Andrew Yang campaigning (photo: @AndrewYang)

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Andrew Yang, the entrepreneur and former presidential candidate, has emerged as the apparent frontrunner in the 2021 Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, though the race is just now entering its final two months when candidates will spend many millions of dollars, voters will start paying closer attention, and anything can happen. While Yang’s popularity and panache for retail campaigning, as well as his proclivity to commit political gaffes with little apparent consequence, have been the subject of intense discussion, his policy platform has seen far less scrutiny. And while he has held several events to roll out policy plans — including one on Thursday morning about preventing parking placard abuse — and offered his stances on many issues at candidate forums and in interviews, much of his platform is posted to his website.

Yang has focused much of his early campaign on the city’s economic revival, where he says he believes he can be of help based on his private sector experience. He has centered cash relief for the poorest New Yorkers, getting businesses reopened and commuters back to offices, addressing public safety, and a “vaccine passport” plan to help bolster safe activity like seeing Broadway shows. On those subjects and many more, Yang has offered more detail on his website than in public appearances, though many questions remain about his plans, especially around specific goals, timelines, and budgets.

Supporters and those who otherwise see him favorably or are intrigued by him call Yang “fresh” and “energetic,” someone who can inject new blood and bold ideas into a calcified political order that is more inclined to pursue incremental progress and pay off debts. But while he has proposed a series of big ideas – cash relief for 500,000 New Yorkers living in poverty, a public bank, a Big Apple Corps of 10,000 tutors for public school children – and released several policy plans to deal with the city’s immediate crises, Yang has yet to flesh out his long-term priorities across a range of issues listed on his website, including housing, jobs and the economy, public health, education, the environment and climate resiliency, the city budget, transparency and ethics, and mass transit. On most of those issues, his campaign website has been promising plans “in the coming weeks” for some time, even as the June primary is rapidly approaching. 

“Andrew’s policies are reflective of his vision to really help New York City recover, especially coming out of the pandemic,” said Sasha Neha Ahuja, Yang’s co-campaign manager. Taking stock of the stark inequality in the city even before the coronavirus made it worse, Ahuja said Yang will “accelerate the pace of progressive and pragmatic change” in the city. “Andrew’s really focused on what are the things that are within his jurisdiction that he can get done, and get done and that are measurable,” she said when asked to sum up Yang’s policy platform.

Ahuja emphasized that more detailed policy proposals are in the offing, as voters begin to increasingly turn their attention towards the race for its home stretch. “We're confident that as voters are plugging in that they are continuing to see the growing swath of policy priorities that are shaping Andrew’s agenda,” she said. 

She also pushed back against the criticism that Yang has faced from activists and lawmakers on the left who say his platform is more conservative than progressive, and will do more harm than good for the city. “When it comes to redistributing wealth, to getting things done for folks, when it comes to the city taking action and using the levers that it has to be able to make structural change for New Yorkers, absolutely it is progressive,” she said.

Here’s a rundown of Yang’s current campaign policy agenda, as outlined on his website and, in some cases, offered during public appearances:

Cash Relief & A People’s Bank
Yang’s signature idea is a New York City-focused version of cash relief based on the Universal Basic Income (UBI) proposal that earned him significant support during his out-of-nowhere run for president. Even prior to the coronavirus pandemic, though unemployment was at an all-time low in the city, nearly one in five New Yorkers lived in poverty. That has only been exacerbated in the year since. Yang has proposed launching a $1 billion basic income program that would give 500,000 New Yorkers an average of $2,000 in direct cash relief each year, a program he hopes to grow over the years with philanthropic support. The program would aim to provide immediate economic relief to those in the most dire economic circumstances and eradicate a significant portion of the city’s poverty over time.

While Yang has offered a broad sketch of where the $1 billion would come from, such as public funds, private donations, and eliminating tax breaks for property-tax exempt landlords, he has not delved into the specifics of those buckets and only spoken about city budget management in very broad terms. He has shown limited knowledge of the city’s budget and fiscal picture in a number of situations.

Another of Yang’s signature proposals is a People’s Bank, a public financial institution that would automatically enroll New Yorkers who receive the basic income benefit. The Bank, initially funded with a $100 million city loan, would expand banking access to the roughly 350,000 households in the city without a bank account and provide capital to existing Community Development Financial Institutions that already seek to address this need. The Bank would also give loan guarantees to small businesses and micro-loans of up to $50,000 to people hoping to start their own businesses. 

