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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We're joined now by Christine Quinn, who in addition to being the president and CEO of Win, the largest provider of shelter and supportive services for homeless families in New York City, she was booked to talk about the pushback on some of the homeless shelters around the city originally for this segment. Besides being a former City Council speaker and mayoral candidate, she is the executive committee chair of the New York State Democratic Committee, which automatically makes her a member of the National Committee and a delegate to the Convention. With the news, we'll start there. Chris Quinn, always good to have you on the show. Welcome back to WNYC.

Christine Quinn: Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Do you want to share your thoughts first about President Biden's decision to quit the campaign?

Christine Quinn: I think the decision the president made was without question, the right decision. That said, it's sad. He's had such a tremendous career, a fighter for the underdog, a fighter for the working class. To see his career end on this down note makes me sad because I feel a lot of gratitude to him for many things, but not the least of which was when he said he was for marriage equality and then a little bit forced Obama to be for marriage equality.

That said, I hope there will be a real effort to give him what he deserves in the sense of tributes and accolades as he exits the White House because he has been really a great president and a transitional president who took the country from a very unfortunate, dangerous and hateful time under Trump when he was president.

Brian Lehrer: You as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, you and 4,672 other people if I have my math right-

Christine Quinn: [laughs] I think you do.

Brian Lehrer: -are the only ones who have the actual say now as who the nominee will be. Are you supporting Vice President Harris already as Biden's replacement?

Christine Quinn: Absolutely, I'm supporting the vice president. I think that she, of all of the names that had gotten floated in the post-debate period, I have no doubt that she is the strongest and the best. She's been in the room as they say as vice president and of all who might have run, the one who really knows best how things work. She's had distinguished careers as a prosecutor, as an attorney general, as a United States senator, and she'll bring that all into the White House. On issues that are really important for New York and important to me on housing and homelessness, she's really been stellar.

When she was in the Senate, she proposed and introduced the Rent Relief Act, which would've given tax credits to low-income renters to help them make ends meet. Just last week, she and President Biden proposed a plan to force corporate landlords to cap rent increases. Think of the Rent Guidelines Board every year in New York, this really would make a difference if it went into effect. I'm really excited about her candidacy. The debate was obviously a critical point. Think back to 2020, she's a dynamite debater. Trump is not going to be able to land a glove on her.

Brian Lehrer: Some of our listeners who have concerns about this process are saying, if I can summarize a lot of texts and calls that are coming in and put them all together, it's a version of yes, Kamala Harris is extremely qualified with the experience as vice president, US senator, attorney general of California, all the things she's done, all the things she knows, extremely qualified and would probably do a really good job. There's only one salient question right now, and that is who is the best to beat Donald Trump?

That we don't really know that without a little process where Harris is qualified, some of the governors who might also be qualified, maybe another senator or two get in there for a few days or a few weeks and see how the public responds to them because job number one, job number only right now many people would say is defeat Donald Trump and we don't know if she's the best. How would you respond to that?

Christine Quinn: I agree. Job number one is defeating Donald Trump. His first term was scary. I think his second term, he would be unbridled and it would be terrifying. Now, we're seeing some of the governors, the governor of California, governor of Kentucky, people whose names had been thrown around, we're seeing them already endorse Vice President Harris. You can't create a full primary with no other candidates. It really looks like everyone-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: It's really on them. Why do you think they all coalesced around Kamala Harris in 24 hours?

Christine Quinn: One, because she's a dynamite candidate and will do very, very well. Two, I think there is an understanding that we've lost time since the debate. To have a, I'm just going to call it full primary for lack of a better description, we'll waste more time and we do not have any time to waste. The Convention is three weeks away. It will become November before you know it. We have to get her out there campaigning.

We have to have her apparatus raise money. That is all critical. Trump was banking on Biden, and they had a whole plan in place for him to run against Biden. We need to move quickly. They are a little flat-footed right now. We need to get them while they are flat-footed. I think that delay, which would become infighting, even if people promise not to, it's hard to campaign without being critical and that would have worked against us.

