Dianne Morales' website:
https://www.dianne.nyc/platform
DEFUND THE POLICE; FUND THE PEOPLE
Our current policing system is not keeping all New Yorkers safe. NYPD disproportionately profiles, harms and kills Black lives — and its willful coordination with ICE targets the well-being of immigrants and their families. NYPD is disproportionately present in schools where Black and Brown children go to learn. And the response from NYPD in light of mental or emotional distress often leads to accelerated danger and preventable harm.
Dianne Morales believes every New Yorker deserves safety. With over 25 years as a human services professional, Dianne has used data to create solutions that actually keep us safe — from housing to workforce pipelines. In a city that is majority people of color, immigrant and poor, it is imperative that we finally address the root causes of violence and move from the myth that we will police our way to safety.
As Mayor, Dianne would reallocate $3 billion of NYPD’s overall budget to finally create the conditions that prevent crime, address crises with dignity and empower communities to create solutions that decrease the likelihood of NYPD intervention.
Create a Community First Responders Department separate from NYPD, staffed for trained personnel with backgrounds in trauma-informed intervention to respond to mental health, wellness and social issues — areas NYPD is not trained to address. This Department will act as part of a larger ecosystem to connect New Yorkers with programs and services to address their needs;
Remove police from social services, including school safety officers, traffic enforcement, outreach to unhoused New Yorkers and drug intervention;
Advance a democratically-elected Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) and empower it to discipline officers;
Provide right to counsel for immigrant and undocumented communities and protect their due process by ensuring no City agencies or entities cooperate with ICE;
Invest in restorative alternatives to disrupt violence within communities and fund local groups in leading transformative programs around addressing hate and violence, and interrupting and addressing gun violence;
Fully fund and scale CURE Violence;
Create more “gun-free” zones with communities;
Find City-led ways to begin to eliminate pre-trial detention;
This includes pushing District Attorneys in vacating offenses and declining to prosecute offenses, and reducing the number of people subjected to pretrial detention by 80% immediately;
Ban NYPD’s Gang Database & NYPD’s ability to purchase information from data brokers;
Decriminalize all drug use, as well as possession of limited amounts. End arrests and violation-level enforcement for drugs and decline to prosecute all drug charges;
Eliminate VICE and decriminalize sex work;
Analyze all DA budgets, with the intent to reduce them significantly;
End the practice of asset forfeiture of personal property;
Establish Overdose Prevention Centers and fully fund programs to allow safer consumption, resources and harm-reduction services;
Allow survivors of violence to seek services without needing to file a police report;
Provide free temporary shelter for survivors of violence;
No new jails;
Close Rikers Island;
Eliminate bail.
___________________________
GUARANTEED HOUSING FOR ALL
The Morales Administration would declare housing a right. In the midst of an unprecedented health crisis, high unemployment and our city’s failure to address chronic homelessness, it is imperative to our collective safety and security that every New Yorker has a place to call home that is dignified, peaceful and without harm. But having a roof over one’s head is not where the crisis ends. New York City has been in the middle of a housing and rent affordability crisis for decades. The current status quo favors and prioritizes speculation and powerful private interests and has led to displacement, homelessness and exorbitantly high burdens on renters and the city’s working class. The history of redlining, blockbusting, gentrification, government neglect and big bank predatory practices, as well as private subsidies and other market gimmicks, have perpetuated a legacy of racial, gender, and class inequality, cruelty and injustice. It’s time we change that.
The state of housing stability is intimately interconnected to the quality of one’s education, environment, safety, health and food security.
ENDING HOMELESSNESS
It’s time to get serious about ending homelessness once and for all. This year, the New York Times reported that in New York City, over 100,000 school-aged children are housing insecure. Federal data estimate about 80,000 unhoused people in the city, a figure 15,000 higher than projections from the de Blasio administration. Black and Latinx children are 15 times more likely to not have had a stable place to live in the last 12 months. Homelessness is a human rights crisis, but it is one that can be solved. Dianne’s plan includes:
Within the first 100 days, providing more secure and guaranteed pathways toward permanent residence, including the prompt conversion of hotels into permanent support housing and services for families of our 100,000 unhoused school-aged youth;
Appoint a Deputy Mayor responsible for leading and coordinating a citywide, cross-sector effort addressing housing, opportunity and social mobility, including shifting the $3 billion annual shelter budget towards preventative measures, and implementing preventative models that effectively responds to housing displacement and vulnerability;
Repurpose the Economic Development Corporation (EDC) for social-public partnerships focused on disrupting poverty from a root cause lens, prioritizing physiological needs, including the development of social housing, expansion of cooperative housing, increasing affordable housing and eradicating homelessness;
Advocate to extend rent moratorium and rollback rent to pre-pandemic rates, accounting for the hardship millions are still enduring and halting the punishing of renters by landlords and big real estate firms;
Increase the City’s rental assistance and monetary support system as well as expand eligibility criteria;
Implement performance based contracting with shelters and relief services and repurpose towards comprehensive prevention services and rehousing;
Partner with community-trusted organizations that have proven track records in responding to the needs of housing insecure communities, as well as elevate the voices of unhoused New Yorkers front and center — especially in healthcare and economic empowerment.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
