Salamanca to focus on Bx. housing

The Bronx has been plagued by poverty and poor health for generations, and despite an uptick in jobs and development in recent years, it was hit especially hard by COVID-19.

Councilman Rafael Salamanca said he’d call on experiences in fighting for fair housing and from working as a health care administrator to lead his native borough through the crisis.

“Whether we get a vaccine or not, this issue has such a dramatic effect on our economy, on our health care, on our development and housing that we’re going to suffer from this for years to come,” he told the Daily News on Sunday as he entered the race for Bronx borough president.

“I will go out there and will not only work on development but try to address the core issues that communities not only in the South Bronx but in the northern part of the Bronx are suffering from,” added Salamanca, who has represented a swath of the South Bronx since 2016.

A highlight of his term was passing a law requiring new residential buildings that get city funding to set aside at least 15% of their units for homeless people.

Like many other elected officials, he’s also carved out a stance against gentrification, recently bringing an end to Mayor de Blasio’s proposed rezoning of the area around Southern Blvd., a hotbed of development.

Salamanca, who chairs the Council’s Land Use Committee, said he’d work to transform the city’s approach to housing, saying federal guidelines currently make units billed as “affordable” too expensive.

He also teased a forthcoming 15-point plan to address issues from housing to policing.

“Housing and homeless is something that, in my belief, go hand in hand,” said Salamanca. “There’s always a gap in communication between the two … There has to be one plan for housing and homelessness.”

Salamanca, 40, worked as a heath care administrator for about a decade before becoming a district manager for a local community board.

He said his father died of the coronavirus in the spring.

“It just made me appreciate essential workers, especially nurses, who put their lives on the line everyday,” Salamanca said.

Council members Fernando Cabrera and Vanessa Gibson also are running for Bronx borough president. The Democratic primary is set for June 2021.