Platform

Michael Blake is a son of the South Bronx, a former New York State Assembly Member who served in the Obama White House, and a small business owner who has created local jobs. He knows families are getting squeezed by rent, child care, transit costs, and uneven public safety.

In neighborhoods like Mott Haven and Melrose, roughly one in three renters are severely rent-burdened, paying more than half their income in rent. These pressures have intensified as affordable homes for longtime residents are replaced by luxury projects for wealthy newcomers. Across the borough, NYCHA’s Bronx footprint, roughly 67 developments and nearly 39,000 apartments, faces chronic repair backlogs, mold and heat outages, and anxiety around PACT conversions. With median household income around $45,000, “affordable” must match what Bronx families can actually pay.

The Bronx Plan is a practical, people-first agenda to lower the cost of living, fix NYCHA, keep neighborhoods safe, and build real pathways to good jobs. Longtime residents deserve the opportunity to stay, thrive, and lead without being pushed out of their hometown. Blake’s plan puts working people first by delivering affordability, stability, and dignity.

• Guaranteed Jobs. Guaranteed Income. Guaranteed Homes.

  Housing is not a lottery. It is a right. Michael Blake’s housing plan is built to ensure the Bronx remains home to the people who built it.

• End Credit Score Requirements

  Eliminate credit checks for affordable housing and first-time homeownership. A FICO score measures debt history, not character. If you have paid rent reliably, you deserve a real shot at housing. Expand down-payment assistance, support community land trusts, and pilot alternative underwriting so credit scores are no longer a barrier for responsible renters.

• Raise Income Limits on Applications

  Stop punishing families for getting a modest raise or picking up extra shifts. Working harder should never disqualify you from housing stability.

• Local Median Income, Not Area Median Income

  Anchor affordability to neighborhood-level incomes, not inflated regional averages driven by Manhattan wealth. Affordable housing should be priced to Bronx paychecks, not accounting tricks.

• Housing Stability, Not Just Units

  The goal is not simply to build housing, but to ensure people can stay. Michael Blake’s housing agenda centers permanence for longtime residents, protecting families from displacement, speculative churn, and policies that treat communities as disposable. Housing policy must be measured by who remains, not just what gets built.

• Rent Freeze for Rent-Stabilized Tenants

  Support the next mayor in enacting a rent freeze for the Bronx’s roughly 210,000 rent-stabilized households, protecting seniors and working families from displacement. Pair the freeze with hardship relief for small, mom-and-pop landlords.

• Fix the NYCHA Backlog Now

  Fund fast, visible repairs for heat, elevators, roofs, and mold. Guarantee iron-clad tenant protections during renovations that require temporary displacement. Cut utility bills with green upgrades while training and hiring NY-15 residents to do the work through trusted local nonprofit partners.

• Build More Affordable Homes, Including for Seniors

  Accelerate the construction and preservation of deeply affordable, senior, and working-family housing by pairing federal tools, including LIHTC, the Housing Trust Fund, and project-based vouchers, with city and state financing so “affordable” actually means affordable.

Public safety is a top concern in NY-15. While shootings and homicides have fallen from pandemic peaks, they remain above pre-pandemic levels, and overdose deaths continue to devastate families. Real safety requires both accountability and prevention. It means enforcing the law fairly, stopping abuses of power, and investing in services that prevent harm before it happens.

• PROSECUTE ICE: No Secret Police in New York

  Public safety depends on trust. When armed agents operate anonymously, mask their identities, or drag local institutions into federal deportation enforcement, that trust collapses.

  • Michael Blake will:

    • Enforce New York’s anti-mask law against federal agents operating in public, including ICE, with narrow, case-specific safety exceptions.

    • Ban anonymous law enforcement activity by requiring clear, visible identification during public enforcement actions. There should be no secret police in a democracy.

    • Establish publicly funded Safe Havens so hospitals, schools, courts, and houses of worship are legally protected from immigration enforcement.

• Repeal the Laken Riley Act

Michael Blake supports repealing the Laken Riley Act and replacing it with a fairer law that honors her legacy without abandoning constitutional due process.

We absolutely mourn the loss of Laken Riley. Her life mattered. Her legacy deserves to be honored with care, honesty, and justice. But laws written in response to tragedy should not strip rights from people who are accused, not convicted, or expand detention and deportation without due process.

