Dianne Morales

Level
Mayor

More Information
Campaign Site

2020 LID Questionnaire Response

Why are you running for Mayor?

“When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
-- Audre Lorde

I am a first generation Puerto Rican, born in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, to two working class parents, who believed that in the American Dream that success was possible for everyone – and that those who attained success had a responsibility to lift others as they climbed. I’m also the single mother of two young adult college students, and the first Afro-Latina candidate for Mayor of New York.

My personal experiences, combined with 25 years of leadership experience in the nonprofit sector have given me a deep understanding of our city’s dysfunctional education, justice, and health/mental health systems. Throughout my career, I served as founding member of Jumpstart – a national early childhood organization, Executive Director of the Door and most recently, Phipps Neighborhoods in the South Bronx.

My career began as a summer camp counselor at a residential camp for emotionally disturbed children and youth. In that capacity, I was first exposed to the impact that economic and social determinants of health can have on the emotional and psychological well being of children. It was that experience that solidified the opportunities I’d had access to, and the difference that could make in a child’s trajectory. It was also that experience that set me on a course to find ways to help others that came from communities like my own, ultimately resulting in my obtaining an M.S. in Social Administration from the Columbia University School of Social Work. During my tenure as Executive Director at The Door, I transformed and expanded the mental health services department to include programming for LGBTQ homeless youth, substance abuse counseling and the only art therapy-based GED program in NYC. While CEO of Phipps Neighborhoods, I oversaw the implementation and operation of several supportive housing programs, including for formerly homeless adults with severe and persistent mental illness, substance abuse and one for young people aging out of foster care.

On a more personal level, I am the mother of a sexual assault survivor who has struggled with suicide ideation, depression and anxiety since her early adolescence. I have first-hand experience in the scarcity of appropriate services and the challenges of navigating systems in order to obtain adequate care. NYC can, should and must do better.

My leadership and advocacy in education, employment, and social justice have improved the lives of New Yorkers in some of the most under-resourced neighborhoods, and created permanent pathways out of poverty for single moms, LGBTQIA youth, the formerly incarcerated and the homeless. When I decided to run over a year ago, it was because nobody like me has ever been mayor--that my lived experience as a single-mother, a woman of color, and my executive

and community leadership experience, positioned me to understand the root causes of the problems we face--and how to fix them. As the pandemic has tragically unfolded and the fabric of our society starts to fray, it has become clear that this is our only moment to make massive structural changes that will make real improvements in the lives of all New Yorkers, starting with our most vulnerable and under-resourced.

Please cite your top three-five priorities should you be elected Mayor and why you believe they are priorities.

I’m not here to make false promises or to offer flashy plans that echo the status quo. Under my administration, we’ll be working to strike and address the root causes of oppression by Race, Gender, Sexuality, and class. I will work to center the voices of people who have been systematically disenfranchised by bad policies, some that go back centuries and continue to exist under reformist policies. I will also prioritize in creating a new social contract, one in which every New Yorker lives in dignity, and where success is measured by how well our city runs for all people, not just the wealthy and powerful.

Under those two mantles, my Administration will work to to create safe communities that increases access and opportunities for all by guaranteeing that housing is a right, desegregating and creating equity in our education system, creating a solidarity economy with basic income relief and public banking, and by divesting from our police to finally fully invest in our communities.

If elected, what (if anything) would you do differently versus your predecessor (or previous Mayors) and why?

My administration is centering the lives of impacted people, as someone with truly lived experiences myself, and while we will use data for precision when we strike at the inequities of the system, we will also listen to those on the ground. From the way the City has divested in our education, our neighborhoods, our healthcare infrastructure to fund marquee pet projects, real estate interests and NYPD will not be how I manage myself.

New York will have my full attention, and I see a city that has been facing crises for decades or longer, and carried that on our backs into a full blown calamity with the spread of the virus. We cannot and will not be aiming for a return to normalcy, we must instead build a city that is better than it has ever been, for all people.

What is your plan to help NYC recover from the economic crisis caused by Covid-19?

When my administration hits the ground on January 1, 2022, my priorities for the first 100 days will be to focus on our ​Dignity Now ​platform to ensure that every New Yorker has the right to be valued and respected, not just through words but actions. This includes advocating for basic income relief for every household (and especially our excluded workers who were left out on the Federal & State level), advancing a local small business recovery strategy which includes grant support, immediate housing to end homlessness, the launch of NYC5000 which is a health

navigators strategy to connect New Yorkers to COVID-19 education & testing & vaccines, and the creation of a municipal green jobs agenda by focusing on investing in lower carbon emissions in NYC and investing in thousands of jobs at the same time to combat climate change.

Describe how you’d effectively address police misconduct and brutality, particularly as it affects communities of color.