Small Business Relief
Small businesses have been decimated by the pandemic, with thousands permanently shuttered because of a loss of revenue. Yang plans to save 15,000 small businesses in 2022 alone, according to his campaign website. He proposes to appoint a small business czar to oversee recovery efforts between the Department of Consumer Affairs, Department of Small Business Services, and Office of Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises.

His administration would impose a one-year moratorium on small business fines and help support businesses to comply with regulations through a new Collaborative Uniform Repair Enforcement program headed by the small business czar. It’s unclear how Yang would make up for the loss in city revenue from the fine moratorium.

He would also support the passage of the Small Business Jobs Survival Act, which would regulate commercial lease renewals for small businesses. The bill has languished before the City Council, and become far more moderate in its efforts to institute a form of commercial rent control, in the more than 15 years since its original introduction.

Yang’s other small business ideas include advocating before the state Legislature for a vacancy tax on empty storefronts, low- and no-interest loans to businesses through the People’s Bank, automatically renewing licenses and permits without fees, extending a cap on third-party app-based delivery fees, increasing contracts to M/WBEs, a spending voucher program, easing regulations on nonprofits, a city-run crowdsourcing platform for small businesses, and more. 

Public Safety
Though major felony crimes fell overall last year, there was a devastating increase in shootings and homicides. Hate crimes also rose, particularly against Asian Americans, a trend that has continued this year with several instances of violent attacks in just recent weeks and on which Yang has spoken out repeatedly as someone seeking to become the city’s first Asian mayor.

At the same time, after the Black Lives Matter protests last spring and summer, and yet another police killing of a Black man in Minneapolis this week, calls for redirecting police funding, implementing greater reforms, and holding police officers accountable have grown louder. 

Yang is promising to take on both sides of the equation, with efforts led by a newly-created Deputy Mayor for Public and Community Safety who would oversee the various city agencies tasked with criminal justice, violence prevention, and interruption efforts. He has said he would appoint a “civilian” police commissioner whose background is not solely in law enforcement. He also wants state approval to impose a requirement that NYPD officers be residents of the city.

Though he has vaguely supported reallocating some funds from the NYPD towards mental health and substance use treatment, he has not provided a specific dollar amount. Yang has regularly talked about needing to rein in police abuses and also been among the moderate in the Democratic field around how far he wants to go on police reform.

He has proposed overhauling police oversight by establishing full-time positions for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, a police oversight agency, and giving either the CCRB or another independent committee the power to make final disciplinary determinations, among other measures.

Yang said that the rise in anti-Asian American hate crimes should be stemmed by increasing funding for the NYPD Asian Hate Crime Task Force, a call that was swiftly criticized by some advocates who have argued against more police funding that could result in the over-criminalization of marginalized communities, though broadly speaking it does not appear to be a controversial stance. He also called for an increase in police funding to tackle rising crime on the subway system, and was panned for it by activists who are calling for defunding the police and reducing police presence in public spaces. 

Yang says he would also put more resources towards Cure Violence programs by recognizing gun violence as a public health crisis, and he would also expand mental health counselling for police officers and mental health response units for people experiencing crises. 

At a March 17 forum hosted by VOCAL-NY, Yang said he supported decriminalizing marijuana, certain prescription opiates, and psilocybin mushrooms. “I’m open to the public policy impact of legalizing other substances,” he said. 

He said he would urge district attorneys to refuse to prosecute people for drug possession, promised to double funding for harm reduction and intervention programs at the Health Department, pledged to eliminate the Special Narcotics Prosecutor and committed to setting up safe injection sites in his first year in office. “People are not excited about having an overdose prevention center in their neighborhood but they wouldn't object to having a hospital in their neighborhood. This, to me, has the exact same purpose, which is to keep people alive,” he said.

Public Health
A key step to the city’s recovery is the rollout of its vaccination program, which is well underway despite early missteps. Yang has proposed a detailed vaccination plan of his own. Among the ideas he supports is vaccine verification through a phone app, a so-called “vaccine passport,” which has already been launched in one form by the state Health Department and about which there are significant questions related to privacy and more.