Public safety and civil rights are not in conflict. We can protect lives and protect the Constitution. Michael Blake will fight to repeal the Laken Riley Act and advance policies that uphold accountability, fairness, and the rule of law.

• What Safety Means

Safety means fewer guns, fewer overdoses, fewer people cycling through jails, and more people getting help before harm occurs. Enforcement alone cannot deliver that.

Safety also means keeping essential workers on the job. Mass deportation and the termination of TPS would remove caregivers, drivers, food workers, and home health aides from the Bronx overnight, raising costs and making daily life less safe for everyone.

• Expand Mental-Health Services

Fund 24/7 mobile crisis teams, outpatient stabilization, and supportive housing. Ensure people leaving emergency rooms, shelters, or jails are connected to ongoing care so no one falls through the cracks.

• Scale Community Violence Intervention

Expand Cure Violence–style programs and hospital-based interventions so victims and families receive immediate mediation, safety planning, and wraparound support when violence occurs.

• Address Quality-of-Life Issues Head-On

Create a coordinated task force to keep corridors clean, improve lighting, and ensure trash is picked up on schedule, working with merchants, tenant leaders, and faith communities to restore order and dignity in shared spaces.

• Precision Policing, Not Over-Policing

Focus enforcement on the small number of people and places driving serious violence, while reducing unnecessary stops and low-level enforcement that erode community trust and make cooperation harder.

• Champion Medicare for All

• Every family, regardless of income or zip code, deserves access to high-quality care. Michael Blake supports Medicare for All: universal, comprehensive coverage with no premiums, no deductibles, and no surprise bills. Healthcare should heal people, not bankrupt them.

• Standing Up for Nurses

  Nurses are essential, not expendable.

  As a co-sponsor of the New York Safe Staffing Act, Michael Blake will take the fight for safe staffing nationwide so nurses can provide the care patients deserve.

  • Safe Staffing Ratios

    Safe staffing is not only a labor issue. It is a patient safety issue. When nurses are stretched beyond capacity, care suffers. When nurses are protected, patients survive. Standing up for nurses means standing up for every family that relies on our healthcare system. Ensure staffing levels that prevent burnout and protect patient safety.

  • Workplace Violence Protections

    Nurses face assault at alarming rates. They deserve real protections on the job.

  • Fair Contracts and Coverage

    Respect nurses’ labor, expertise, and the impossible demands placed on them. Caregivers deserve care, too. When nurses are protected, patients are safer.

• Black & Latina Maternal Health

  The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, and Black and Latina mothers face far higher risks than white mothers, regardless of income or education. These disparities are not accidental. They are the result of systemic neglect, underinvestment, and bias in care.

  Michael Blake will fight to significantly increase federal funding for Black and Latina maternal healthcare, including:

  • Expanding access to prenatal, postpartum, and mental health care

  • Supporting community-based providers, doulas, and midwives who deliver culturally competent care

  • Investing in hospital safety, staffing, and accountability to prevent avoidable deaths

  • Closing data gaps so disparities are measured, addressed, and eliminated
    
    No family should fear childbirth because of their race, income, or zip code. Maternal healthcare is a life-and-death issue, and equity must be built into the system by design.

Education is the most powerful long-term public safety and economic policy we have. When young people have real support, clear pathways, and freedom from crushing debt, families are stronger, communities are safer, and opportunity becomes durable instead of fragile.

• Expand My Brother’s Keeper & My Sister’s Keeper

Michael Blake will expand and federally support My Brother’s Keeper and My Sister’s Keeper to ensure Black and Latino youth in NY-15 have access to the mentorship, academic support, and career pathways they deserve.

This means:

• Investing in trusted community-based mentoring programs

• Expanding literacy, debate, and college- and career-readiness initiatives

• Building direct pipelines into union jobs, CUNY programs, apprenticeships, and public service

• Supporting wraparound services that recognize the real barriers young people face

Opportunity should not depend on zip code, family wealth, or who you know. It should be built intentionally.

• Cancel Student Debt

Student debt has become a generational trap that punishes working families, first-generation students, and caregivers, while delaying homeownership, family formation, and small-business creation.

