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As leader of the New York City Council, Speaker Adrienne Adams has advanced several solutions to major challenges facing New Yorkers during her tenure. These include the creation and funding of new programs and the enactment of several new laws. This webpage tracks all of the accomplishments that began as proposals in her State of the City addresses, starting in 2022.

Click on the categories below to show different accomplishments and click on the bold blue text for more information about individual pieces of legislation.

  • Protecting Homes & Generational Wealth

    Created citywide clinics to provide New Yorkers with free estate planning resources to protect their homes and generational wealth.

  • Combatting Deed Theft

    Passed legislation to help homeowners and their heirs protect their family assets from deed theft, which disproportionally targets and harms Black and Latino homeowners

  • Planning for Housing on Libraries and City-owned Land

    Successfully advocated for the mayoral administration to advance efforts to leverage existing library branches and city-owned properties for potential housing development to address citywide housing challenges.

  • Deepening Housing Affordability

    Successfully negotiated the inclusion of deeper affordability as a required option in the City’s affordable housing program (Mandatory Inclusionary Housing) when modifying the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity proposal.

  • Eliminating Outdated Cap on Housing Density

    Successfully advocated for New York State to eliminate the outdated 12 FAR cap that limited housing production in high-density parts of the City.

  • Converting Offices into Housing

    Supported efforts that secured new funding and policies to ease conversions of offices into housing in the New York State budget and City for All housing plan.

  • Restoring Vacant Public Housing Units

    Secured $200 million in City for All housing plan to strengthen NYCHA’s Vacant Unit Readiness Program and speed up rehabilitation of vacant NYCHA apartments for New Yorkers to live in.

  • Funding Youth Mental Peer Support Program

    Allocated $250,000 of Council funding to support the launch of a Youth Peer Support pilot program for 14 – 24-year-olds to manage mental health challenges and support their peers.

  • Strengthening Maternal Mental Health Support

    Passed new laws addressing maternal mental health, including to establish postpartum support groups and increase access to mental health resources for parents, building on past efforts to combat one of the greatest causes of maternal mortality.

  • Supporting Improved Maternal Health

    Passed new laws to strengthen maternal health support for the periods before, during, and after pregnancy, and improve transparency of maternal mortality information.

  • Combatting Hate Across Communities

    Formed the Council’s first-ever Task Force to Combat Hate to engage New Yorkers across diverse communities in the development of policies and initiatives that bring people together to combat hate and make communities safer.

  • Strengthening Early Childhood Education

    Secured $293 million in the city budget to fund seats for families seeking 3-K and Pre-K seats, and fix operational challenges within the system to meet the needs of working families.

  • Preserving Critical Education Programs

    Secured $400.2 million in the city budget to maintain various support programs that were at risk to ensure students can succeed in and outside of the classroom

  • Saving the City’s Library Services

    Secured $58.3 million in the city budget to return full service to library branches across the city and prevent the loss of important programs serving New Yorkers of all ages.

  • Prioritizing NYC’s Cultural Sector

    Secured $60.6 million in the city budget to restore funding for cultural organizations that provide programs to New Yorkers and are critical to our city’s economic growth.

  • Expanding Access to Public Transit

    Expanded eligibility for the Fair Fares program, which provides discounted fares to help more working-class New Yorkers afford public transit.

  • Supporting Immigrants and Longtime New Yorkers

    Formed the New Arrivals Strategy Team to identify best practices for the City to strengthen services and support for communities, including immigrants and longtime New Yorkers.

  • Removing Barriers to Obtaining and Using Housing Vouchers

    Passed reform laws to remove barriers that block access to CityFHEPS housing vouchers for homeless youth and low-income New Yorkers to avoid and transition from homelessness into stable housing.

  • Expanding Full-Day, Full-Year 3-K Seats

    Secured $40 million in city funding to increase full-day and full-year 3-K seats that helps better meet the needs of working families.

  • Advancing the Mental Health Roadmap

    Advanced solutions and policies to improve mental health outcomes for New Yorkers through the Council’s “Mental Health Roadmap”, with stops that focus on community-based care, veterans, expectant mothers, and youth.

  • Expanding Water Safety and Access to Public Pools

    Passed laws to require free water safety instruction for NYC public school children, identify new locations for public pools, and increase citywide swim access as part of an effort to reduce drowning deaths.

  • Improving Access to Civil Service and Bolstering the Municipal Workforce

    Passed laws to increase access to civil service opportunities, expand career pipelines into the municipal workforce, and continue to address pay disparities in the city’s workforce.

  • Funding Job Training for Young People

    Funded expansion of the Renaissance Technical Institute program that provides job training. to young people at public housing developments

  • Expanding Opportunities for People with Disabilities

    Passed laws to expand job opportunities for New Yorkers with disabilities.

  • Establishing Every Community’s Role in Solving the Housing Crisis

    Passed Speaker Adams’ Fair Housing Framework Act to ensure every neighborhood contributes equitably to build housing to address the City’s crisis-level shortage of homes.

  • Bolstering NYC’s Industrial Sector

    Enacted industrial zoning changes and a law to create a citywide plan for investing in the industrial sector and cultivating its growth so that the City can achieve its green energy goals while expanding equitable economic and job opportunities for New Yorkers.

  • Connecting MWBEs with Resources

    Passed legislation to better connect Minority and Women-Owned Businesses (MWBEs) with Community Development Financial Institutions, that provide equitable access to capital.

  • Improving Maternal Health & Reducing Child Poverty

    Established first-ever city funded guaranteed income program, which supports expectant mothers experiencing housing insecurity with monthly unconditional income to improve maternal health and reduce child poverty.

  • Reducing Delays for Key Benefits

    Conducted hearings and strong oversight that pushed the mayoral administration to make progress towards reducing the backlog and delays for New Yorkers receiving cash assistance and SNAP food assistance.There is far more progress needed to ensure all New Yorkers receive their benefits on-time, and the Council will continue with its oversight efforts.

  • Expanding Access to Higher Education

    Established and funded CUNY Reconnect, a new program to help working-adult students who left college without a degree to return for a degree that increases their earning potential. The program has already helped 47,000 students re-enroll in CUNY.

  • Bringing Trauma Recovery Centers to NYC

    Established New York State’s first trauma recovery centers to provide underserved crime victims in neighborhoods experiencing high rates of violence with recovery services that help stop cycles of crime and improve public health and safety

  • Expanding Summer Youth Employment

    Secured record $170 million addition in the FY2023 budget to expand the Summer Youth Employment Program, which provides summer job opportunities for tens of thousands of New York City youth.

  • Utilizing Public Spaces for Parks

    Passed a law to help transform under-used city-owned land into small parks and green spaces.

  • Bolstering Reproductive Health Care Access

    Passed laws to protect and expand access to abortion and reproductive healthcare and allocated nationally historic $1 million in Council funding per year to expand affordable access to care.

  • Funding Anti-Hate Crime & Violence Programs

    Invested $5 million in Council funding annually for community-based hate crimes prevention and response programs to protect New Yorkers and communities that disproportionately face hate violence.

  • Increasing Emergency Food Assistance

    Secured over $30 million in additional funding for the Community Food Connection program in the Fiscal Year 2023-2025 city budgets to support hundreds of food pantries and soup kitchens with food insecurity and hunger at high levels.

  • Expanding Language Access for City Services

    Passed laws to improve access to city services in different languages for New Yorkers and small businesses, and allocated Council funding to establish the City’s first-ever Community Interpreter Bank, which provides job opportunities and greater language access.