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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. Now we continue our year-long series, 51 Council Members in 52 Weeks in which we're welcoming every member of the New York City Council touching every neighborhood of the city in this year in which a majority of the council is new because of term limits, and its majority female for the first time ever.

Today, we're joined by another one of those freshmen woman members Councilmember Shahana Hanif from District 39, which includes parts of Kensington, Borough Park, Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, Gowanus, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, and the Columbia Waterfront. I think I've got them all. Councilmember Shahana Hanif made history by being the first Muslim woman elected to New York City Council, and by being the first woman to represent her district, the first woman of any kind.

Hanif was born and raised in her city council district, District 39 to Bangladeshi immigrant parents. She describes herself as a CUNY alum, a feminist organizer, a Lupus survivor, and a cat mom. Hanif is the chair of the city council's Immigration Committee so relevant right now. We're going to start on that, with the busloads of migrants arriving in New York seemingly by the day. She is also co-chair of the New York City Council Progressive Caucus. Councilmember Hanif, so nice to have you. Welcome to WNYC.

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: Thank you so much, Brian. I just want to say you are a legend, a New York City icon, and I'm just so excited to be in conversation with you this morning.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, people on the radio can't see you blush, but you made me blush. Let me start on this issue, and then we'll back up and I'll ask you about your background generally and let people get to know you a little bit as a new face on the city council. You told us off the air that immigration and the asylum seeker crisis is one of your biggest priorities. Can you talk about what you and your team are doing on that front?

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: Yes, absolutely. It's relevant. I know New Yorkers are watching as we continue to welcome busloads of asylum seekers. We're over 13,000 now and I know we share the same values in ensuring dignified housing for them and wraparound services for them. This coming Friday, I'm hosting a oversight hearing to better understand the administration's operations and how exactly we will ensure that every single asylum seeker is cared for.

Days leading up to this hearing, we learned about a young mother, a woman who completed suicide, and so I'm going to try to better understand exactly what mental health services and how they are reaching this new community in our city, and if services are being offered in the languages that they are comfortable speaking. Then we also learned about the creation of a tent city in Orchard Beach, an isolated part of our city, a flood-prone area in our city, and a transportation desert, and so we want to understand exactly how this administration is anticipating housing, these asylum seekers, and much much more.

I'll have some FaceTime with the Office of Emergency Management, the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, representatives from the Department of Social Services, and I really want to cover a full range of issues, to see exactly how the council and this administration can continue to work together. This should be a coordinated effort, and also to call upon our state and federal partners to support us. We need more funding to care for asylum seekers and action to stop the flow of buses without coordination. There's much, much to learn and then push for.

Brian Lehrer: Is your concern about the tent city more than its tents, and you see them as inappropriate shelter? Of course, the mayor says, well, with 14,000 coming in such a short amount of time, they don't have the shelter space in the traditional sense. They don't have the hotel room so the tents are what they can do and that they'll be well equipped and it's humane or is it more the location in Orchard Beach?

I know Orchard Beach. I've gone to the beach at Orchard Beach. I've taken the bus the Bx12 to Orchard Beach to go to the beach and you're right. It is a transportation desert. You have to get on that bus and go for ways before you get a subway line. If the asylum seekers who are living there for a while were going to find jobs that would be a tough commute or other kinds of services shopping, et cetera. Is it more the location or is it more the tents which I think get more press or is it both?

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: Absolutely all of that. We should be concerned that the mayor is using this facility to undermine our city's right to shelter laws, and that is what I want to lift up in this hearing. Our city's right to shelter laws mandate that beds must be three feet apart for congregate settings. Of course, congregate shelter is also an issue here too. From what I saw in the photo that has been shared around what this will look like, it doesn't look like the beds are three feet apart.

There is a challenge here and I find it problematic that the mayor might be circumventing and going around our city's right to shelter laws. We should be working our hardest to make sure that folks who are in shelter are with a plan to be moved into permanent affordable housing. On the policy level, we should be working swiftly and urgently to legalize basement apartments. There's so much to be done here. Our city is one where one, we've got the right to shelter, and two, the right to guaranteed housing should be our biggest priority here.

Brian Lehrer: Let me ask you one more thing on this issue before we move on. I don't know if you saw that The New York Post had a story yesterday with a headline, Just One in Five Migrants in New York City are from Texas Governor Greg Abbott, despite Eric Adams' blame.

