As Buffalo prepares to elect its first new mayor in nearly two decades, Partnership for the Public Good is stepping forward to offer much-needed policy solutions to address the city's challenges, including a housing crisis, struggles with equity and safety, and underserved residents and communities. “We hope that these are the common-sense solutions that mayoral candidates will be asked about,” explained PPG Executive Director Andrea Ó Súilleabháin.

In the weeks ahead, as the Mayoral campaigns continue, PPG is publishing a series of Buffalo in Transition papers to highlight public policies that reduce poverty, advance racial equity, and build a more just and equitable region. On housing, health, community safety, and more, these policy solutions could be prioritized and implemented by the next mayor of Buffalo; community coalitions are already standing behind them. 

“We stand ready to work,” said Pastor George Nicholas, CEO at the Buffalo Center for Health Equity. “We know there’s a big community out there that’s willing to work in solidarity with us.”

These policy recommendations were not developed in a vacuum; each year, our partnership of over 380 community groups and nonprofits crafts and votes for a policy agenda for the coming year—our Community Agenda. On poverty, housing, health, community safety, and more, we have policy solutions that could be prioritized by the next mayor of Buffalo, with community coalitions already standing behind them. This buy-in is important; broad resident input results in better public policy that is more likely to be implemented successfully.

“We know what we need,” said Fruit Belt community advocate Dennice Barr. “We’ve been talking about what we need for years and years and years, and it’s been falling on deaf ears. “Listening to the community is important because “when public policy is developed by a broad set of people with a lot of public participation, it’s more likely to be implemented and it’s more likely to work,” said Ó Súilleabháin.

Together these papers offer well-researched policy recommendations and imaginative solutions. The first four reports focus on housing security and resident safety:

• “Putting Vacant Land to Good Use” discusses Buffalo’s abundance of publicly-owned vacant land, and proposes ways we could be putting it to use for community benefits through comprehensive community planning, a large-scale Clean and Green Program, and changes to the City’s land disposition policies to facilitate sale and transfer of vacant lots for beneficial purposes such as affordable housing and community gardens.
   
• “Supporting Low-Income Homeowners” spells out several reforms the city should make to help struggling people keep and maintain their homes, a real problem as economic pressures mount, including expanding low-income property tax exemptions, reforming the In-Rem Auction to protect low-income homeowners, and allowing payment plans for property tax bills and debt.
   
• “Fixing Rental Housing Starts with Tenant Protections” puts forth critical strategies to protect renters, including using inspections to ensure that families have safe, lead-free homes, and shielding tenants and landlords alike from unfair and disruptive evictions. 
   
• “Community Safety Departments are the Future of First Response” shows why–and how–we should put community responder teams, civilian officers, and violence interrupter teams in place to respond to the many low-level situations that call for compassion, care, and community support. 

“There has been so much focus in Buffalo on attracting development, giving subsidies to developers, bringing high-tech positions, but at the same time, many people are struggling to keep their home, put food on the table, and not be sick. We need to focus on people’s basic needs in this mayoral race,” said Ó Súilleabháin.

“People should ask each of the candidates to make this one commitment: if you do not win, that you’re going to help whoever does win to bring these things to the city,” said Pastor Nicholas.