Central Harlem 70th Assembly District Race: Shawanna Vaughn Profile

HARLEM, NY — Voters in New York City's 70th Assembly district, which covers much of Central and West Harlem, will see three names on their ballots when they vote in the June 28 primary election.

One of those names will be Shawanna Vaughn, a nonprofit director who is among those challenging incumbent member Inez Dickens.

Early voting runs from June 18-26. (Find your polling sites here.)

Patch reached out to all candidates in the election to create these profiles, asking for their positions on issues like affordable housing and public safety, and giving them the chance to describe their records in detail. Vaughn's responses are below.

Name

Shawanna E Vaughn

Campaign website

https://Sevforharlem.com

NYC neighborhood of residence

Central Harlem

Office sought

State Assembly

District, if applicable

70th

Party affiliation

Democrat

Education

Visalia business school, Columbia University

Occupation

Nonprofit Director

Family

I am the mother of two beautiful children, a 20-year-old son Malik Vaughn and a 9-year-old daughter Anya Vaughn Foriest. As a mother of black children, I live in constant hypervigilant fear for their lives in an America that does not treat them fairly.

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

No one in my family works with politics or government

Age

44 years old

Previous public office, appointive or elective

I have never held a political office.

Why are you seeking this office?

I'm running for every mother in fear of the children's life. I'm running for every disenfranchised person in my community, including myself. As a woman born to a mother who was incarcerated, I'm running for every little girl born in prison, every child who's ever been the foster care and every formerly incarcerated person such as myself. I'm running to close the income gaps and inequalities and housing by creating truly affordable housing. It starts at zero income and goes up from there. I'm running because I write policy and legislation and I have a bill called post-traumatic prison disorder which is a mass incarceration mental health bill. I'm running because poverty is at an all-time high which perpetuates going violence. I'm running for freedom and liberation.

Please complete this statement: The single most pressing issue facing my constituents is ___, and this is what I intend to do about it.

Gun violence seems to be the most pressing issue in my community that we're facing in this current moment. And I plan to with the dress this by creating plans to stabilize shooters and households that are in trouble. We have to have conversations with people who are actively involved in guns and ask them why and then we have to come up with plans to stabilize the problem. Create entrepreneurship programs. Create pathways forward relocate individuals whose lies would be in danger and we could save by finding them safe haven somewhere else. Making sure the people have adequate food and mental health services inside of every public housing in the city. That's not the entire solution but it's a start. We cannot keep getting cure, violence money and giving shooters T-shirts and thinking that solves a problem and gun buybacks. People need mental health help and financial stability and equity and saving their own lives. We need community centers back open and accountability of law enforcement and community hand in hand.

How would you address ongoing concerns about public safety in New York City?

I'll address concerns by doing surveys and community forms and bringing everybody to the table those affected by safety and those affecting the safety. These have to be active conversations that lead to legislation that lead to community partnerships and community negotiations to come to terms and create peace. The things I say are not popular but they are necessary. We cannot have change unless we address the elephants in the room. Which is the people that we leave out of the conversations. We make plans for people but we never ask them what they need. If we start we can create a safety plan.

Do you think the NYPD's response to the recent surge in crime will affect efforts at police reform and, if so, how?

I believe that we need to go back to community policing with people from the neighborhood in your own neighborhoods. I strongly think this would reduce crime. I don't believe in defund the police. My father was a detective from Bakersfield, California but I do believe that we have to shift the minds of the officers as they patrol minority communities. There has to be a way to engage. But I appreciate the efforts of everyone who is trying to do something about gun violence

What is one policy you would support to make housing more affordable in New York City?

Lowering the AMI to 5% that might sound crazy to some, but we truly will never have affordable housing in New York state unless we consider people who on social security disability and those who make under $15,000 a year. When some people don't believe they exist, they do. When the government fixes your income, you cannot determine where you live or dictate the structure of your life. Indignity this is called disenfranchisement. Decent housing is not a privilege but a human right.

Should officials do more to encourage New Yorkers to return to work in person? If so, how? If not, why not?

No, I believe that we've learned to work non-traditionally and we don't ever need to go back to what was before COVID. We need to forge a head into what we can create how parents can raise their children better using jobs that are at home that they don't have to be tied to everyday. I believe the best thing that came out of covid was showing the world that we don't have to be in offices and buildings to be productive and that the world will still function in totality and we can care for our families and our communities and still meet every goal of working.

What are the major differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

The difference between me and my other candidates is that I am not a politician. I'm a humanitarian and a mother and an activist first foremost in all ways. I am not a landlord or developer. I live in NYCHA and I'm fighting for protections and better housing like the people that I serve in my community. The difference is I have legislation on the table and I'm capturing the generation of my son. There are a lot of ideas that are out of touch with evolution and when we evolve change must come and I believe that I am the change. I want to have an office that is transparent and creates leaders. Everyone needs successes. I want to create a youth task force who write community legislation and take control of their destinies today.

If you are challenging an incumbent, in what way has the current officeholder failed the community?

I hate to use the word failed but when we put housing as a priority for private owners and not of public housing and people who need AMIs at 5% so they can truly have affordable housing, that means we all lost because Central Harlem only has 7% homeownership that's an atrocity in and of itself as we watch it be gentrified the people in office have been here the whole time. So for some it's a day late and a dollar short. I don't believe it's failure. I just believe they failed to act on the interest of the majority because when you live in a home and you own property that's your priority and it's not that it's wrong. It's just what that's what you know.

What other issues do you intend to address during your campaign?

I want to address foster care and that is his beast that is feeding prison when sex trafficking and it goes unspoken. I want to address how the DOE is abusive in its powers and contributes to ACS and law enforcement. I want to reveal my plan for public housing and how we need social services and peer specialists and trauma-informed therapist in every housing unit in the city. I would like to talk about post-traumatic prison disorder and how we need to to look at mental health and mass incarceration because it is a health crisis. I want to talk about how we address Black people being in dangerous species with no laws on the books to protect us. I have legislation ready to go and when I get this seat I'll introduce it. We have to talk about opening a drug use and putting safe drug sites in our community when there's no way you can do drugs safely and we don't have rehabs and wrap around services. And we need to address Ward's Island and the fact that it has been inhumane for over two decades and we need to find the funding to do a overhaul and put housing, not shelters on wars Island and give people dignity to reestablish themselves. These are some of the things that my top priority list.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

The fact that I got post-traumatic prison disorder even introduced and in committee. I've managed to run a non-profit for a decade and help mass incarceration, foster care and gun violence. The fact that I am a mother which is the most testimonial job anyone can ever have. And just as I fight for my children. So will I fight for the community's children? I will be the village keeper. I might not always have all the answers, but I promise we can figure it out together. I think a leader is someone who is transparent enough to say I don't know and then get resolution.

What is the best advice anyone ever gave you?

The best advice I was ever given was anything worth having is a sacrifice. The healing hurts. And there's a cost and you have to pay rent to be on earth. How will you pay your rent?

Is there anything else you would like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

I would like to voter to know that I am fighting to create change and I know that doing something new is scary but with change comes new ideas vivid as a painting we can create new Harlem together. For every constituent I am investing because I am you and you are me. I promise that it won't always be easy, but together we are better in transparency and truth to create a new vision. Our children's lives depend on it and we all deserve better than what we've been given which is pushed out silenced and not giving the power to decide what comes in and out of our communities. I want to give us all an opportunity to change that