On Tuesday, Yang proposed a plan for so-called “long haulers,” people who survived COVID-19 but continue to suffer long-term symptoms. The plan includes studying and classifying those individuals and providing them with dedicated treatment, creating a dedicated mental health corps for long-haulers, and giving them financial assistance. 

Yang has also proposed a mental health plan for people recovering from the pandemic. That includes increasing the number of social workers, mental health providers, and school-based health centers in public schools. He also plans to expand mental health resources for health providers and the city’s HOME-STAT program for outreach to homeless people living on the streets and subways. Like with many other proposals in his initial platform, there are no specific numbers attached to these pledges, no targets or timelines or budget estimates.

Recognizing the racially disproportionate health outcomes of the pandemic, Yang has proposed amending the city Charter to require that the Health Department must pursue an end to racial health disparities. He says he would also increase staffing ratios across the city’s health-care system, invest in job pipelines for health-care workers of color, invest in nonprofits providing health care to marginalized communities, and require that racial equity competency is taught at public hospitals. Again here, there are no specific targets or timelines or budget numbers.

Yang plans to expand Neighborhood Action Centers, invest in doula care to supplement a state pilot program, and also expand NYC Cares, a program launched by Mayor de Blasio to give health care access to uninsured New Yorkers, especially undocumented immigrants. The mentions of these ideas are also without numbers.

Homelessness and Housing
Despite a massive increase in spending on homelessness, the de Blasio administration has struggled to bring the crisis under control, with more than 50,000 people in Department of Homeless Services shelters – though that number is down from about 61,000 – and tens of thousands of others in different types of shelters or doubled up with friends and family. Yang has proposed a series of solutions to the issue, some vague, while offering a few specific targets that include reducing the length of stay in the shelter system by one-third in a year, reducing the overall population and rate of return to shelter by 30% within two years, and doubling the number of drop-in shelter sites. 

According to his website, he will ensure greater coordination of efforts to ensure people are housed. “Through steady management, adhering to data-driven metrics, coordinated partnerships and accountability standards, Andrew Yang will make this goal the explicit mission of [Department of Homeless Services],” the website reads. His administration would also create a Clients Advisory Board made up of 40 shelter residents to provide feedback to the city.  

He also wants to cut street homelessness in half by increasing the number of safe haven beds from 1,200 to 2,000, increasing the number of psychiatric beds in public hospitals by 20%, and accelerate the city’s current pace of building 15,000 units of supportive housing, cutting the timeline down from 15 years to five years. 

To ensure that shelter residents have the ability to transition to permanent housing, Yang has promised to launch “New Housing New York 25,” which would create 25,000 new deeply affordable apartments, including supportive housing, including some through conver sion of vacant hotels not expected to reopen for business. The idea of converting such distressed properties into housing will be studied under a measure included in the recently-approved state budget. Yang believes that he can build at least 5,000 new units of housing in the first 18 months of his potential term with $250 million in funding, by providing grants and partnering with properties for long-term use by the city. 

Yang also wants to provide city incentives to landlords willing to place units back into rent-regulation, increase capital funding for affordable housing, support comprehensive planning for land use, survey vacant city land for housing, support expansion of nonprofit Community Land Trusts, and encourage the building of micro-unit housing.

Among other measures, Yang says his administration would invest heavily in eviction prevention by expanding free legal services in housing court citywide, putting resources in eviction diversion programs, and increasing the value of rental assistance vouchers for tenants. He has also pledged to increase the number of shelters for survivors of domestic violence. 

NYCHA
Much of Yang’s plan for public housing depends on the federal government investing tens of billions of dollars in a “Green New Deal for NYCHA,” a name Yang used in unveiling his plan alongside Rep. Ritchie Torres of the Bronx, who is a campaign co-chair, but was panned by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has written a federal Green New Deal for NYCHA bill. After Ocasio-Cortez tweaked Yang on Twitter for calling his plan by the same name, Yang said he wanted to learn more and the two are said to have spoken by phone.

But in addition to that federal investment, his platform commits to certain environmental upgrades to improve the public housing stock. It includes eliminating gas usage and obtaining electricity from 100% renewable sources, expediting green energy retrofits, putting solar energy on all NYCHA roofs by 2030 and providing air-conditioning to all NYCHA residents — much of which would overlap with expanded funding for green jobs for NYCHA residents. Yang also wants to appoint a permanent independent ombudsperson to oversee issues with mold and lead at NYCHA developments. 