Michael Blake supports canceling federal student debt as a matter of economic and racial justice so working people can build stable lives instead of carrying lifelong financial burdens. Relief would immediately strengthen family budgets, expand opportunity, and help an entire generation invest in their communities rather than servicing debt.

Education should open doors, not lock people into decades of repayment.

• Lower Grocery Bills

  Use the federal Healthy Food Financing Initiative to help open full-service supermarkets in food deserts and support existing local grocers. Families get fresher food closer to home, lower prices through real competition, SNAP and WIC acceptance, and dozens of local jobs.

• Protect and Strengthen the Department of Education

  Expand evidence-based programs Michael championed in the Assembly, including mentoring, literacy, debate, and pathways to college and quality careers, to raise graduation rates and expand opportunity.

• Lower Energy Bills

  Reduce what low-income families pay for heat and electricity by funding insulation and efficiency upgrades, auto-enrolling eligible households in existing energy discounts, expanding community solar, and training Bronx residents through a Green Jobs Academy. Demand federal intervention to investigate and end price-gouging by utility monopolies like Con Edison, which charge Bronx residents disproportionately higher rates for the same service. This economic injustice functions as neighborhood redlining.

• Protect the Benefits Our Families Earned

  Michael Blake will fight any attempt to cut Medicare, Social Security, or SNAP. These lifelines keep Bronx seniors and families afloat. In NY-15, more than 270,000 residents rely on SNAP, 110,000 receive Social Security, and most seniors depend on Medicare. He will oppose cuts, block rollbacks, and work with New York’s leaders to strengthen these programs so families can age with dignity and put food on the table.

• Child Care Families Can Afford

  Make child care free for low-income families and dramatically more affordable for the middle class by expanding federal support, boosting wages for providers, and partnering with the City to add 3K and 4K seats in NY-15.

• Protect Food Benefits

  Replace outdated magnetic-stripe EBT cards with secure chip technology. With nearly 300,000 Bronx residents relying on SNAP, our communities are targeted at far higher rates for theft. No family should lose food money because Washington refuses to modernize protections.

• Transit That Doesn’t Break the Budget

  Expand and federally support fare-free transit for low-income New Yorkers by building on the City’s Fair Fares program so Bronx riders can reach work, school, medical care, and child care.

Climate change is not abstract in the Bronx. It shows up as asthma in Asthma Alley, flooded basements, and heat deaths in NYCHA buildings without air conditioning. As national leadership pulls the country back from global climate cooperation, the Bronx must lead.

Climate disasters hit hardest where infrastructure is weakest. In the Bronx, that means public housing, frontline neighborhoods, and families already stretched thin. Climate justice is about survival, stability, and dignity, not abstract targets.

• Fight for Climate Accountability

Rejoin international agreements, hold polluters accountable, and stop allowing corporations to dump the costs of climate damage into our lungs and neighborhoods.

• Invest in Green Jobs

Train and hire Bronx residents to weatherize buildings, install solar, and build resilient infrastructure through a Green Jobs Academy.

• Prioritize Environmental Justice

The South Bronx has been treated as a dumping ground for decades. Environmental justice communities must be first in line for green infrastructure and resilience funding.

• Climate-Proof Public Housing

Protect NYCHA, hospitals, and schools so the next heat wave or flood does not become a mass casualty event. Climate justice is racial justice, economic justice, and public health justice.

The Bronx economy is powered by neighborhood entrepreneurs. When small businesses thrive, dollars stay local, storefronts stay open, and young people see real pathways to paid careers.

• Put More Money in Bronx Businesses’ Hands

Expand low-interest lending through SBA programs and CDFIs, simplify federal procurement, and provide hands-on technical assistance.

• Create Green Jobs

Launch a Green Jobs Academy with CUNY, unions, and employers, emphasizing paid training and direct placement.

• Year-Round Youth Employment

Turn summer jobs into 12-month pathways in tech, healthcare, construction, and climate work, paired with mentorship and CUNY credit.

For decades, minority and women-owned businesses have been locked out of opportunity by design, not by accident. Closing that gap is not charity. It is economic repair.

• MWBE Bill of Rights

Minority and women-owned businesses built the Bronx. They deserve more than lip service.

