City/Town of Residence
Brooklyn
Current Political Office (if applicable)
Council Member of the 39th District
Education
BA, Brooklyn College
Experience and Qualifications
I grew up in this community and have served our district my entire professional life. As your council member, I’ve delivered hundreds of units of affordable housing, pushed back against Eric Adams’ cuts to schools, parks, and libraries, won millions in investments for our neighborhood schools, and built protected bike lanes and other traffic calming measures. In City Hall, I’ve passed legislation protecting abortion rights, trans healthcare, workers, and immigrant New Yorkers.
Community Involvement
As a college student, I organized my Kensington community to successfully build important community gathering spaces and public plazas, and worked as an interfaith organizer, bridging the divide between my Muslim community and our Jewish neighbors. Before I ran for office, I served as Director of Community Organizing in the office of my predecessor, Brad Lander, and ran participatory budgeting, which allows this community to have a say in how discretionary funds are spent.
Party Affiliation
Democrat
Key Endorsements
NY Working Families Party, AOC, Brad Lander, Zohran Mamdani, Antonio Reynoso, Jumaane Williams, Andrew Gounardes, Ruth Messinger. Planned Parenthood GNYV PAC, 4 Democratic Clubs, and 12 Labor Unions.
CampaignWebsite
shahanafrombk.com
Instagram
@shahanafrombk
Affordability: The skyrocketing cost of housing is forcing families to leave the neighborhoods they call home. Simultaneously, the cost of childcare has made it too expensive for families to stay in New York City.
Trump’s attacks on NYC communities: President Trump has targeted LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, immigrants, women, and the working class. His actions have undermined longstanding civil rights protections and critical programs that New Yorkers rely on.
Quality of life: From street safety, to sanitation, to scaffolding, there are a multitude of hyperlocal issues that make life in Brooklyn more challenging than it needs to be.
Affordability: As a housing organizer, I built tenant power and helped keep New Yorkers in their homes. In the Council, I passed a law to end forced broker fees, strengthened NYCHA investments, and created new affordable units in District 39. I am currently urging the Rent Guidelines Board to issue a rent freeze for rent stabilized tenants. If re-elected, will continue to advance legislation that protects tenants and builds more truly affordable housing. And I will work to make free public childcare a reality. I am working hard to ensure that every family who applies for a public 3K seat this year gets one at a high-quality provider in their neighborhood. I’m also working closely with allied colleagues to establish 2-Care a new public childcare program for 2 year olds.
Fighting Trump: As Progressive Caucus Co-Chair, I have led the fight against Trump in City Hall. I wrote and passed the nation’s most robust municipal abortion protections, created a $1 million abortion access fund, and established new protections for patients accessing gender-affirming care. As Chair of the Immigration Committee, I fought xenophobic housing and workplace discrimination. In my next term, I will work to pass measures to protect New Yorkers including my bill the NYC Trust Act to stop city agencies from collaborating with Trump’s cruel family separation agenda.
I will continue to deliver excellent constituent services to help my constituents deal with issues big and small. I’m working to improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers by making all intersections more visible through universal daylighting. I’ll continue working closely in neighborhoods on a case-by-case basis to improve issues like trash collection, rat mitigation, and noise pollution. In City Hall, I’ll continue working on practical solutions to address the root causes of these issues.
Making sure every family gets a free, high-quality, and easy to access 3-K and Pre-K placement for their child.
Implementing the Progressive Caucus’s Crisis to Care plan to expand emergency mental health response capacity and eliminate waitlists for urgent programs.
Addressing gaps in services created by Trump’s budget cuts. We must make sure that the City steps in to make sure key programs like nutrition support, rental assistance, and after-school activities continue uninterrupted.
