Melvin Rivera
Melvin Rivera is a Bushwick-born community organizer and tenant advocate running for the open NY-7 seat on the Republican and Conservative lines, with a platform focused on tenant-to-homeownership conversion (TOPA), an anti-flip tax, public safety funding, and an apprenticeship-based approach to public assistance. His campaign describes him as running independent of party loyalty.[13][14]
Basic profile — the most important sourced facts we found.
On the record — official actions
- actionSays his community organizing helped draft legislative proposals for an Anti-Flip Tax intended to deter housing speculators from quickly reselling properties in working-class neighborhoods; the bill has not been introduced in Congress as Rivera does not currently hold office.[14]
Positions on the issues
- SupportsStronger rent regulation and tenant protections
Supports tenant-protection measures including cease-and-desist zones against real-estate speculators and an anti-flip tax, framed as protecting existing tenants from displacement.[13]
“Shift from renter instability to ownership, stability, and community control.”
- MixedExpand immigration enforcement and deportations
Supports a 'balanced' enforcement approach targeting people with criminal records and requiring warrants, while also proposing expedited Green Card pathways for long-term, law-abiding, tax-paying residents.[13]
“A system that is lawful, humane, and practical.”
- SupportsIncrease police funding and staffing
Proposes fully funding police departments with higher officer salaries and added mental-health support.[13]
- SupportsLoosen zoning rules to build more housing
Supports tenant-to-owner conversion policy (TOPA) as a path to expand homeownership and community-controlled housing rather than new market-rate construction specifically.[13]
In their words — priorities
- "Shift from renter instability to ownership, stability, and community control."[13]
- Proposes a Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) giving tenants first right to purchase their building, plus an anti-flip tax and expanded cease-and-desist zones against real-estate speculators.[13]
- Calls for fully funding law enforcement with increased officer salaries and mental-health support alongside community engagement.[13]
- "[a] competitive economy that works for workers, not monopolies."[13]
Background
- Born and raised in Bushwick, Brooklyn; began community work as a teenager at the YMCA and has been a community activist for more than 30 years.[14]
- Helped organize tenants across nine buildings targeted by New York City's Third-Party Transfer program after a management company (Riseboro) allegedly mismanaged his rent-stabilized building toward foreclosure in 2019, and says the effort protected the affordability of more than 150 rent-stabilized apartments.[14]
- Assisted families displaced by Hurricane Maria in 2018 with housing, benefits, and employment connections.[14]
- Served in the NYC Mayor's Public Engagement Unit during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 as a Social Distance Ambassador.[14]
- Helped organize community opposition to National Grid's proposed North Brooklyn Pipeline in 2020.[14]