Campaign Insiders: A Q&A with AD-66 Candidate Furhan Ahmad

The campaign prioritizes healthcare, human dignity and quality of life, and housing. It aims to deliver care before crises occur, including affordable prescriptions, home care for seniors, and gender-affirming care. It also seeks safer neighborhoods through real mental health crisis response, protections for small businesses and cultural spaces, and smart public safety reform. The campaign emphasizes keeping seniors, families, and LGBTQ+ youth housed in their communities. The decision to run follows listening across senior centers, places of worship, food pantries, parks, and homes, identifying a cycle where housing instability becomes a health crisis and care gaps lead to public safety calls. If elected, it plans to expand SCRIE and DRIE, pass Good Cause Eviction expansion, fully fund the Housing Access Voucher Program, and pass the Commercial Rent Stabilization Act.

"I am fighting for care that reaches people before a crisis hits, including affordable prescriptions, home care for seniors, and gender-affirming care. I am working to build safer neighborhoods through real mental health crisis response, protections for small businesses and cultural spaces, and smart public safety reform. And I am committed to keeping seniors, families, and LGBTQ+ youth housed in the neighborhoods they call home."

"After retiring from the FDNY, I spent six months listening in senior centers, places of worship, food pantries, parks, and living rooms across District 66. What I heard was urgent and consistent: people are caught in a cycle where one crisis feeds the next. Housing instability becomes a health crisis. Gaps in care become public safety calls. I am running to break that cycle and address the root causes holding our community back."

"Affordability and stability. Seniors are choosing between prescriptions and rent. Families are one missed paycheck from eviction. Small businesses that define lower Manhattan are being priced out. I will fight to expand SCRIE and DRIE, pass Good Cause Eviction expansion, fully fund the Housing Access Voucher Program, and pass the Commercial Rent Stabilization Act. Stability is the foundation. Without it, every other problem in this district gets harder to solve."

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