Assemblywoman Sylvia Friedman
Working Families Party Candidate for State Assembly
74th District - Lower East Side, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, Gramercy Park, Kips Bay and Tudor City
In her many years as a community activist in the 74th District, Assemblywoman Sylvia Friedman has been a consistent and on-the-ground advocate for housing - for the poor, the disabled, the homeless, the middle class. She's worked to build housing and to preserve housing.
As an Assemblywoman, she pledges to be a strong voice for yet another group of New Yorkers who need help with housing -- those who have companion animals. She supports two bills that AFNYC knows are crucial to protecting the homes of New Yorkers with pets:
- Housing for senior citizens with pets. A1825 would protect people 62 years or older from being denied housing in, or evicted from, an apartment, coop or condo on the sole ground that they keep a common companion animal such as a cat or dog.
- Fair Insurance for homeowners with dogs. A1824 would prohibit insurance companies from discriminating against homeowners with certain breeds of dogs.
She knows, for instance, that residents of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, two massive housing developments in the district, have "terrific problem"" with their landlord over keeping companion animals. Because of her strong pro-tenant stance, she hasn't accepted any campaign contributions from the real estate industry.
Her history as a housing advocate is impressive:
- As chair of the Housing Committee of Community Board 6, she worked to preserve apartments for low-income New Yorkers on East 21st Street and on East 27th Street.
- As a board member of the Friends House in Rosehill, she helped create fifty apartments for formerly homeless people with AIDS.
- As the chair of the Friends Shelter for twenty years, she has personally overseen the operation of a homeless shelter that offers 12 homeless men and women a meal and a bed for the night.
"We share the same concerns regarding the treatment of tenants with pets, especially seniors, who are sometimes harassed and evicted by landlords just for keeping a pet. There is a bill in the Assembly to allow seniors to keep pets in their apartments, and I look forward to getting back to Albany to ensure it becomes law."
- Assemblywoman Sylvia Friedman
- Assemblywoman Sylvia Friedman
As chair of the Parks and Landmarks Committee of Community Board 6, Ms. Friedman also helped neighborhood dogs by working to create a dog run in Stuyvesant Square Park.
A former public school teacher, Ms. Friedman was elected to her seat in a special election in February 2006 after long-time Assemblyman Steven Sanders retired.
As a new member of the State Assembly, Ms. Friedman voted to pass a significant law that requires animals to be included under a court order of protection, an important step both in fighting animal cruelty and in recognizing animals as members of the family. The bill was signed into law in July 2006.
Ms. Friedman also voted for bills that would:
- Allow counties to decide their own trapping laws.
- Strengthen the laws regulating large breeders and wholesalers of cats and dogs.
- Ban the use of animals in cosmetic testing.
