This story was originally published on Aug. 20, 2022, before the August 2022 Democratic primary election in S.D. 33. State Sen. Gustavo Rivera has since been elected the Democratic nominee for S.D. 33 and is now running in the general election on Nov. 8. 

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State Sen. Gustavo Rivera (S.D. 33) is drawing on the support of longtime tenant activists in Norwood and beyond, ahead of next week’s Democratic primary in his bid to win the senate seat in redrawn Senate District 33, which will become effective on Jan. 1 next year. Though he has been steadily securing a number of highly-sought endorsements, including from some of the city’s most powerful labor unions, with accusations of mud-slinging by both the senator and his opponent, former Board of Elections commissioner, Miguelina Camilo, the race is being seen, once again, as a measure of the influence of the all-powerful Bronx Democratic Party.

 

A rally in support of Rivera, held on July 16 at 3150 Rochambeau Avenue in Norwood, was organized by the Tenants PAC, which its treasurer, 82-year-old Mike McKee, described as a small PAC. “Compared to the money that the real estate industry puts into elections, we’re tiny,” he said. Rivera told us he has worked with the group for a long time during his term in office. “They have been involved in my campaign since the beginning, back in 2010,” he said. “And it’s very simply because I have a deep understanding of the need to maintain affordable housing in the State of New York. I live in a rent-stabilized apartment, myself [in Kingsbridge Heights]. Most of the time that I’ve been living in New York, that’s been the case.”

 

The senator said he recognized that without it, many would be unable to live in the City, much less thrive in it. “I am a big defender of affordable housing, particularly of rent-stabilized apartments. I certainly fought for that legislatively over the years,” he said, adding that together with his district staff, they had kept “thousands” of people during his time in office in their homes, had secured legal representation for them, and had helped them organize against bad landlords.

 

“Because of that consistent work, the Tenants PAC believes in me and continues to do so, and is coming out to support me,” he said, adding that the focus was on furthering the conversation with other residents, knocking on doors, and reminding them that August 23 is Primary Day.

 

Acknowledging the wins achieved in 2019 in terms of the rent reform package of laws that passed at that time and which benefited a large swath of tenants living in rent-stabilized buildings in the borough, we asked the senator what, in his opinion, was the next legislative priority in terms of housing in the borough.

“We need to have a deep conversation about investments, particularly State investments, in creating true, deeply affordable housing and permanent affordable housing,” the senator said. “We can’t talk about a homelessness crisis without connecting it directly to the lack of affordability. We certainly see a lot of explosion now, in terms of construction, which is fantastic. I certainly don’t mind the construction, but if we’re not thoughtful about whether that construction leads to the creation of true affordable housing and permanent affordable housing, then the homelessness crisis is only going to get worse.”

 

An example of this, as recently reported by Norwood News, is Bedford Green House, an affordable housing complex in Bedford Park for people who previously lived in shelters and which Rivera had advocated for over many years. The complex, complete with a roof-top greenhouse, finally had its grand opening on July 14.

 

Given that some developers allocate a percentage of units in new housing developments as “affordable housing,” even when many argue that such units are not “truly affordable,” and keep the remainder as market-rate housing, we asked Rivera if the problem is that the percentage allocated as affordable is not high enough.

“There are nonprofit developers who have demonstrated that you can both build affordable housing that is truly, deeply affordable, permanent, and with union labor, and still have it be quality housing,” he said. “When you have nonprofit developers, that can occur.” He said with for-profit developers, they should think about what their actual profit margin is and “maybe take a little bit less of a profit margin.” He went on to discuss the State-level tax program 421a, which offered incentives to developers to build a certain number of affordable housing units in exchange for tax breaks.

 

“It [the program] expired, and many of us felt there was no need to extend it,” Rivera said, explaining that the program was ultimately considered a giveaway to developers who did not ultimately create the level of affordable housing numbers needed to meet demand. “I do believe that there’s certainly a lot that we can do to provide incentives at the State level to developers so that if there’s a buck to be made, and there’s a way to maximize the actual benefit that accrues to the public, then we certainly can have that conversation,” Rivera added.