Brian Lehrer: Do you know when the New York delegation to the Convention will actually vote on an endorsement? I know the Convention itself doesn't start until August 19th, but I understand that several state delegations have already pledged their delegates to Harris. I'm not sure exactly how that works. Somebody told me that New York's delegation may be voting on that today. As a member of that delegation, can you confirm that?

Christine Quinn: No, I cannot confirm that. Jay Jacobs, our chair, came out in support of the vice president yesterday. I don't have any information that we're voting today. I think we will likely vote, obviously, before we get to Chicago. There's ways to do that that are in place now post-pandemic virtually. I would assume it would be soon, but I don't think it's today. If it is today, I missed an email, but I don't think it's today.

Brian Lehrer: Robin in Yorktown, you're on WNYC with Christine Quinn. Hi, Rob.

Robin: Hi. How is it going? I am very excited and happy that Joe dropped out. I am more excited for Kamala Harris than I thought I would be. My biggest concern with her is just the liability of tying her to the economy, which I think a lot of swing voters, I don't agree with them, but that was their big concern with Joe Biden. Since she's part of his administration, I worry about that in terms of getting people that can beat Trump. I would love it if it was her and Josh Shapiro. I just want to say one thing, and I heard this last week I think on [unintelligible 00:07:58] NPR in the morning.

Someone who did not want Joe to drop out was like, "Who is going to be our candidate until the Convention?" That was the first time that I took pause with thinking that Joe should drop out. I do feel like we need to get a candidate as soon as possible. It does make sense that it's Harris and I feel like the enthusiasm is going to grow because Joe's dropped out.

Brian Lehrer: Rob, thank you very much.

Christine Quinn: I'm glad to hear that. I do just want to say your recognition of the economy and inflation is key. Your recognition that we have not done a good job, putting that issue out there in the president and vice president's actual success in that area, the way we're talking about it, it isn't permeating and we have to fix that.

Brian Lehrer: Make your case in short form. We've been covering the inflation issue a lot on this show because it does poll as number one among a lot of Americans of both parties and independents. How would you make your elevator pitch considering what's happened the last four years that now Kamala Harris presumably is better situated to fight inflation than Trump?

Christine Quinn: I think we have to come out with a messaging that really shows that yes, inflation went up, but now it's gone down and it's back to what you would call, for lack of a better description, normal level. I think we've been trying to make that case with economists and we talk about [unintelligible 00:09:31] or whatever it was, signed a letter endorsing that perspective. I think we have to get the voice of average Americans. If I was in charge, I'd do a commercial with somebody who's at the supermarket and said, "Three months ago, I bought this butter and it was X because of inflation and now it's Y because of Biden-Harris." I think that real person voice will be more effective in getting the success out there and then assigning the success to the vice president.

Brian Lehrer: A few more minutes with Christine Quinn, former speaker of the New York City Council, former New York City, mayoral hopeful, these days president and CEO of Win, the largest provider of shelter and supportive services for homeless families in New York, and the chair of the executive committee of the New York State Democratic Committee, which makes her a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

You mentioned Harris being strong on homelessness policy, which is obviously your area of work these days. I heard that President Biden was reportedly going to introduce a national rent control program as part of his campaign. Are you familiar with that? Is that something you would support? Do you think we'll hear that now from Kamala Harris?

Christine Quinn: I think that is exactly what they introduced last week, which is a 5% cap in increases. It certainly, I think, would ring true to New Yorkers, that kind of a program, absolutely. That would make an enormous difference. On average, Americans are spending over 50% of their income on rent. Later on this week, I'll be 58 and I remember my father telling me when I got out of college, "One paycheck, a quarter of your income goes to rent, don't rent anything that's more than that." You couldn't do that now.

Brian Lehrer: Good luck if you're living in New York City.