It says Abbott's office told the post-Friday that they had bussed some 2700 migrants to the city since August 5th, but then goes on to say the number of migrants avid bus to the city pales in comparison to the 4,230 that the Democratic mayor of El Paso asked her leasers office confirmed Friday had been sent by his administration, in an agreement with Adams. Are you aware of that agreement between Adams and the mayor of El Paso, a Democrat to have 4,000 of these 14,000 migrants come here?

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: I'm not aware. What I can say is that I've been to the Port Authority every week, at least once or twice during the week very early in the morning to welcome busloads of families with very young kids who are confused and terrified, and traumatized from this journey post fleeing their homeland. Right now, the political games that are being played, whether that be here in our city to the southern states, and particularly by Governor Abbott in Texas, has real human implications.

For me, as the immigration committee chair, as a daughter of immigrants, my father upon arrival was undocumented, this is very personal to me. I'm not looking at the political planning that's happening right now, I'm looking at the lives of these people who need our support and care.

Brian Lehrer: My guest, if you're just joining us, is New York City Councilmember Shahana Hanif who represents District 39, including parts of Kensington, Borough Park, Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, Gowanus, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, and more. We can take some phone calls for her at 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, or tweet @BrianLehrer. Now, let me back off the particular issue and invite you as a new member of council this year to tell people a little more about your background. You just mentioned a little bit of it, but where did you grow up, and what first got you interested in politics or public service?

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: Sure. Thank you for that. I am a lifelong first-generation Bangladeshi Brooklynite. Born in Kensington, which I now proudly represent. Kensington is home to the largest Bangladeshi Muslim working-class community in Brooklyn. It's an honor to one, have the opportunity to talk about Bangladeshis. We are everywhere. We are delivery workers, we are domestic workers. We are at your Dunkin and so to have this space and representation in City Hall is so, so meaningful to my community. I grew up in a household of three sisters.

We were all rebellious, and my parents really struggled of raising rebellious feminist daughters. I came into politics through Lupus. I was diagnosed at 17 as I was entering my senior year in high school. That really changed everything. I dreamed of leaving Brooklyn. I dreamed of leaving the city and the chains of patriarchy and surveillance within a very conservative Muslim community.

Lupus basically was like, "No, you're not going anywhere." It drew me into my community to really ask the questions around how do we care for one another and how does this city care for immigrant kids and folks with disabilities? Through the journey of Lupus, I have been a health justice advocate, pushing for better care in our very nebulous healthcare system, which was really challenging for my parents. I was uninsured when I was diagnosed. Then to translate and interpret Lupus and all of the ways in which it would impact my body and then our entire family and community was tough.

Over the years, I've learned how to read and write and articulate in Bangla, which is an important tool for me in my organizing. I then went on to becoming a tenant organizer at an organization on the Lower East Side. Working to build power of Bangladeshi and other Asian public housing residents to then coming into working in government when Trump was elected at my predecessor and former Council Member Brad Lander’s office, which really transformed everything for me.

Where I got to see the insides of how very few women of color are leading the conversation around the legislative decisions and processes to the makeup of the City Council at large where at the time, 10 or 11 women out of 51 were in the City Council. When leaders and community members and neighbors called on me to run for the seat, I took it very seriously. I took it with a lot of great responsibility. Now I'm the council member.

Brian Lehrer: Now you're the council member with that background, with Lupus, as you said, getting you into politics in the first place and with an interest, as you told us off the air the other day, in healthcare policy as one of your central interests, and you were just referring to it here on the air, too. I see that one of your legislative priorities in this area is paid sick leave for gig workers. Can you talk about that known as intro 617?

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: Absolutely. Oh, this would be historic. Right now, our current paid sick and safe leave only applies to workers classified as employees and exempt independent contractors or gig workers. What this legislation would do is expand paid sick and safe to at least 140,000 of our app-based workers, such as delivery workers, Uber and Lyft, drivers, Instacart shoppers. This would be transformative. This is a labor justice issue.

Then the safely part is a gender justice component of this legislation that would allow for anybody who is harmed by domestic violence or other gender-based violence has time to pay, time to take off, and safety plans or whatever else they need to do in order to be safe. This is going to be a fight. One of the biggest components or questions I get is like, who is going to pay for this? The onus would entirely be on these companies, these multi-million dollar companies that continue to exploit workers.

