Embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams last month announced 17 new appointments and promotions within City government to fill various vacancies. The appointments come as the City Hall exodus continues, and amid a federal bribery probe into the mayor’s 2021 election campaign that continues to cast a shadow over his administration. The mayor has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges and his case is ongoing.

 

In a press release dated Tuesday, Jan. 28, Adams announced he has appointed the former Bronx City Council Member for C.D. 13, Marjorie Velázquez, as director for tenant protection. According to the press release, Velázquez most recently served as vice president of policy for Tech: NYC “where she worked to bridge the gap between City Hall, Albany, and New York’s fast-growing tech sector.”
The release continued in part, “She championed several key initiatives, including a landmark ruling mandating a minimum wage for gig economy workers, securing funding for public transit and safety improvements, and passing bills to strengthen tenants’ rights.”

 

Velázquez served as the Democratic council member for Council District 13 from January 2022 to December 2023 before losing to Republican, Kristy Marmorato, the first time a Republican defeated a Democrat in a Bronx election in nearly two decades.
A female, East Bronx resident who declined to be identified for this story said she had opposed the stand taken by Velázquez on the Bruckner Boulevard upzoning housing development in Throggs Neck, as well as what the resident alleged was Velázquez’s position on the proposed “Just Home” housing project.

 

Some residents opposed the upzoning development because of the perceived impact upon traffic, and insufficient policing, schools, and parking to cater for the influx of new residents. Meanwhile, the Just Home project was a proposal to create around 70 studio and two-bedroom apartments, as well as access to on-site social services, on the grounds of Jacobi Medical Center in Morris Park for formerly incarcerated New Yorkers with life-threatening medical conditions.

 

Referring to Velázquez, the resident told Norwood News, “She lost her seat due to the upzoning and the community outrage of Jacobi Building 2. She didn’t listen to the people, and she stabbed them in the back, so they tossed her out to the curb.”

 

When Norwood News interviewed Velázquez for a profile piece in the context of her re-election campaign in 2023 about the Just Home project, she said she had always been against it, adding it had been initiated under her predecessor, Mark Gjonaj, and under former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Unfortunately, the community was never engaged and so, you can’t blame them for being frustrated, angry, because they were left out of a very important conversation,” she said at the time.

 

Asked for her views on Velázquez’s latest role at City Hall, the same female resident said, “It is just political nepotism… and he [the mayor] continues to hire people with no skills or experience.” According to one biography, Velázquez holds a degree in Finance and Accounting from NYU, worked in several corporate finance, budgeting, and accounting positions, where she designed and implemented accounting strategies for various regions around the world.

 

She also served as a volunteer on the boards of Amplify Her and the Broad Room, both of which are dedicated to empowering women through civil and political engagement. Additionally, she served on the board of St. Joseph’s School for the Deaf Children’s Fund, the Bronx-Westchester advisory board of Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and with the Bronx River Alliance, which advocates for environmental justice and resiliency.

 

According to Adams’ administration officials, as of 2023, there were 3,705,000 total housing units in New York City and of those, 2,324,000 were rentals and 1,109,000 were owner-occupied. They said over 40% of all renters in New York City spend 30% or more of their income on rent, and one fourth of renters spend half of their income or more on rent. They said in 2023, the median monthly rent was $1,641.

According to City officials, a tight housing market remained in New York City in 2023 with a citywide rental vacancy rate of 1.41%, below the 5% threshold required for rent regulation to continue under State Law. They said this translated into the availability of just 33,210 rental units out of more than 2.3 million rental units citywide. They said stabilized vacancy rates on the whole were 0.98%, while private, non-regulated units were vacant at a rate of 1.84%.

 

The Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants (MOPT) was established in January 2019, when then-Mayor Bill de Blasio signed Executive Order No. 39 to create the office and coordinate the City’s tenant protection efforts.

 

Meanwhile, with the C.D. 13 seat up for grabs once again this year, Theona Reets-DuPont, a Democrat and former chief of staff for District 15 City Council Member Oswald Feliz, announced Jan. 10, that she is running to represent the district. “I will represent and serve the people of District 13 with the same energy and tenacity that characterized my public service over the last four years in the Bronx,” she said.
Adams is deemed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law.

 

*Síle Moloney contributed to this story.