From Georgetown, This New York Urban Fellow, Alumnus Responds To Pandemic Housing Crisis

Press release from Georgetown University:

August 17, 2020

Isaiah Fleming-Klink (SFS’19), an Urban Fellow in the New York City Office of the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, has been working hard since the COVID-19 crisis hit.

The Georgetown graduate works on a suite of housing policies for Deputy Mayor Vicki Been, but his work expanded when the pandemic took hold.

“In the first couple months, the pandemic really changed the nature of my work,” says Fleming-Klink, who hopes to one day get a law degree and litigate fair housing and other civil class action suits. “When my colleagues were tapped to work on the city’s Food Czar’s team and coordinate production of PPE I would help both of them – and others on the team in various ways”

“Other times, I was being asked to find out what every other major city was doing on the question of, say, opening or closing beaches in the next 30 mins to include in a memo for Governor Cuomo.”

Fighting for Tenants

His work in New York City includes serving as a liaison between the deputy mayor and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), the Housing Development Corporation and the New York City Housing Authority.

Over the past few months, his attention has returned primarily to housing policy, especially as it relates to the economic needs and fallout from the pandemic. About 14,000 eviction notices went out to New York City residents in March alone, he says.

This press release was produced by Georgetown University.The views expressed here are the author’s own.