Last year, some of these major companies made over $2 trillion. The money is absolutely there. We began COVID, clamoring pots and pans, clapping for essential workers. This is how we really appreciate and look after essential workers who keep the city running, who, for me, at least with the delivery workers, one, are a big constituency in my district. We've seen a growth of Bangladeshi and Latinx delivery workers who one, live here, but also serve this entire city.

They've been eyeing due to our very dangerous street infrastructure and so much more. They've had to risk their health because they don't have any paid time off. Continued working through COVID and have been an extension to our favorite parts of the city, including restaurants. We owe it to every single worker to get paid when they're taking time off.

Brian Lehrer: Let's take a few phone calls. Of course, we started this segment talking about the asylum seeker crisis, and we're getting a few calls on that. Let's go to Lou on Staten Island. You're on WNYC with New York City Councilmember Shahana Hanif from Brooklyn. Hi, Lou.

Lou: Good morning, Brian. Thanks for taking my call. Good morning, ma'am. I heard your concern being expressed for these people and regularly so because at one time I knew people who were in their shoes. My question is, is there room in your district to take some of them? Are you and your voters ready to do so because it's wanting to express concern for them, but nothing else to help the rest of the city or the administration in housing them? That's my question to you. Do you have a space in your district? Are you and your brothers willing to take some?

Brian Lehrer: Thank you, Lou.

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: That's a great question and absolutely yes.

Brian Lehrer: Simply yes. Are you doing anything?

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: This is our responsibility.

Brian Lehrer: Are you doing anything toward that end?

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: Right now, several of the shelters that are in district have been welcoming families. I've been in touch with our shelters here and our schools to make sure that I have a better understanding of the resources that are missing and ways to engage my broader constituency. In fact, every single day we hear from constituents around ways that they can step up to support these new neighbors of ours. Right now, I'm still doing an assessment of exactly how many families will continue to welcome and what the needs are.

We're trying to convene with the support of our district 15 school superintendent, a district-wide clothing swap. We know that families need clothing. They need Metro cards and access to food. I feel responsible to ensure that folks who are coming into my district have access to what they need and that the mutual aid organizations and existing food pantry organizations and other community-based partners, which have also been on the ground at Ford Authority like Naseca and make the Road and others are continuing this partnership at our local neighborhoods.

Then, of course, broadly, I would love to welcome new shelters or emergency housing here, but the bigger issue for me is to make sure that our apartments are also being utilized, vacant apartments are being utilized, that the city's voucher program is reaching asylum seekers and that they are able to find housing. I spoke to this earlier in our conversation, Brian, about legalizing basements.

I have a resolution in the council calling on the state to pass and implement legalized basement apartments. This would really be for the health and housing access for all New Yorkers, but particularly meeting this necessary need right now. Lot is in the works, and I appreciate the question, and for me, the answer will always be yes.

Brian Lehrer: Legalizing basement apartments. Even though Hurricane Ida taught us how vulnerable basement apartments are in storms that are going to become increasingly frequent because of climate change.

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: Yes, we can regulate basement apartments to ensure that they're appropriately retrofitted to withstand future flooding. Right now, we know that many New Yorkers are illegally living in basement apartments, and those were impacted by Ida, we're living in basement units. This is something for us to move on with great speed.

Brian Lehrer: Ed on the Lower East Side. You're on WNYC with Councilmember Hanif. Hi, Ed.

Ed: Hi, Brian. First of all, I heard the councilperson say something about getting people MetroCards. The fact of the matter is, as you well know, Brian, thousands and thousands and thousands of people aren't using their MetroCard, they're using the transit system for nothing. This is part of the huge deficit the MTA has. You're doing a great public service with these interviews, Brian. I haven't heard one interview with a council person who was a moderate or centrist Democrat.

Brian Lehrer: Ed, you haven't been listening because we're going district by district in order. We had Councilmember Holden. We had Councilmember Paladino. We take them as they come. New York City Council is a very liberal body, but we're having them all and they're all expressing their views.

