How would you encourage the City to address this?
It’s nearly impossible to function in our current society without access to proper technology. One area in particular where this is evident is booking COVID vaccine appointments, something that has quickly become inaccessible to many. We must first move to treat broadband as a public utility to ensure that all have access regardless of income or location. I would also like to explore programs to provide low-cost technology to seniors in conjunction with proper training utilize the technology.
7. During COVID-19, Senior Centers continued to work remotely, offering services in new ways to ensure their clients’ needs were met. To date, providers have not been authorized to operate in-person, despite restaurants, movies, and other entities, which older adults could also attend, being open. Further, community-based organizations, in many cases, have not been leveraged in the new meal delivery system. What are ways that you feel the City should work with nonprofits and engage older adults in the event of a future emergency?
The biggest mistake the City made in this pandemic in terms of social service delivery for our seniors has been taking programs like Home Delivered Meals away from nonprofit organizations, and instead having the City implement the program. When the City did this, meal deliveries and other similar programs simply became a delivery of goods. When the nonprofits were operating them, they also brought with them direct social services and in person contact to check on the well being of seniors. In case of future emergencies, I would implore the City to instead increase resources to services providers who already know the population and could better deliver emergency services.
8. With 1 in 5 New Yorkers over the age of 60, what are the changes you would seek to make to create a more age-friendly district? Please consider addressing the physical infrastructure of your district (walkability, accessibility, etc.), health care access, safety net resources, and other district specific items of note.
Our infrastructure in our district is crumbling, and I hear from voters that this can make it challenging to get to appointments and commitments. We must invest in our roads to ensure they’re drivable and that our sidewalks are safe and easy to get around on.
A major problem for our district is the lack of access to public transportation. The LIRR prices out many, and the bus routes aren’t well designed to be user friendly. In office, I’d like to push for a single-fare LIRR system similar to that in Southeast Queens to improve affordability. I’d also like to implement a community review board to reconsider and redesign current bus routes to ensure they’re serving as many people as effectively and efficiently as possible.
I would also like to increase funding for senior transportation programs. As Budget Director, I was able to fund this service for parts of Queens, and I would like to expand it for my district as Council Member.
9. In the event of a budget shortfall, how would you push for the City to close the gap? Are there agencies or programs you feel should or should not absorb cuts? Please be specific.
It’s inevitable that the City will need to cut costs in the upcoming budget, but any cuts to our vital social services should absolutely not be considered. One of the first things the City should look at to cut costs is by dissolving many of its consultant contracts. The City uses many consultants for work that City employees could actually complete themselves. Doing so would save millions of dollars towards ensuring our most important programs stay intact.
10. How should your constituents look to measure your success in achieving your responses outlined above?
I look forward to using my years of experience working on city contracts and budgets to effectively deliver for our communities, especially as we’re recovering from the pandemic. Constituents will see me fighting every day to ensure that our services are fully funded, our transportation systems are equitable, our schools receive every dollar that they’re owed, and our communities are places where people want to raise their families and retire.