The leading candidate for New York City mayor promised to build affordable housing.
“Government
has to get out of its own way and let New Yorkers get to work,” former
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said, to cheers from the audience of union members,
elected officials and journalists at his March 2 campaign launch at the
New York City District Council of Carpenters’ building on Hudson Street.
“Let’s build thousands of units, and create thousands of new jobs, and
let’s do it now!”
Then he said something to make real estate developers tense.
“They’re going to be union jobs, of course.”
His
host that day, the carpenters union, has brought the fight to some of
the most heated policy debates on housing in recent years, at times
taking on a role once occupied by the Building and Construction Trades
Council as public-facing antagonist to the Real Estate Board of New
York.
Throwing the punches was its political director, Kevin
Elkins. During the two-year search for a 421a property tax break
replacement, Elkins pushed for higher wage floors and blamed REBNY for
holding up a housing deal. (Developers argue that union-level wage
requirements on multifamily housing result in fewer units being built.)
Then, in late February, Elkins joined Cuomo’s campaign. What, some wondered, is he doing there?
Based on fundraising totals, Cuomo has real estate in his corner, but the former governor has long counted both organized labor and real estate among his top donors and coalition of supporters. Construction unions and industry players have together contributed
about 40 percent of his nearly $10 million super PAC, Fix the City,
even though there’s not much he could do to update rent stabilization
rules or tweak 485x incentives. Nor is the consummate politician likely
to fawn over developers and property managers because of their
contributions, or out of remorse for denting their businesses by signing
the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019.
And though it may be similarly remote that Cuomo will kowtow to union interests, it raises alarms that he hired one of the biggest thorns in real estate’s side.
If there was one person who “would antagonize the vast majority of the industry,” a developer told Politico after the Cuomo campaign hired him, “it would probably be Kevin Elkins.”
But
even if Elkins isn’t there to irritate real estate players from an
official post in a new Cuomo administration, his connection to the
would-be mayor of New York City could lift his union’s stature further —
giving real estate a beefier opponent.
Birth of a nemesis
The
settlement for a federal racketeering case placed the carpenters union
under court supervision in 1994. The goal was to root out mob influence
on leaders and members, yet problems continued for decades, with
accusations resurfacing in 2009 that union leaders had taken contractor
bribes in exchange for paying members cash wages without benefits.
The
court has gradually allowed the union to shift various oversight from
its court-appointed monitor to its in-house inspector general, and if
the next year goes well, the union expects to govern itself.
Elkins
was not yet in kindergarten on Staten Island when the union’s court
supervision started. He got into politics in 2009, working for U.S.
Representative Michael McMahon’s campaign. He went on to serve as
executive director of the Staten Island Democrats from 2011 until 2014.
He worked as Staten Island borough director in the city Comptroller’s
office, serving under then-Comptroller Scott Stringer for three years,
at one point leaving to do communications for McMahon, who ran
successfully for Staten Island District Attorney after leaving Congress.
He was campaign manager turned staffer for Congress member Max Rose, a
Democrat who represented Staten Island and parts of southern Brooklyn
until he lost his seat in 2020 to Nicole Malliotakis.
In 2021, the carpenters union tapped Elkins as its new political director. Within a year,
the union said he’d helped “the carpenters union’s political stock
rise,” by overseeing the “first-ever member-led endorsement” process.
The union endorsed Mayor Eric Adams and a slate of City Council members
who mostly won.
“Elkins is ‘very talented, and he’s obviously very quotable.’”
Jim Whelan, REBNY president
The
union has made “strategic investments” in its politics department to
“ensure our members’ voices are heard loud and clear,” Paul Capurso, its
executive secretary-treasurer, said. “Kevin and the political team have
been a big part of that success,” he said in a statement. “But let’s be
clear — the real power of the carpenters comes from our members showing
up every day, building this city with skill, grit and pride.”
At
the same time, the state legislature was beginning to figure out the
replacement for 421a, a property tax break provided to developers of
multifamily housing set to expire in 2022. Under Elkins, the carpenters
union jumped into the debate, pushing for wage increases.
The
previous time the tax break was up for discussion, the Building and
Construction Trades Council had taken the public lead for the
construction industry.
Elkins developed an outspoken advocacy
strategy that included calling out the real estate industry on social
media, in TV hits and in these pages.
“REBNY turned around and
offered garbage,” Elkins told The Real Deal in 2023. “They’ve rejected
every compromise we’ve put forward.”
“With
or without REBNY, we, the unions, will start solving the housing
crisis,” he said on NY 1 in April 2024. “How come the union trades and
Mayor Adams can figure out how to build affordable housing with no tax
break, no wage reductions, but the smartest minds in real estate can’t?”
he continued. “If they can’t crack that code, but we can, maybe we
shouldn’t be asking real estate’s advice in the first place.”
“When’s the last time @REBNY
won a legislative fight? I’m being sincere,” Elkins posted on X in
November, after the passage of the Fairness in Apartment in Rental
Expenses Act, a measure that requires landlords to pay the commissions
of the rental brokers they hire and which the carpenters supported.
Friends and foes admire his tactics.
“There
are times where Kevin can be a little brash or direct, but I think that
has made him effective,” Vincent Albanese, executive director of the
New York State Laborers’ Political Action Fund, said.
Former
Republican Council member Joe Borelli, who has known Elkins for nearly
20 years but was often on the opposite side of Elkins in Staten Island
races, calls him “pug-nosed and tough.”
“Some
people can find that abrasive, but he’s also very direct and will look
for common ground,” Borelli said. “I’m saying that as someone who has
nearly come to physical blows with him.” (This was over the placement of
lawn signs during the 2007 City Council election.)
REBNY President Jim Whelan would say only that he thinks Elkins is “very talented, and he’s obviously very quotable.”
Coming to Cuomo
Elkins
declined to speak for this story, and it’s unclear exactly what led to
his joining the Cuomo campaign or where to look for his fingerprints in
proposed policies. The carpenters union’s PAC has given $150,000 to
Cuomo’s PAC.