Ed: Right. I have no objection to that, Brian. I'm just saying there's a patent here. I think you're doing a public service. Frankly, both DeSantis and the governor of Texas are very annoying and are very doing a disservice. If they were smart, they'd be recording part of your interviews with the city council because if there ever was an indication that there's no limits to the number of amnesty seekers that can be sent to cities like New York and San Francisco, it's totally reflected in the interview with the current city councilperson you're interviewing. This seems-

Brian Lehrer: Go ahead [unintelligible 00:21:39]

Ed: The amount of money that I just want to say similar, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: Go ahead.

Ed: My impression is the only time basically you pursue the issue of costs with any of these people is when it comes to these kinds of people who can be characterized as victims. The minute anybody talks about providing more resources to the police department, that's when you go into developing a line about the hidden costs, the real cost of the city. Can we afford more in terms of the police department?

Brian Lehrer: Right. Ed, I'm going to leave it there. I'm also going to defend the way we run this show and say, we definitely talk about public opinion being on the side of police funding and robust police funding. That's why Eric Adams was elected in large part. We have covered that robustly. When it comes to funding services for migrants and a lot of other things, we definitely do ask about costs.

I'll ask you about costs right now, Councilmember Hanif, what about the burden on the city? Is there a limit? This is really a national context too right if you, if Democrats all over the country are saying, "Come on in, asylum seekers, as many as come. We want to house you and give you services." What does that cost in the case of the City of New York, which is what you are responsible for as a council member?

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: Right. One, I agree that we need the support at a national level, the city, and our administration. As I mentioned, some of the critiques I have or where I'd like to see improvement, I also recognize the hard work that our city agencies like emergency management, immigrant affairs, social services are doing day in day out to support the over 13,000 asylum seekers who are already here.

We need our state and federal partners to step up in helping fund our city's efforts. Then we've got a budget modification coming up in November where the council will have a better understanding of exactly how much the city will need in order to support asylum seekers and guaranteeing wraparound services. At my hearing this Friday, I'll be asking some of these budgetary questions to get some more clarity, and particularly in the creation of the tent city in Orchard Beach.

I'm very curious about what the costs associated are with this new facility, and then how this will interact or interface with the creation of the Navigation Center, which I got to tour earlier this month. There are costs here and implications. That's why I've got the authority of this hearing, oversight hearing where I'll be able to get a better understanding.

Brian Lehrer: Just one more follow-up on this. The caller from the Lower East side will know, if he does listen to the show regularly, that I've asked this question many times. Does Greg Abbott not have a certain point to make? Which is if, by the accident of geography, Texas is on the border, where so many asylum seekers are coming in, Texas shouldn't have to bear the brunt of those costs for those services by itself. The asylum seekers should be distributed or distributing themselves, or there should be some national program so that Texas doesn't have the brunt of that all by itself.

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: Well, that's not how the governor is contextualizing what's happening here. Asylum seekers in Texas are being treated like animals. They're not being seen as whole human beings. What the governor is doing out there is inhumane, unjust. It's been critical for us, Port Authority, one, for me to show up as an elected official in the city and to be in partnership with Commissioner Castro from the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs and welcome with smiles and handshakes and with the resources on the ground because that's not what they're receiving out there.

Brian Lehrer: Last question, end-to-end on a lighter note. As you know in our 51 Council Members in 52 Weeks series, we're inviting everyone to bring a Show and Tell item from your district something that you know well, but that others around our listening area might not know very well and that you would like them to know about. What is your Show and Tell item from District 39?

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: I am bringing this morning, my auntie, Monarata back home, and all the aunties who've helped raise me, who've worked so hard to raise families in a strong community, and in Kensington and in little Bangladesh. I come from powerful, gritty roots. Even though I've had tension and conflict with aunties at the doors during my campaign trail, Monarata aunty would always begin her pitch with, "It's our moral obligation to elect Shahana," or she would say, "It's our duty to elect our daughter."

Just this act of courage and what I think democracy will be in our city, what democracy is in our city just shows how our community came together for my win. The diversity of communities that banded together to support anti-racist feminist government to fighting for a much more representative democracy were women and women of color lead us.

Brian Lehrer: Councilmember Shahana Hanif from District 39, which include parts of Kensington, Borough Park, Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, Gowanus, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, and more. Thank you so much for joining 51 Council Members in 52 Weeks.

Councilmember Shahana Hanif: Thank you. Have an amazing day.

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