Statement by District Council 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts
on today's City Council vote to override the Mayor's veto and pass the Residency Bill


“The lifting of the Residency Requirement for our members has always been an equity issue and, after a 2 ½ year struggle, this is definitely good news.

“Along with the 45,000 members of District Council 37 who will be directly impacted by the passage of Intro. 837, I thank our friends in the City Council for granting them the right to now live within the six surrounding counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Orange, Rockland, Putnam and Westchester.

“While we never expected a mass exodus from New York City, we have always been acutely aware of our members’ concern over the shrinking stock of affordable housing. In fact, several years ago it even came to my attention that several hundred of our members were homeless and living in shelters and there were others who came to us for legal assistance because they were in arrears on their rent, facing eviction or their homes had been lost or were in the process of being foreclosed. There are also a number of our members 60+ years of age who live with roommates in order to meet their monthly rent and stay in the city.

“While we have attempted to address many of these problems with a first-in-the-nation, city-assisted housing program and our unique Municipal Employees Legal Services program, the magnitude of the housing problems meant that something else needed to be done. Today, the City Council has taken a major step in addressing a very important problem faced by the men and women who devote their lives to making sure this city runs smoothly.

“This measure has always been about choice, fairness, equity and the non-discriminatory nature of the application of the Residency Requirement

“We thank Speaker Christine Quinn and the members of the Council who voted for this measure by a vote of 50-1 and overrode the Mayor’s veto by a vote of 47 to 0.”

District Council 37 is New York City's largest public employee union, with 125,000 members and 50,000 retirees.