I was the first candidate for Mayor to call to defund the police.​ When I am Mayor we will divest from policing and reinvest in communities towards community based resources like youth support programs and childcare, safe community spaces and parks, transportation and other public infrastructure. These resources play an essential role in uplifting Black and Brown families. By investing funds into housing for the homeless, subway modernization, and revitalization of the arts, our money is being directed towards the needs of the people rather than a system that enforces racism and violence.

This policy recognizes the long term approach necessary to create social change that increases public safety while decreasing policing. These investments in community services will create jobs that are focused on helping & strengthening communities, not criminalizing them. While every city and neighborhood’s needs are nuanced, NYC can implement strategies that are uniquely responsive to our challenges and work to respond to them more directly.

I will move to end the long history of police brutality against communities of color, especially black people. We can now see in real time, inexcusable acts of violence that have taken place for generations. We will not allow the NYPD or the Police Benevolent Association to protect their members from accountability for acts of misconduct. To create accountability, we will implement an Early Intervention System. Infractions by officers must be tracked, reviewed, be made public, and officers must be held accountable ​by the public​ they serve. This system must identify patterns of inappropriate, violent behavior by officers, and report regularly to the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) and the District Attorney’s office. The Civilian Complaint Review Board has been demonstrably inadequate in its ability to hold police accountable. It should become an elected body, and be given powers to investigate and discipline police officers. District Attorney’s offices must create separate, independent divisions responsible solely for criminal prosecution of police. Along with the CCRB, this division will build and maintain a comprehensive, verified list of police officers who are accused and found guilty of misconduct. When a police officer violates the public trust, they will be forced to forfeit any privileges afforded to them by the public, including salaries, pensions and other benefits. We will end placard abuse, and officers will face the same consequences as any other person. Offending officers and their benevolent association will be held financially liable for any restitution owed to their victims.

Describe your plan to address/reduce the NYPD budget while better ensuring public safety and meeting community needs?

We would divest $3 billion from the NYPD and invest in communities. This means establishing a Community First Response Department separate from the NYPD. The Community First Response Department would serve as first responders to community public safety issues related to non-criminal public safety issues: homelessness, mental health, substance abuse, emotional distress and other behavioral health issues. The department would be staffed by trained professional first responders including social workers, crisis response workers, medics, mental health counselors and others, all of whom would be trained in crisis intervention and de-escalation. They will connect people to healthcare, social services, mental health services and other critical supports. Additionally, we would prioritize investments into areas such as a housing for all agenda that includes quality social housing and investments into retrofitting NYCHA, expansions in healthcare coverage, and a basic income initiative. We would also remove police from schools and replace them with more counselors, nurses, and psychologists as well as restorative justice, conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence practices.

What would you do to further LGBTQ+ rights, equity, and justice if elected Mayor?

I would take a holistic approach to further the rights and safety of the LGBTQ+ community.

As part of my decareral agenda, I will be heavily focusing on decriminalizing sex worker and creating a sex workers protection bill of rights under the Department of Consumer & Worker Protection, and making sure that our TGNCIQ community are not target by NYPD. I will also end solitary confinement and ensure we can prevent the suffering and death of LGBTQ+ individuals like Layleen Polanco Xtravaganza.

I will also expand funding for more social and supportive housing targeted for homeless youth (which I actually ran programs for in the Bronx) and know that many are LGBTQ+ and LGBTQ+ seniors. Other issues will be including education in public schools that are culturally responsive and include LGBTQ+ people alongside inclusive sexual education, job development initiatives that target LGBTQ+people, create LGBTQ+-specific review boards for healthcare and a healthcare lisabon program, and focused, long-term funding to non-profits & CBOs that work to support our LGBTQ+community especially around mental health too. I would also ensure that NYC-level protections (and advocate on the State level too) go well beyond Title IX to ensure that even if they are threatened on the National level, our TGNCIQ & LGBTQIA communities are safe.

Do you commit to retaining the New York City Unity Project, the City’s first Mayoral-level effort to coordinate LGBTQ+ policy efforts across city agencies, and if so, what actions would you take to build upon or revise the project?

I would expand upon the program to not just provide emergency shelter to LGBTQ+ youth but to actually facilitate and increase access to social and supportive permanent housing. I would also work to ensure actual job placement through the City’s municipal jobs guarantee program and hold a dedicated amount of jobs per year for our LGBTQ+ homeless youth.

What would you do differently than your predecessor(s) to address New York City’s affordable housing crisis?

The key difference is that I fundamentally believe that housing is a right and will assure that every policy and law that we create around the affordable housing crisis is truly targeted at reducing this vs creating more subsidies for real estate.