 

“That particular program did not do it, and so it expired,” he said. “There are ways to do it.” He said there was an attempt by the governor to create something similar, but it was too much like the old tax program, adding that if housing was being looked at strictly as a profit-driven thing, it would be very challenging. “If we look a little bit beyond that, maybe with less profit or, again, there are nonprofit developers that have demonstrated that you can build union, build affordable, and build permanent affordability, and still have it exist for a long period of time,” he said.

 

We asked Rivera if the reason why an alternative replacement tax incentive plan was not passed in the legislature was because it didn’t have enough support from other elected officials. “The 421a program was something that existed for a long time, and it expires this year,” he said. “There was a push from developers for us, as a legislature, to expand it. Many of us did not support its expansion. I did not support its expansion. The extension did not happen, and it was basically because many of us felt that it was a giveaway to developers which did not accrue enough public benefit to warrant the tax benefits that were given.”

Rivera said he believes there are incentives that can be given in different situations to private entities to clearly incentivize them to do something that accrues public benefit. “But I do think that whenever we do that, we have to be very thoughtful about how we do anything, and we have to make sure that the benefit actually is worth the investment.”

 

Norwood News asked Rivera if, in his view, the program was similar to the now-defunct federal Opportunity Zone program, where developers were given tax incentives to invest in designated low-income neighborhoods, but in the end were found to have done little to alleviate and uplift such communities, despite availing of certain tax breaks. The senator agreed that it was a similar concept.

 

He said a common argument put forth by opposing elected officials was that continuing the program contributed to the State’s coffers [by ensuring developers continued to contribute at least some tax revenue, albeit reduced tax revenue]. The senator refuted that argument, saying the arrangement was really keeping money away from the State’s coffers [due to the fact that additional tax revenue could be earned from such developers if they were not given such tax cuts, revenue, he said, which could be used to fund all kinds of social service programs.

 

“I am not saying that I am opposed to that, period, but I am opposed to [the extension of] this program in particular,” he said. “But there might be ways to be able to achieve [the greater public benefit], and I look forward to coming back next year and having a real conversation about that. Ultimately, the benefit that accrues to the public needs to be at the center of the conversation.”

 

Asked if his position on housing was different from his opponent’s, Rivera said, “I could not tell you because I just met my opponent three weeks ago. I don’t really know what her positions are. She might agree, she might disagree.” He added that based on her campaign contributions from the real estate industry, “there were questions to potentially be asked.”

Norwood News later asked Camilo for a comment regarding such real estate contributions to her campaign. She replied, saying, “I have sat with real estate. I’m very much in support of creating more housing for our district, and it’s something that is important, so I have taken funds from such an industry. She characterized herself, however, as someone of integrity, someone who had worked very hard to always have a good reputation. “It’s something that’s important to me,” she added.

 

Camilo continued, “Working with people is important to me, and I think we have to work with groups such as the real estate industry to be able to get to that point where we all have housing, we have more opportunity for our people in the district, and even saying that, that we stand up against both landlords and developers that are not in it for creating communities, and supporting their tenants.”

 

Camilo added that looking at the campaign disclosures, there were also questions about what type of money people such as Rivera, as chair of the health committee, were accepting from those participating on his health committee, and if such people, like Rivera, would be beholden to such groups.

 

As reported, the senator addressed this point during a Schneps Media debate with Camilo on July 25, saying he was not beholden to any one pressure group, and that he was never afraid to oppose large private hospitals on the subject of universal healthcare. “I’m going to tell them when I agree with them and tell them when I don’t agree with them,” he said, adding that it was his hope that as such, he had their respect. “I want to pass the New York Health Act, and I’m committed to that because I believe that healthcare is a human right,” he said at the time.

We later asked McKee, who spoke at the rally, why it was important to arrange the event. “Gustavo is our number one priority for the August 23 primary,” he said. “We helped elect Gustavo when he first ran in 2010. Gustavo has not only been a fighter on every issue you can think of, on tenants’ rights and affordable housing, he has been a champion.”

