Brian Benjamin took the oath of office on Thursday morning to become New York’s lieutenant governor, and already he’s got a lot on his plate.
The former state senator from Harlem will work on COVID-19 vaccine outreach, rental relief and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) for the Hochul administration.
The latter issue is one very familiar to him, and the governor has asked him to lead a task force that will identify ways to better serve the authority’s residents, many of whom often wait months for service issues to be addressed in their homes.
New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin speaks after he was sworn in Sept. 9, 2021 in New York.
Darren McGee / Office of the New York Governor
New York Lt. Gov. Brian Benjamin speaks after he was sworn in Sept. 9, 2021 in New York.
“I have the most NYCHA [residents] of any senator in the state, and so I know very clearly the issues around the $40 billion-plus of capital needs that are there and growing quickly,” he said.
Benjamin’s placement continues the upstate-downstate balance in the administration, and Hochul said his work with the NYCHA and COVID-19 vaccination push will help build trust in the government, one of her primary goals in taking over for Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“I can’t do it alone,” she said. “I need someone at my side. Someone who also I rely upon for their wisdom and their guidance and their local knowledge of issues of what’s going on in the public housing in the city. And how we can do much better for the people who call those sometimes hellacious environments their home.”
While much of the lieutenant governor’s purview will be Gotham-based, he’ll still criss-cross the state much as Hochul did under Cuomo. He also told reporters he plans to run for the position in next year’s election and support Hochul as well.
And just as Hochul’s more moderate politics have evolved somewhat over the course of her career – perhaps most notably her approval now of New York’s Green Light Law, which allows the state to issue driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants – there will likely be a change in some of Benjamin’s positioning as well as he becomes a statewide figure.
That was evident in his remarks Thursday on the topic of rent relief. As most of the focus has been on providing assistance to renters impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Benjamin made the point to address the fact that they’re not the only ones affected by this crisis.
“We have small landlords who are literally cashing life insurance policies, taking out second mortgages on their homes because they don’t have the support,” he said.
Benjamin’s biography states he’s the son of union workers who grew from his middle-class roots to become an Ivy League-educated businessman in his hometown. After a short stint as an investment banker, he helped grow a minority business enterprise focused on housing developments.
However, during an unsuccessful run for New York City’s comptroller earlier this year, the New York Daily News reported Benjamin was a compensated board member of a company that was led by Andrew Neuberger, a financial executive who managed subprime loans for Morgan Stanley in the ramp-up to the Great Recession.
A spokesperson for Benjamin announced he was stepping down from NextPoint Acquisition Corp. after news broke that it added Liberty Tax and LoanMe to its portfolio.
Liberty Tax settled with the federal government two years ago after being investigated for not protecting against people filing fraudulent tax claims. LoanMe, meanwhile, offers loans with extremely high-interest rates.
On Thursday, he was also asked about a report from The City claiming that he continued to own stock in LoanMe even after leaving NextPoint. The return on his $4,100 investment was approaching 20-1, according to the Tuesday article.
Benjamin did not deny owning the stock but spoke out about keeping predatory lenders out of the state.
“My record actually speaks for itself on this,” he said. ‘I support making sure that we don’t have extremely high-interest rates on loans for hardworking Americans.”
