Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is one of the most accomplished active legislators in New York City, having passed more than 100 bills and resolutions into law. More than all Public Advocate before him combined.

Below is a sample of those bills. Those marked with * have been passed or introduced since 2019.

Reforming Our Criminal Justice System

• Passed the Community Safety Act, which helped end the decades-long abuse of Stop and Frisk by the NYPD. The law made it easier for New Yorkers to sue in state court if they are victims of bias-based police profiling, and also established the Inspector General to oversee the NYPD, the agency’s first independent watchdog.

• Passed the Fair Chance Act (also known as “Ban the Box”) law, which prohibits public and private employers, citywide, from denying New Yorkers jobs just because they have a criminal conviction or arrest record.

• Passed legislation to ban Solitary Confinement in city jails.*

• Passed legislation to require dyslexia screening in jails.*

• Passed legislation to require the NYPD Inspector General to review police misconduct cases and develop recommendations to improve the discipline, training and monitoring of officers.

• Passed a bill to require the NYPD to disclose the reason for vehicle stops.*

• Passed legislation to prohibit, with certain exceptions, THC testing as a condition for securing a job.* Aimed at reducing racial disparity / disparate impact on enforcement. 

• Passed legislation to reaffirm New Yorkers’ Right to Record police activity in public places, from a safe distance. *

• Passed legislation to require NYPD to report on investigative encounters.

• Passed legislation to require the NYPD to share body camera footage with the Investigation Department (DOI) within ten days.*

Protecting Low-Income New Yorkers

• Passed legislation to require the city to disclose, aggregate, non-identifying data on denials or terminations for public assistance. Aimed at ending unfair terminations and denials.*

Protecting Women’s Rights

• Passed the BOSS bill, which prohibits employment discrimination and discriminatory harassment, or violence, based on an individual’s reproductive health choices, including the right to a safe and legal abortion.

• Passed the Domestic Violence Victim Protection Act, which prohibits landlords from discriminating against victims of domestic violence.

Protecting New Parents

• Passed legislation requiring the city to inform birthing persons about respectful care, their legal rights available to them, including workplace accommodations, right to be free from discrimination, disability, paid leave, schedule changes, healthcare proxy, and other rights. Aimed at reducing injury and mortality, including the large disparity in treatment among Black mothers.*

Improving Workers’ Rights

• Passed a bill to prohibit an employer from retaliating against an employee who requests accommodation to deal with pregnancy, childbirth, disability, a medical condition, status as a domestic violence victim, a sex offense or stalking victim, or other reasons.*

Protecting LGBTQ+ New Yorkers

• Passed the Community Safety Act, which represents one of the largest recent expansions of protections for LGBTQ New Yorkers. (NYCLU; Gay City News)

• Passed a bill to require the Correction Department to start collecting aggregate, non-identifying statistics on housing placements, denials and involuntary transfers, based on a person’s gender identity.

Improving Transportation Safety

• Passed a bill to require the Transportation department to more quickly study traffic accidents involving pedestrians, and provide the data to the Mayor and lawmakers. Individual accident investigation determinations must also be sent to the Council and Community Boards.*

• Passed bill to increase fines for unauthorized use of parking permits/placards. Aimed at ending placard abuse.

Maximizing Affordable Housing Opportunities

• Worked with Picture the Homeless to pass the Housing, Not Warehousing Act. Williams’ bill in the Act requires HPD to report on vacant buildings or lots under HPD jurisdiction for their potential to be developed or using the buildings for affordable housing.

• Passed legislation to require HPD to report annually on certain information regarding the waiting lists of Mitchell-Lama housing developments.*

Protecting New Yorkers Without Homes

• Passed legislation to require the creation and distribution of a Persons Without Homes Bill of Rights.*

Protecting Tenants Against Harassment and Lack of Repairs

• Passed a law to increase penalties for landlords who fail to fix poor conditions. Require HPD to annually reinspect top 100 buildings with certain violations. Encourages repairs.

• Passed a law cracking down on individuals that harass home owners into selling their homes.

• Passed a law increasing the minimum apartment temperature to 62 degrees at night, during heat season.

• Passed a law defining as “tenant harassment,” the following behavior by landlords: lying about whether an apartment is occupied, lying about whether a unit is rent stabilized when applying to perform construction work, several failures to make major apartment repairs, falsely certifying that work was done to a unit.  

