Our vision

At Citizen Action of New York, we envision a world where every person’s basic needs are met. It’s a world filled with love and respect for its people and the planet. It’s a world where democracy reigns and each person is able to reach their fullest potential. It’s a world where equity is the norm and oppression, in all forms, is eradicated. It’s a world without war, violence, or the threat of climate destruction. The world we want is possible, but it will only exist if we work together.

To achieve this vision, we have to understand two very important ideas:

The things we care about because they affect our everyday well-being—like housing, education, and health care—are not isolated from each other. It’s all interconnected.

Where you live determines where you can go to school. How far you go in school affects your long-term health. Your ability to find affordable health care affects the very length of your life. So if we care about one of these things, we have to care about all of these things. If we want to fix one of these things, we have to fix all of these things.

We are battling against racial capitalism, the interacting oppressive forces of racism and capitalism that show themselves through inequality and bigotry.

Greed, racism, patriarchy and other systems of oppression permeate the very fabric of our lives—through economics, education, housing, technological advancements, healthcare, climate policy, and our criminal legal system. If we are to create the world we envision, we have to dismantle racial capitalism.

Download a printable version of Our Justice Agenda 2024 Priorities.

These are the priorities we’re working on this year to make our vision a reality:

HOUSING JUSTICE

Everyone deserves guaranteed housing that is safe and dignified, regardless of their income or social status. We will protect tenants and invest in community ownership by:

• Passing Good Cause Tenant Protections to give tenants the right to challenge unfair evictions and discrimination by landlords
• Passing Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act to give tenants funding and first dibs to  buy properties they live in when they go up for sale, and have a say in who can buy them if they don’t
• Passing Housing Access Voucher Program to provide all New Yorkers, regardless of immigration status, with rental support that keeps pace with the actual cost of rent and can be used as long as the need exists

HEALTH CARE EQUITY

Health care is a human right. We will shrink the racial divide in health care, expand access, and stop corporations from getting rich on the backs of patients by:

• Passing Ounce of Prevention to force hospitals to make financial assistance funding accessible to patients and raising the threshold for who qualifies
• Passing Coverage For All to ensure all New Yorkers, regardless of immigration status, are eligible for health care coverage
• Passing New York Health Act to create a single-payer system with the goal of providing universal health care to all New Yorkers

DEMOCRACY

We must strengthen and expand our democracy, which means protecting the rights of every single person to participate in it. We will make elections accessible for all New Yorkers by:

• Fully Funding Public Financing of Campaigns to ensure elected officials are accountable to people, not special interests
• Protecting the Freedom to Vote for all New Yorkers and strengthen and expand participation in our democratic elections

CLIMATE JUSTICE

Everyone deserves to live in a healthy and resilient community, protected from extreme weather and pollution. We will prioritize frontline communities, low-income communities, and communities of color by: 

• Passing New York Heat Act to force utility companies to reduce sales and cap prices
• Passing Climate Change Superfund Act to force the fossil fuel companies who have willfully created the climate crisis to pay for the solutions to it
• Passing Renewable Capitol Act requiring the State Capitol and other State buildings in Albany to become renewable within three years
• Passing the People’s Climate Justice Budget by allocating at least $1 billion to the state’s Climate Action Fund in 2024 for critical climate, transportation, housing and energy programs – developed by communities, for communities

EDUCaTION & EARLY CHILDHOOD

Every child, regardless of their zip code, deserves high-quality child care and public education in which they are able to grow emotionally, mentally, culturally, and creatively. We will ensure this by:

• Increasing funding for child care providers to ensure child care providers are compensated equitably so that child care is available regardless of zip code
• Fully fund schools by adhering to the commitments of the Foundation Aid formula
• Passing Mothers and Infants Lasting Change sending direct cash payments to low income mothers during the last three months of pregnancy and the first 18 months of a child’s life

REVENUE

Every New Yorker should be able to thrive. We will prioritize public goods and services instead of predatory corporate profits by:

• Raising taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers so they pay what they owe
• Reducing state subsidies for corporations to end the pay-for-play culture in Albany
• Funding programs that provide vital services and public goods including $5 billion for public housing

ENDING MASS INCARCERATION

Every person has inherent dignity, including those who cause harm. We will end the system of modern-day slavery in New York by:

• Passing No More Slavery in New York Act and Fairness & Opportunity for Incarcerated Workers Act to end forced labor in prison and improve wages and working conditions for incarcerated New Yorkers
• Passing Treatment Not Jails to stop criminalizing mental health and increase treatment options instead of imprisonment