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This year, Partnership for the Public Good turned to impact litigation for the first time in our 17 years of public policy work. As the cover story in our Winter 2024 newspaper describes, we advocated for many years for the City of Buffalo to adopt and implement a rental housing inspection program, a proven tool to reduce persistent lead poisoning and dangerous housing conditions. The City adopted the law in 2020, but did not implement it. In July, we filed our first lawsuit to protect the health and safety of Buffalo renters—who are 60% of our city’s residents—and to force City Hall to follow its own laws on rental housing health and safety.

For years, many of our partners have told us, ‘We hear horror stories from Buffalo renters every day: no heat, no running water, leaking roofs, exterior doors that don’t lock, and lead paint.’ These are the only units they can find. While Buffalo’s housing stock is old, these conditions are not inevitable. Rather, they reflect policy choices. The same can be said for many of Buffalo Niagara’s persistent challenges.

This is where PPG’s work comes in: together with our partners, we advocate for well-researched policy solutions that will make our region more just, sustainable, and culturally vibrant. This year in particular, PPG was a constant presence in Buffalo media advancing progressive policies. We were featured and quoted over 100 times in Buffalo Niagara media, including front page coverage and six editorials in The Buffalo News endorsing our policy proposals on issues ranging from housing affordability to mental health response.

As Jerome Wright, Co-Director of the NYS Jails Justice Network, said, “When nobody else is fighting for our issues, PPG is always there supporting us, encouraging us, and giving us data to make change happen.”

In 2024, PPG grew to 368 signed partner organizations. To continue our work with them – convening issue-based working groups, completing community-based research, hosting free civic education workshops and skills trainings, and advocating with elected officials to win policy change – we need your support.

As we look to the year ahead, we believe our local and state advocacy will be more important than ever. What we do locally matters even more when our federal government scales back its support for low-income people and working families. Our partnership will keep working toward policies to build a better Buffalo, Erie County, and New York State, where people have good jobs, affordable and safe housing, healthy neighborhoods, and a real voice in decisions that affect their lives. We hope you will support this collective work.

Very truly yours,

Andrea Ó Súilleabháin
Executive Director