Additionally, Yang opposes “luxury development” through the NYCHA infill program, though he is open to some new housing development on underused NYCHA land, and wants to see a change in state law to increase the number of NYCHA board members from seven to eleven, with more resident members taking those positions.  

Reopening Schools and Education
As with other more detailed plans, Yang’s schools policy only takes a look at a short-term goal of reopening school buildings that have been closed for much of the past year. He has said the city needs to provide bridge programming to help students with high needs, disabilities, and Individualized Education Programs to catch up with their peers. He has called for scaling up pre-kindergarten for three-year-olds, which de Blasio is advancing. Yang wants to streamline the approval process for daycares. And he wants to build more specialized high schools, at least two in each borough, with a holistic approach to admission that does not rely on the single test alone. He has, at the same time, come to the defense of testing for gifted and talented programs. “I’m not a get-rid-of-the-test guy. I’m someone who believes in teachers,” he said at a mayoral forum.

Yang’s campaign website promises that he will release more detailed plans for K-12 education, CUNY, higher education, and vocational training “in the coming weeks.” 

He has already advanced the idea of a Big Apple Corps, which will double as an education and job creation program, to hire 10,000 recent college graduates as tutors to teach 100,000 public school students who have been most adversely affected in the last year. It would be funded by the federal AmeriCorps program and supported by private philanthropy, Yang says without offering an estimated price tag. 

Economy and Jobs
Yang’s plans for reviving the economy include quite a few planks. The basic income program, the People’s Bank, broadband expansion, business spending vouchers, and expanding Fair Fares, the discounted public transportation program for those of limited means, are all part of the overarching vision.

Yang has promised to be a mayor who is especially inviting to big businesses and he has said that losing the Amazon ‘HQ2’ deal to build a massive campus in Queens was a mistake. He has also shown a deep belief in public-private partnerships and relying on the private sector to fill key gaps and solve social problems. He has expressed some support for raising taxes on the wealthy, but mostly discouraged tax increases on high earners and businesses, though he does want to see taxes raised on some of the largest corporations.

In an appearance before the Association for a Better New York, a business group, Yang proposed providing incentives to companies to encourage their employees to return to work in person, which he believes is particularly crucial for Midtown Manhattan. “We're going to have to provide either individual or employer incentives or employer tax breaks or incentives for workers who are commuting into the city five days a week,” Yang said. “Years ago there was an idea put out that was a commuter's tax, I am suggesting we are going to need essentially the opposite - we are going to need commuter incentives.”

Yang has not outlined what that incentive program would look like.

He has repeatedly said he wants to end property tax exemptions for Madison Square Garden, Columbia University, and several other major institutions, which he says would help fund programs; he supports state legislation to tax big-box retailers; and he wants to make the city government itself a startup incubator with $100 million raised from private sources.

His $3.4 billion “Borough Bucks” proposal aims to aid NYCHA finances, though it contains few details. “NYCHA residents can spend their Borough Bucks with each other, creating a trust currency that can multiply in impact through the city in the same way that dollars multiply in our fractional reserve banking system,” his website reads.

Restaurants and Bars
The city’s restaurants and bars have struggled to operate through the closures forced by the pandemic and Yang plans to help revive them with several ideas. He has proposed a temporary waiver on collecting sales tax and pausing the commercial rent tax. He also supports a proposal by the Times Square Alliance that would incentivize owners of vacant storefronts to lend outdoor spaces to neighboring businesses. He wants to make the City Council’s cap on food delivery app fees permanent and wants to allow restaurants, not third-party delivery companies, to hold on to customer data. He also wants the state to permanently allow take-out and delivery of alcohol. 

Nightlife, Tourism, Arts and Culture
Yang has been especially focused on nightlife and culture, from comedy clubs to Broadway shows, and the importance of reviving the sector, in conjunction with tourism.

Expanding on the City Council-created Office of Nightlife, Yang wants to create a new Deputy Mayor of Entertainment, Nightlife and Culture. He also has ambitious ideas for post-covid celebrations in each borough. He has proposed a Broadway to the People program to put up plays in public parks at a discount. His administration would also promote the arts by subsidizing rent for resident artists in buildings and encouraging content creator collectives, such as the infamous TikTok Hype Houses. He also wants to conduct a “music census” to determine how many artists work in the music industry in the city and support their recovery.