• Fair contract access with real accountability

• Transparent procurement

• Expanded access to capital

• Technical assistance that meets businesses where they are

Economic justice means ownership. Ownership means power.

Michael Blake is a community organizer and a fighter. At home, he will protect civil rights, defend earned benefits, and keep families together. Abroad, he will push for diplomacy, humanitarian aid, and accountability so U.S. policy does not fuel mass civilian harm.

• Global Communities, Local Power

The Bronx is global. Our representation must reflect that.

• Remittance Fairness

For Dominican and Caribbean families in the Bronx, sending money home is not optional. It is an act of survival and responsibility. Yet working families are routinely exploited by predatory transfer fees charged by private intermediaries.

Michael Blake will fight for remittance fairness by:

• Cracking down on excessive and hidden transfer fees

• Increasing transparency and consumer protections for money transfer services

• Supporting lower-cost public and nonprofit remittance options

• Treating remittance fees as a working-class economic justice issue, not a niche concern

Families supporting loved ones abroad should not be taxed by private corporations simply for doing the right thing.

Dominican, Venezuelan, Latin American, Caribbean, African, and South Asian Communities from around the world call the Bronx home. Michael Blake will fight for TPS protections grounded in economic reality, family reunification, humane immigration policy, disaster relief, and stability for the U.S. citizen children and local economies that depend on immigrant workers. He will oppose policies that punish civilians or tear families apart.

• Reject All Forms of Hate

Hate has no home in the Bronx.

Hate fractures communities. Solidarity makes safety possible.

Michael Blake rejects antisemitism, Islamophobia, Muslim Hate, anti-Black racism, anti-Asian hate, and gender- or sexual orientation-based discrimination with the same urgency because solidarity is not selective.

He will fund community security, strengthen hate-crime enforcement, expand anti-bias education, and protect communities under threat.

The bond between Puerto Rico and the Bronx is deep and enduring. Thousands of families in NY-15 trace their roots to the island, and decisions made in Washington about Puerto Rico directly affect housing stability, jobs, health, and family life here at home.

Puerto Rico’s crises are not natural disasters alone. They are the result of decades of federal neglect, colonial governance, and policies that prioritize outside investors over the people who live there. Standing with Puerto Rico means standing with Bronx families and fighting for a just, democratic, and dignified relationship between the island and the United States.

Michael Blake will:

• Support Puerto Rican Self-Determination

Back a federally sanctioned process that allows Puerto Ricans to decide their own political future, free from coercion or imposed outcomes. Democracy requires consent.

• End the PROMESA Fiscal Control Board

Fight to dismantle the unelected oversight board that stripped Puerto Rico of democratic authority, imposed austerity, and accelerated the collapse of public services, including schools and hospitals.

• Fight Land Grabs and Opportunity Zone Abuse

Push back against federal tax schemes that turned much of Puerto Rico into a speculative playground, driving displacement and pricing residents out of their own communities. Economic recovery must benefit Puerto Ricans, not hedge funds.

• Cancel or Deeply Restructure Puerto Rico’s Debt

Advocate for debt relief so the island can invest in people, infrastructure, and resilience instead of servicing predatory obligations imposed by Wall Street.

• Abolish the Jones Act

  End the outdated shipping law that inflates the cost of food, medicine, fuel, and construction materials. The Jones Act functions as a hidden tax on island residents while enriching a narrow shipping monopoly.

• Restore PREPA as a Public, Democratic Utility

Support returning Puerto Rico’s electric system to full public ownership, prioritizing reliability, affordability, renewable energy, and democratic oversight. Energy is a public good, not a profit center.

• Rebuild Public Health and Public Education

  Fight for sustained federal investment to stabilize healthcare, address hospital closures and staffing shortages, and strengthen public education so access to care and quality schools are not determined by geography or status.

• Clean Up Military Contamination and Demilitarize the Island

Demand full cleanup of lands contaminated by U.S. military activity in Vieques, Culebra, and beyond, and oppose policies that continue to endanger residents and destabilize the region.

• Ensure Full Federal Labor Protections

Guarantee that federal labor standards, including minimum wage and worker protections, apply fully and fairly to Puerto Rican workers.

Standing with Puerto Rico is not foreign policy. It is community policy. When Puerto Rico is denied democracy and stability, Bronx families feel it too.