• Passed a law requiring HPD to audit buildings that receive tax payer subsidy (421-a of Real Property Tax Law) to ensure that the landlord registers units as rent stabilized.

• Passed a law doubling fines for landlords who engage in tenant harassment.

• Passed a law to increase the number of DOB inspectors that help ensure that our buildings are safe and structurally sound.

• Passed a law to make it easier for New Yorkers in need to prevent sudden eviction from ¾ houses. The law establishes tenancy by allowing residents to show a valid ID, government record, medical record, notarized statement, utility bill, or similar proof.

• Passed a law reauthorizing tax exemptions for landlords who improve their multiple dwellings, incentivizing keeping buildings in a state of good repair.

• Passed a law encouraging landlords to keep buildings in a state of good repair by increasing the interest rate for emergency repairs performed by HPD.

Protecting Character of our Neighborhoods

• Passed a tax break for small homeowners who fell behind on taxes due to the pandemic.*

• Passed the Racial Impact Study bill, which requires developers to study the impact of proposed rezonings on race and other demographics. Aimed at preventing and reducing displacement.*

• Passed a law to require that DOB notify residents when a developer applies for permits to build a new hotel.

• Passed a law to require that a building’s street number be displayed at each entrance/exit used by residents or visitors.

Improving Educational Outcomes

• Passed legislation to require the city to increase diversity in schools by recommending changes to policies, admissions and programs.*

Improving Immigrant Rights

• Passed law to require any city employee (or contractor) to protect New York residents, who are also immigrants, from having their identifying information disclosed. Identifying information includes contact information, sexual orientation, immigration status or religion. It also installs a privacy officer in each agency.

• Passed a law to require that all city websites include a language translation feature. The feature must be available in, at least, speakers of the city’s top-seven languages, including Haitian-Creole, Spanish and Russian.

Reducing Construction Site Deaths and Injuries

• Passed the Construction Safety Training Act, aimed at reducing construction site deaths, by requiring at least 40 hours of OSHA (or equivalent) training. Negotiated to provide several million dollars to provide courses through M/WBE course providers and experienced day laborer organizations.  

Protecting the Environment

• Passed the Green Buildings Filing Fee Waiver Act, which waives certain filing fees for one to three family homes. Encourages green buildings.*

• Passed the Catch Basin Clean Up Act, which require the Dept. of Environmental Protection to inspect every catch basin the city at least annually, and to unclog/repair clogged basins within nine days of complaint filing. The law aims to help alleviate flooding, especially in South East Queens and Brooklyn.

• Passed the Bike to Work Act, which discouraged driving to work. Allows employees to store their bicycles at designated places in the office building, and transport bikes on designated elevators.

• Passed laws to ensure that New York City’s energy conservation codes are stricter than our state code.

Protecting Consumers

• Passed the Used Car Fee Transparency Act, which requires used car dealers to post the full selling price of a car, including previously hidden dealer fees, along with the cost of any extras that go with the car.

• Passed a crackdown on illegal gambling operations, with a law that revokes licenses for arcades or game cafés for engaging in illegal gambling.

• Introduced the Credit Non-Discrimination Act, which would outlaw the practice of creditors discriminating in the issuance of credit on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, or any of the protected classes. (Pending)

Supporting Our Veterans

• Passed the Veteran and Active Duty Anti-Discrimination Act, which prohibits discrimination in employment, housing (rental or sale), public accommodations, lending, and license issuance, due to actual or perceived military service. For example, no longer can employers fail to accommodate New Yorkers deployed to war, nor can veterans be told that they can’t rent an apartment due to possible PTSD bias.

• Passed a law to require the city’s Department of Veteran’s Services to establish an online tool for veterans, and their families, to access available resources in one place. It also requires the city to distribute these resources at places where the city interacts with veterans and families.* 

Protecting Small Businesses:

• Passed a law to prohibit law enforcement from using the Nuisance Abatement Law to arbitrarily shut down bodegas, small businesses that New Yorkers patronize.

Improving Transparency in Government:

• Passed a bill requiring the Conflict of Interest Board to maintain record of compliance with the annual conflict of interest law for candidates participating on the city’s public matching campaign finance program.

• Passed a bill to require more than 18 city agencies to report biannually on efforts to help New Yorkers register to vote.

• Passed a bill to require the disclosure of anyone with a ten percent or greater ownership in an entity doing business with the city.

• Passed a bill to require the 311 to better handle high call volume during emergencies.