Yang has repeatedly emphasized that public safety and addressing quality of life issues are central to ensuring the city’s economic revival, particularly so in the theatre district. He has promised to address issues such as street homelessness and garbage collection – he has criticized cuts to the Department of Sanitation during the pandemic – as a means to ensure that people feel comfortable to return to Broadway. 

He also wants to create open streets outside theatres to allow them to sell food and beverages and continue social distancing measures. 

He will also launch “Always New York,” the largest marketing campaign in Broadway’s history, according to his campaign website and increase contract funds to NYC & Company, the city’s tourism agency, from $20.9 million in 2019 to more than $100+ million in his first two years in office. 

He has proposed partnering with private firms to buy hundreds of thousands of tickets at a discount to Broadway and off Broadway shows and other venues, which would then be donated to support the struggling industry. He would explore making the program permanent if it succeeds. He also wants to create a pilot program to make Broadway shows available on online streaming services. 

Yang praised the recent federal stimulus bill for including funding for the arts and theatres through the Save Our Stages Act. But the funding goes to venues and not to the performers. Yang wants to advocates for “Save our Stages, Take Two,” which would give grant funding to workers who were left out. He also promised to restore arts funding for the Department of Education that was cut during the pandemic.   

To aid the city’s financially strapped hotels, Yang will reduce the city’s hotel tax from 10% to 5% for the first three months of his administration, which equals about $50-75 million in tax revenue according to his campaign.  

Freelancer Benefits
Building on the City Council’s Freelance Isn’t Free Act of 2016, which gave freelancers and gig workers protections against nonpayment and retaliation, Yang supports expanding the scope of the legislation. He supports reducing the threshold for what would require a contract from $800 to $250 and lowering the required payment period from 30 days to 15. He also wants to set up freelancer hubs in all the boroughs, borrowing the idea from the Freelancers Union which runs a hub in Brooklyn. (The Freelancers Union issued a co-endorsement of Yang and Maya Wiley.)

Yang also wants to create a Universal Portable Benefits Fund for freelancers, an idea that is increasingly being supported by some of the largest employers of gig workers.

Broadband Expansion
The coronavirus laid bare the digital divide in New York City, where roughly 29% of people do not have access to high speed broadband at home, despite efforts by the city and state to address the problem in recent years. 

Yang has promised to spend up to $100 million each year to expand access to affordable broadband while also following through on efforts underway by the de Blasio administration to ensure connectivity at homeless shelters, NYCHA developments and all city buildings. 

Environment
Yang’s website aptly diagnoses the symptoms of many problems facing the city but often does not provide treatments or cures, and at times only cursory ones. It notes, for instance, “Mott Haven, in the Bronx, has an asthma hospitalization rate that is five times the national average. And the City’s vast coastal area makes New York one of the most susceptible cities in the world to climate change.” But he does not propose a specific plan for tackling pollution, climate resiliency, or environmental justice, though his website has promised one (one of those due “in the coming weeks”).

He has sketched some measures including scaling up the city’s Community Retrofit NYC program to help homeowners adapt their properties, painting streets brighter colors, requiring window screens, and expanding the CoolRoofs program. In his response to a survey of mayoral candidates by the Waterfront Alliance and the Rise to Resilience coalition, Yang also committed to investing in “new flood protection projects along the city's waterfront” and in the “rapid completion of existing efforts like the construction of dunes in the Far Rockaways.” He also said he would build parks in all neighborhoods. 

“I will make sure that city agencies adhere to the requirements of the Environmental Justice Policy Bill as we plan for and deploy capital for parks, recreational facilities, transportation facilities, and other environmental projects,” said Yang. 

Additionally, he supported creating a Climate and Community Development Fund to fund wages and apprenticeship programs in low-income communities of color and promised to require that all new developments should meet an “environmental justice burden” which assesses the historical impact on the community. 

A Yang administration would also fully electrify the city’s vehicle fleet by 2035, five years before the current schedule, and update zoning in manufacturing districts to allow commercial urban agriculture. There's no mention of how this would happen or what it would cost, however.

Mass Transit, Vision Zero and Open Streets

Besides emphasizing the need for municipal control of the city’s subways and buses, Yang has not put forward a plan for mass transit. “The Yang administration will build and maintain a reliable and comprehensive transit network both above and below ground,” his website says, without any specifics.

