Before he was elected to the City Council, Brad led two not-for-profit, affordable housing and community development corporations where he built hundreds of affordable housing units and emerged as a leading housing policy expert.

In the City Council, Brad spearheaded and championed critical legislation to protect tenants from harassment and displacement, provide a right to legal counsel for tenants, create safe and legal basement apartments, and combat housing discrimination. 

Brad initiated, championed, and built broad community and political support for the Gowanus planning and rezoning process that will produce 8,500 new housing units, almost 3,000 of which will be affordable to low-income and working-class families, along with investments in open space, arts and industry, environmental remediation, stormwater protection, and NYCHA. Brad’s steadfast leadership in Gowanus – one of the only large-scale rezonings to have the overwhelming support of its local community board – is generating more new development than anywhere else in the City.

As Comptroller, Brad issued the City’s first social bonds, generating over $1 billion to finance over 7,000 new units of low-income housing. He initiated an investment in the acquisition of the loan portfolio of the failed Signature Bank that is preserving over 35,000 affordable rental units while yielding strong returns for the pension fund. He spearheaded the creation of “Responsible Property Management Standards” which are becoming a national standard for real estate investment funds with tens of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of units under management.

In his policy report “Building Blocks of Change,” Brad outlines the steps necessary to upend bureaucratic dysfunction at the City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development and dramatically increase the pace of housing development.