I am supporting a housing for all initiative that fights to decrease and stabilize rents, takes housing development and land significantly off the speculative market, and instead builds quality needs-based, mixed-income housing similar to the Vienna model. We would also implement a better use of land and existing space policy that includes a land value tax for vacant and blighted land to discourage speculation. Through the use of land banks, community land trusts, and cooperative housing models, the Morales administration would also democratize housing to meet New Yorker’s needs and not simply to profit off of space and real estate.

We can assure affordability and sustainability by vacancy taxes, purchasing land long held by speculation, placing them in community land trusts for safe keeping, and creating contracts that prioritize non-profits who will hire to labor standards and supers from workers collectives (especially in immigrant neighborhoods).

Relatedly, and keeping in mind the City’s legal and moral obligation to provide shelter, how would you improve shelter and services for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness, particularly as it relates to reducing the number in need of shelter?

As Mayor, I would bring together a commission tasked with providing a pathway to totally eliminate homelessness in New York City. My administration will not be afraid to purchase empty vacancies (hotels, office spaces, apartment buildings) or explore eminent domain (especially for buildings with many fines) in order to guarantee we have the ability to not just offer shelter but actual permanent housing. We will work with the newly elected Super Majority at the state level to renew the ESSHI and integrate its services into our Housing for All policy platform. This consists of bringing a substantial part of housing development out of the speculative for profit market and instead centering development for need through a mixed income social housing initiative and adequate rent stabilization and tenant protections to avoid displacement. We will ensure that the city’s supportive housing works side by side with an expansion of public healthcare services including mental health and disability services for the

displaced and former homeless. We must also work through economic development policy to support employment programs and a basic income program.

The homelessness crisis must be taken very seriously and include a city commission to get to the root causes of homelessness and displacement in order to provide a holistic response to end homelessness in its entirety within 10 years. The many key factors include mental health, addiction, and disability services, employment programs, and a basic income in tandem with tenant rights protections and stabilized rents.

Keeping in mind the specific needs of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers experiencing homelessness, will you commit to increasing capacity for clients (youth and adults) who require single room placement for reasons of health and safety including clients with mobility issues and/or who identify as TGNC (because placement in traditional single adult shelter may compromise their safety)?

Yes, I commit to this, but also will be working to expand social and supportive housing for more permanent housing opportunities for our LGBTQ+ New Yorkers.

Describe what you believe is meant by “gender equity” and what steps you’ve taken to date and will take if elected Mayor to support and further gender equity?

To me, true gender equality means that people of any gender are able to fully participate in social, economic, political, and all realms of public life safely and without barriers. The issue of gender does not stand alone and is connected to every aspect of inequality in our city.

As mayor I would support initiatives for urban planning that rethink public use in order to make women and TGNCIQ people safer, both physically and emotionally. Part of this includes being more intentional with planning and zoning, and ensuring that gender is considered as an impact of land use projects. Reimaging urban planning to promote gender justice includes safety on public transportation. Much like recent subway ads promoting mask wearing for public health, I would like to run citywide campaigns about gender equality and bystander education. Additionally, I would like to work with organizations that are already steeped in the fight against street harassment and violence. One such example is hollaback, which has created an app for people in NYC to report instances of harassment with the option of reporting it to the city council member in the district where the event occurred - which would then be logged in CouncilStat.

Furthermore, when building a city with true gender equality we must focus on employment. To promote women and TGNCIQ thriving in our local economy, I would strengthen the resources and capacity of Small Business Services. I would improve and expand public contracts to minority and women owned businesses, and lastly I would make sure that NYC moves forward in the establishment of a public banking system that provides fair and quality lending practices to small business owners and minority/women owned businesses. As well as supporting women, TGNCIQ, and minority businesses, I would support and fund employment initiatives that are tailored to those communities.

If elected, do you commit to using inclusive and gender neutral language in all official documents and press releases, and will you order city agencies to do the same?

Yes, absolutely!

How much money has your campaign raised to date and what are your key sources of support? Relatedly, are you rejecting contributions from specific sectors, such as lobbyists, real estate interests, pension fund managers, police unions, etc.?

We’ve raised close to $400K and close to hitting matching.

In the entire Mayoral race, our average contribution is about $50 (and we have the highest amount of donors who have donated $50 and under) and over 30% of our donations have come from New Yorkers who are currently employed. At a time when the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer, we’re truly the grassroots powered campaign, and while it might take us a bit longer to meet our goals, we’re doing so with New Yorkers and not business interests.

Why do you want LID's endorsement? If LID endorses you do you commit to including that endorsement on your website, social media, and all campaign literature on which you list or make mention of endorsements?

Yes, I would be extremely proud to post your endorsement on our website, all social media platforms, and relevant literature. I want LID’s endorsement as a symbol to the LGBTQIA+ community of New York City that not only do they have my support, but that I will fight alongside the community vehemently. I also expect to work as thought partners in my time in office to forge progress.