The sole measures he proposed are implementing Bus Rapid Transit citywide and expanding the Fair Fares program for half-priced MetroCards to low-income New Yorkers. 

At a March 25 forum hosted by several transit advocacy groups, Yang advocated for reduced speed limits, stronger traffic camera enforcement, and eliminating incentives from vehicle companies for delivery drivers to rush. He also argued that the Department of Transportation, rather than the NYPD, should investigate traffic crashes – that move is currently being pursued by the City Council. He also would not commit to achieving Vision Zero, eliminating all traffic fatalities or serious casualties, by 2024, believing it impossible. 

Yang also said he would cut city ferry routes that are underutilized while expanding the routes that have greater traffic.

During the pandemic, the de Blasio administration launched an Open Streets program, closing off dozens of streets across the city to vehicular traffic to allow for more open space for pedestrians and outdoor dining establishments. Yang wants to make the program permanent and will provide funds to local Business Improvement Districts to run it. In neighborhoods without BIDs or community groups that can volunteer, he will dedicate Department of Transportation staff to oversee a successful program. 

He will also simplify the process to apply for an open street and make renewals automatic, while expanding the program to areas that did not have any open streets this last year. 

And Yang has several proposals to ease commutes for residents of the “Forgotten Borough,” including restoring full overnight service on the Staten Island Ferry, expanding express bus service and resuming reviews of potential Bus Rapid Transit routes. He also pledged to build up the Access-A-Ride pilot program providing on-demand vehicles.

Yang’s administration will also study the possibility of creating a bike and pedestrian path on the Verrazzano bridge, consider protected bike lanes on Hylan Boulevard and Richmond Avenue, and push for accessibility upgrades at Staten Island Railway stations. 

Governance and Ethics
Yang has promised an open, transparent administration that makes decisions based on data and adheres to the highest ethical standards. He also promised to reform the city’s Freedom of Information processes so that requests by the public and the media are fulfilled in a timely manner.

But questions have already been raised about Yang’s own potential ethical conflicts since his campaign is heavily reliant on the political consulting firm Tusk Strategies. As City & State reported, Yang’s co-campaign managers, press secretary, policy director, and several senior advisers are all employees of the firm, which lobbies city government on all manner of legislation and policy matters, leading good government advocates to wonder whether they will be afforded special attention and access should Yang become mayor, and even how the firm and its clients may be impacting his campaign platform.

When asked at a news conference on Thursday about those concerns, Yang told reporters, “I think New Yorkers know that I’m someone who’s very independent in terms of my judgement. I’m going to do what I think is right for the people of New York City and I think that’s why New Yorkers are responding to my campaign.”

Immigrant Protections
Yang expects that several of his proposals – basic income, the People’s Bank, expansion of NYC Care – will benefit the city’s large undocumented immigrant population. 

He has also promised to baseline and expand the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, which provides free legal services to people in immigration court, and to expand language access for city services. 

Yang wants to use his leverage on the New York City Banking Commission to push all banks in the city too allow undocumented New Yorkers to create bank accounts through IDNYC, the municial identification program. “A Yang administration will ensure that banks that refuse to let undocumented New Yorkers open an account will not be allowed to serve as NYC Designated Banks, which are the only banks that can hold City deposits,” his website reads. 

Reproductive Health and Justice
Yang, who was recently heavily criticized for comments he made on abortion during his presidential campaign, has pledged to expand access to reproductive health services in the city “through a LGBTQ+ affirming, racial equity lens,” investing in both infrastructure and health care workers.  

He pledged to increase support to safety net health care providers that serve vulnerable and marginalized populations.

Yang also wants to crack down on “Crisis Pregnancy Centers,” which are anti-abortion establishments that often use deceptive practices. Under Yang, the Department of Consumer Affairs and Worker Protection (DCWP) would undertake rigorous investigations of these centers to ensure they comply with local law, while also increasing fines for violating the law and launching a public education campaign about the centers.

He would also increase direct funding for abortion services and expand abortion training for Health and Hospitals workers. His platform also includes a comprehensive sexual education plan, adopting the recommendations of the Sexual Health Education Task Force convened by de Blasio in 2017.

Note - this article has been updated to note that the number of people in DHS homeless shelters is about 50,000, not more than 60,000 as originally stated.