Ben Kallos

Benjamin J. Kallos (born February 5, 1981) is an American attorney and politician who represented the 5th district of the New York City Council from 2014 to 2021, and now serves in the Executive Office of the President in the United States Digital Service.

He is a Democrat.

The district includes East Harlem, Midtown, Murray Hill, Roosevelt Island and the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Kallos is also a software developer who ran his office on Agile, and has office hours at green markets.

Kallos was born in Florida.

He attended Rabbi Arthur Schneier Park East Day School.

He then attended Bronx High School of Science, SUNY Albany as an undergraduate, and SUNY Buffalo School of Law.

Kallos has served as a Manhattan Community Board 8 public member and statewide coordination committee chair for the New York Democratic Lawyers Council from 2005 to 2013.

He was also chief of staff for New York State Assemblymember Jonathan Bing from 2007 to 2009, director of policy for then New York City Public Advocate Mark Green in 2009, and executive director of New Roosevelt from 2010 to 2013.

On September 10, 2013, Kallos won the Democratic primary for the 5th New York City Council District, receiving 46% of the vote to Micah Kellner's 39% and Ed Hartzog's 15%.

He won the general election on November 5, 2013, and assumed office on January 1, 2014.

In 2014, Kallos refused $64,000 in additional income, and authored legislature to ban outside income and make the job of Council Member full-time.

In 2015, Kallos proposed legislation to allow low-income residents on the Upper East Side to automatically receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other government social safety benefits.

In 2015, Kallos worked with ProPublica and a whistle blower on an investigation that found 50,000 affordable apartments that were not registered by landlords who were receiving tax breaks, and might have been charging tenants too much rent.

Kallos authored legislation to force landlords receiving tax benefits for affordable housing to register every unit and allow anyone to apply for them online.

In 2015, Kallos organized a community initiative to fight a proposed 950-foot "supertower" that would expand the neighborhood known as Billionaire's Row.

He opposed legislation that would weaken the city's landmarks law in 2015.

In 2016, Kallos worked with Intuit to release their Benefits Assist software as free and open-source software.

Later that year, Kallos proposed legislation to get scaffolding down in a timely manner.

In 2016, Kallos, who is an ERISA attorney, authored legislation with Public Advocate Letitia James and Mayor Bill de Blasio for the city to automatically enroll employees in individual retirement accounts at no cost to employers who did not offer a retirement plan themselves.

The law passed in 2021 and was then extended statewide.

In 2016, Kallos wrote a law to make New York City's budget available online, which he worked with Mayor de Blasio to implement.

In 2016, Kallos joined a grass roots rezoning effort to prevent the construction of more supertowers to protect existing affordable housing.

On November 5, 2017, Kallos won reelection to another term with 81% of the vote.

Kallos has been ranked one of the best lawmakers on the New York City Council, with City & State giving him fifth place in 2017 and seventh in 2020.

He introduced a law in 2017 to lower the noise allowed from construction during the evenings and weekend.

The law passed in 2017, requiring most landlords in New York City to register their affordable housing.

This rezoning effort successfully halted the construction of another luxury skyscraper in 2017.

Kallos led a rezoning that banned the use of mechanical voids as a loophole for luxury housing developments to exceed height limitations by "give billionaires better views".

In 2017, Kallos authored laws to reform a zoning relief board and force developers to honor commitments for promised public spaces.

He was named one of the most powerful politicians in New York City in 2018, 2019, and 2021.

He is well known as an advocate for student loans, affordable housing and government transparency, as well as for keeping "big money" out of government.

In 2018, Commercial Observer named him as one of the "Officials Who Call the Shots on Real Estate."

Kallos was endorsed by the editorial board of The New York Times, who praised his "fresh ideas", including proposals to forgive student loans, incentivize the construction of more affordable housing, reform congestion pricing and expand access to broadband service.

He chaired the Committee on Contracts and was a member of the committees on Education, Governmental Operations, Oversight and Investigations, and Women and Gender Equity.

On March 22, 2018, Kallos authored the law that raised the cap on public funds received by participating candidates to establish a full public matching system that matches every small dollar donated by New York City residents at a rate of 8 to 1.

The new public matching system worked to elect the first majority women City Council.

In 2019, Kallos opened supportive housing for homeless women and children in the Upper East Side.

In 2020, as part of the legislation, the city began to add back hundreds of thousands of existing affordable apartments and launched an affordable housing portal, Housing Connect.

Kallos has advocated against the construction of new luxury tower developments in New York City.