 

The Tenants PAC organizer continued, “He has always been there for us, he has always fought for us within the Senate Democratic Conference, and as far as we’re concerned, we have a choice here of someone who is going to work for tenants, work for the residents of the 33rd senate district, be accountable for that, versus somebody who’s going to basically be accountable to the Bronx Democratic machine.”

 

The 82-year-old added, “I don’t want to be rude, and she seems to be a perfectly nice person, but you don’t get a job at the Board of Elections except through [Bronx] County. That’s who she is, and that would be very, very, bad news, certainly for tenants, not only for tenants in the 33^rd senate district, but tenants everywhere, and we would lose a real champion in the Senate Democratic Conference. We can’t afford to do that.”

 

The treasurer said the PAC had already contributed $3,500 to Rivera’s campaign, funds raised from tenants, and was planning to contribute another $4,000 before Election Day. Explaining that his door-knocking days were over, as the last time he did it, he ended up in bed for two days, McKee said he would be helping the senator in other ways, arranging meetings and organizing. Bending over to demonstrate his point, the longtime housing activist and senior said, “It’s this motion where you have to lean down and put a flyer under the door.”

 

McKee continued, “We’re going to do everything we can to get his name out across the district, and especially [to] the people who rent, because people who rent are under-represented in our system. The real estate lobby has an enormous amount of power, their power comes from their money, their money comes from the events that we pay them, and we always need to remind tenants of that.”

 

On the other hand, McKee added, “But our power is in people power, and being able to vote, and I believe Gustavo is going to win. I think he’s going to win big. It’s obviously going to be a very low turnout election. It’ll even be a lower turnout than we had on June 28, because half the people, half the voters don’t even know that there is a primary.”

McKee said you could never take anything for granted in an election. “It’s all about turnout, and it’s all about the groundwork. We don’t have a lot of money, but we do have volunteers. Gustavo is our number one priority. We’re supporting other senate Democratic incumbents who have primaries, but he’s the most important for us. This guy has a record, a record of accomplishment.”

 

Gene Bender from the New York Progressive Action Network also spoke at the rally, highlighting the importance of passing the New York Health Act which, if passed, would provide comprehensive health care for every New Yorker. Rivera is the lead sponsor of the bill and the health committee chair.

 

“That bill would really save a lot of misery in New York State. It would save lives,” Bender said. He said the other sponsor of the bill in the assembly, Assembly Member Richard Gottfried (A.D. 75), was retiring, and he worried that if Rivera were not re-elected to the Senate, any potential replacement chair of the health committee might prove indifferent to the bill or even kill it. “So, it’s really, really critical that we elect Sen. Rivera,” Bender said.

Another Tenant PAC speaker, [Li, full name unknown] said Rivera had achieved a lot in the last 11 years and would achieve even more, if reelected. Later, Adolfo Abreu of Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition and former District 14 City Council candidate, also addressed the crowd, saying it was important to reelect someone who worked on behalf of tenants. “People can barely afford a room right now,” he said, and added that Rivera was “real.” Another female attendee / volunteer spoke about having a gay son and commended the senator’s record when it came to equal rights.

 

Francois Silatchom also attended the rally and said Rivera was somebody who had fought for the community for a long time, even before he became his senator. A Riverdale resident, he said, “It’s a blessing to know that now he will be my senator [in the redrawn district].” Silatchom said he has had to deal with high-cost medicine and always had issues with health insurance coverage. “Every year, we go to Albany and he’s always been there for us, without being my senator.”

 

He said he found the fact that Rivera was being challenged really upsetting. “That kind of politics, it discourages a lot of people at the base of the Democratic Party. This is someone who fights for the community and who also fights for people. Then, he’s the one who is being challenged. It doesn’t make sense. I see his challenge as if it is the [Bronx Democratic] machine who is trying to make sure that they have an ally, rather than someone who is really serving the people,” he said.

 

Polls close on Election Day, Nov. 8, at 9 p.m.

 

Your poll site may have changed. Check your voting card before you go to vote.