Christine Quinn: Exactly. Anything that can help renters, and New York is a renter town. We have way more renters than we have property owners. That cap would make a big difference. It's really a piece of legislation that speaks to renters, to housing, to homelessness, but also to urban America because that's where you see the vast majority of renters. We know urban America won't just be forgotten by Trump, it'll be attacked by Trump.

Brian Lehrer: Let me ask a follow-up question because New York, which has this rent crisis, is presumably not in play in a Harris-Trump election. Most of the urban centers are not very much-- [crosstalk]

Christine Quinn: Philadelphia.

Brian Lehrer: The State of Pennsylvania is, yes, but I should say the New York State legislature couldn't even get a statewide rent control, what they call a Good Cause Eviction bill through in the New York State Democratic supermajority legislature. What makes you think this would be a winning issue rather than a losing issue in swing state America?

Christine Quinn: Because there's two different issues there, one, why can't we get it passed? Those deal with the powerful interests in legislatures, which actually everyday Americans are sick of and want government bodies, whether they'd be city, state, or federal, to focus on their needs. If you're a renter who's putting off buying your medication, or clothes for your children, or fixing your car because you have to put so much to rent, you don't want to know for why it didn't pass. You want it passed because it'll help you.

Brian Lehrer: We want to get your take before you go briefly, and we were originally going to talk about this much more as you know, but given the news, we shifted to what we've been talking about. The proposed shelter in Bensonhurst that's drawn protests, including the one where New York City Councilmember for the district, Susan Zhuang, ended up arrested for having allegedly bitten a police officer, there's always NIMBY about locating homeless shelters in just about any neighborhood. Have you seen this growing during the Adams years?

Christine Quinn: These kind of protests were actually pretty prevalent during the de Blasio era. I thought they had quieted down, but what we saw there was nothing short of disgusting. These protests against shelters, and we've been lucky to have times when our neighbors are disagreeing that we should be there, but we've had nothing like that during my tenure at Win. They are at their core racist because the majority of the people, and in that case, men in shelter are people of color or men of color. These protestors, they are saying not here because we are afraid of you.

Even though the truth is any man in New York is probably a paycheck away from not having any money and could end up in this situation, most of the men in New York, and as President Biden has so clearly articulated the issue of addiction and substance misuse is one that cuts across economic classes, races, everything, that is a large issue in these types of shelters. People who are protesting could really be saying, "There but for the grace of I, God, there for the grace of God, go a member of my family."

Brian Lehrer: One of the signs at the protest read, "Homeless shelters can't really help homeless people." Is there an overreliance on shelters, or is the only issue here really, or the major issue here that that neighborhood, Bensonhurst has no shelters right now and other neighborhoods are overburdened with them, which is why they have to go in places like that, at least to some degree?

Christine Quinn: The latter is the issue. Look, do we want to have lots of homeless shelters? No, we'd like there not to be a homeless crisis. Do we need more affordable housing? Do we need more supportive housing, which is permanent affordable housing with services? Yes, we need all of that. I wish those people at the protest would come to Albany and come to City Hall and fight for more affordable housing. They're often the same ones that say the building's too big, the buildings too this, the buildings too that. Even if we were building all the affordable and supportive that we need, people still need a place to live if they don't have a house while we're waiting for that affordable housing to be built.

Two, some homeless people have challenges, like some house people have challenges. In shelter, you have time to work on those, whether it's substance misuse issues, job training, English language, and on and on. At Win last year, we did a study, 91% of the families with children that we placed in permanent housing two years prior were still living there, had not returned to shelter. That's what shelters can do.

Brian Lehrer: Christine Quinn, president and CEO of Win, the largest provider of shelter and supportive services for homeless families in New York City, former City Council speaker and executive committee chair of the New York State Democratic Committee, which among other things makes her a delegate to the Democratic Convention. You have an interesting few weeks ahead of you headed toward the August 19th week Convention. Thank you for giving us some time today.

Christine Quinn: Thank you very much. Take care. Bye.

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