We need to bring down the cost of housing in New York City. This will require a thorough, longterm, and multi-pronged approach including:
1. Protecting tenants from harassment, exploitation, and wrongful eviction
2. Enacting a rent-freeze for rent stabilized tenants
3. Swiftly implementing the FARE Act to ban forced broker fees
4. Strengthening pathways to homeownership and homeowners services
5. Adding more permanent affordable units to our housing stock
6. Preserving affordable units through social housing programs
The real estate lobby continues to work to rig the housing market against renters and middle-income homeowners. In order to make housing affordable, the City and State government need to prioritize the people over the profiteers by strengthening protections for tenants and combating the shortage of affordable housing.
Candidate has not yet responded.
Candidate has not yet responded.
Candidate has not yet responded.
Candidate has not yet responded.
Candidate has not yet responded.
City/Town of Residence
Brooklyn
Education
University of Oxford, PhD in Politics; Columbia University, MA in Political Development; Stanford University, BA in International Relations
Experience and Qualifications
I’m an advocate, mom, author, educator, and Senior Research Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice. I’ve dedicated my career to making democracy work better for those it’s meant to serve, including combating political violence, getting big money out of politics, and creating more responsive government processes. I have previously worked in the Middle East with the United Nations Development Program on Palestinian institution building. I’ve taught Political Science at NYU & American University.
Community Involvement
I’m proud to have served on the Executive Boards of both of the major Democratic clubs that cover the neighborhood, IND and CBID, where I’ve been able to work on behalf of amazing candidates from the local judicial district committee level to the presidential level. I canvassed for Proposition 1 with IND in the third trimester of my pregnancy this past fall. I’ve also been active in and a regular attendee of Community Board 6.
Party Affiliation
Democratic Party
Key Endorsements
Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID), Independent Neighborhood Democrats (IND), NYC Organization of Public Service Retirees, Former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz
CampaignWebsite
mayaforcouncil.com
Instagram
instagram.com/mayaforcouncil
Since I launched this campaign in December, I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with thousands of voters while knocking doors, making calls, and at community events throughout the 39th District. The top three issues have remained consistent throughout all of those conversations: a lack of responsive and effective constituent services, the affordability crisis, and standing up to Trump’s assaults on our basic rights and essential government programs.
Constituent Engagement: We need the basics—a continuously open district office and constituent requests that are addressed promptly. But I‘ll do more. I’ll hold monthly town halls and weekly mobile office hours that meet people where they are.
Affordability Crisis: As a renter and mom, I feel the dual crises of affordable housing and childcare. We must build new housing that centers affordability and takes a creative approach to mixing residential and commercial buildings to meet community needs. We need to fully fund 3-K, fund 2-K, and move towards universal free childcare.
Trump & Democracy: I’ve spent my career fighting for democracy and I’ll bring this expertise to City Hall. As a Sr. Fellow at the Brennan Center, I work on making voting more accessible, strengthening oversight and legislative processes, and bolstering our checks and balances. In the Council I’ll fight against Trump’s plans to strip away basic rights, cut funding for essential services, and target immigrants.
If elected, my top priority will be having a fully staffed district office with experienced and culturally competent staff—with a heavy focus on constituent services capacity. My second priority will be to have my weekly mobile office hours program up and running. I want to have held mobile office hours in each of the neighborhoods in the district within my first 100 days in office, to meet constituents where they are and ensure they know that they have a Council Member who is there for them, whether they need help with a major problem or a small issue. My third priority will be working with leadership to craft and introduce a bill to create a fast-track permitting system for certified childcare providers to open new daycare centers. Too many well-qualified providers get wrapped up in the red tape of the permitting process. We need more daycare seats and we need them now.
My most ambitious goal is to play a significant role in achieving universal free childcare for every New Yorker. We’re facing an affordability crisis here in NYC and the exorbitant cost of childcare for babies and toddlers is a large part of it. As a working mom, I know how prohibitively expensive childcare can be for parents with just one young child, let alone for those with more than one child who needs care. That’s why my ultimate goal is to ensure that we have a city that truly works toward the success of all New Yorkers and passing universal free childcare would be a great leap towards achieving just that.
The largest impediment to implementing a universal free childcare system here in NYC is funding. That’s why we must prioritize fully funding our public education system in the city budget, including for early childhood education and childcare. As a Council Member, I will do just that.
