| Zohran Mamdani Appoints Long-Time Tenant Organizer (and Friend of PRRAC) to Direct the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants: On his first day in office, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani appointed Cea Weaver to as Director of the Office to Protect Tenants. Prior to this appointment, Cea worked as the Director of Housing Justice for All, a statewide coalition of tenant and unhoused organizing groups in New York that played a pivotal role in winning the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019, a generational set of progressive reforms to New York’s tenant laws. Housing Justice for All is a member – along with PRRAC – of the Alliance for Housing Justice. Earlier, while working at New York Communities for Change, Cea played an important part in work pertaining to the implementation of the court-ordered judgment in Mhany Management, Inc. v. Incorporated Village of Garden City, a landmark exclusionary zoning lawsuit brought under the federal Fair Housing Act. Through our work with Cea in the Alliance for Housing Justice and at New York Communities for Change, we have gotten to know first-hand how relentless of a fighter for housing justice, racial justice, and economic justice Cea is. We have the utmost confidence that she will continue to fight for New York City’s tenants in her new role.
New Jersey Court Upholds State Environmental Justice Regulations: On January 5, 2026, the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey affirmed a trial court decision rejecting a challenge to regulations promulgated by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to implement the State’s Environmental Justice Law. The decision is a significant victory for the environmental justice movement and underscores the value of state law innovations at a time when the federal government is gutting, rather than strengthening, the enforcement of both civil rights laws and environmental laws. Other news and resourcesHelpful Comparison of Bipartisan Housing Bills from the House and Senate:As we have highlighted previously, both the House Financial Services Committee and the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs have advanced comprehensive, bipartisan housing bills. Novogradac has a helpful breakdown of the differences and similarities between the two packages. A Break from the Parade of Horribles – So You Want to Read More Books?: If you’re like us, you may be thinking about reallocating a bit of your free time from binging prestige dramas (or worse) to reading for pleasure. We at PRRAC are here to help with our recommendations:
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