Carmen De La Rosa has a waiting room full of problems. Evictions, immigration paperwork, food insecurity, housing disputes. The council member representing Washington Heights, Inwood, and Marble Hill says her district office sees hundreds of constituents every week, and she’s not exaggerating.
“Our district office remains an open door in a high-need district where we see hundreds of people weekly, some on the verge of eviction and others excited to be civically engaged,” De La Rosa said.
That gap, between the person about to lose their apartment and the first-time voter wanting to get involved, captures something real about what it means to represent Council District 10 in upper Manhattan.
Housing is the district’s top concern. Full stop.
De La Rosa said her office has hosted town halls, funded programming to preserve and create what she calls “truly affordable housing,” and worked to hold bad landlords accountable. Her team also runs tenant organizing efforts and helps residents navigate the often brutal process of just keeping a roof over their heads. In a neighborhood where longtime Dominican and Latino families are watching rents climb, that work isn’t abstract. It’s Tuesday morning at the constituent window.
The office runs a surprisingly broad menu of services beyond housing. Veteran services, legal immigration help, food access, education resources, notary services. If De La Rosa’s staff can’t handle something in-house, they connect people to community-based organizations they trust. It’s a model that reflects the reality of governing a high-density, high-need district where residents can’t always afford to wait for an agency appointment six weeks out.
So what’s she focused on for the rest of 2026? Technology, in a way that might surprise you.
De La Rosa said she wants to explore how local government can shape the rollout of advanced technology to make sure it’s both responsible and equitable. She’s also looking at ways to use secure technology to support the municipal workforce, the city employees who actually deliver services on the ground. It’s an angle you don’t hear much from council members who tend to stick closer to potholes and zoning fights, but De La Rosa seems genuinely interested in the structural questions around how government functions.
The aging population question sits at the center of her district’s future, too. Seniors make up nearly a third of the population in the area she represents, De La Rosa said. She already supports senior programming for community engagement, enrichment, older adult services, SARA housing, and helps older adults access senior care. The question of whether she’ll commit to raising the share of the overall city budget going to NYC Aging, the agency formerly known as DFTA, is one advocacy groups are pressing across the council. AARP New York City has made it a priority issue this year.
De La Rosa’s response on that front was supportive in spirit without locking in a specific budget number. She emphasized dignity and aging in place, themes that resonate in a district where many seniors built the neighborhood over decades and can’t afford to leave or be pushed out. The political calculus on budget commitments is always delicate, especially with the city facing ongoing fiscal pressure and competing priorities.
This profile is part of a series reported by amNewYork, sponsored by AARP New York City, that gives residents a closer look at the elected officials representing them.
What stands out about De La Rosa’s approach is the texture of it. Not great on the buzzwords, honestly, but the underlying picture she paints of constituent services is concrete. Hundreds of people a week. Referrals to trusted local groups. Town halls on housing. An open door. In an era when constituent services have become a diminishing priority at some council offices, that’s not nothing.
The federal immigration climate is making the legal services component of her office more critical by the month. Washington Heights has a large immigrant community, and residents are navigating real fear alongside real legal complexity. Having a council office that can provide immigration legal help or connect people to someone who can is the kind of municipal function that doesn’t get much headlines but matters enormously to the people who need it.
What’s next is the budget. Mayor Adams will submit his executive budget proposal in the coming weeks, and the council will push back on cuts to aging services, housing programs, and the community-based organizations that do much of this work on contract. De La Rosa’s priorities put her squarely in the middle of that fight.