About

An effective, common sense leader with a proven track record!

Xavier and his sons join the daughter of Ann Petry, Liz Petry and her husband for the conaming of Ann Petry Place

Xavier Santiago is a result driven community leader, film/tv producer and businessman who has spent his career elevating and advancing the needs of everyday New Yorkers by fighting for equity of opportunity, affordable housing and a safe neighborhood for our families.

As the Chair of Community Board 11, Xavier leads a team of 50 individuals who advance the needs of a culturally diverse and rich community. Having served East Harlem for 15 years both abroad and in East Harlem, he played a central role in advancing local hiring initiatives, affordable housing development and environmental and health policies. Through Xavier's leadership, many of the board’s positions have become either policy positions of our City and State or become legislative outcomes to the benefit of New Yorkers – especially East Harlemites.

You can ascend when all rungs are in the ladder!

Put the rungs back in the ladder. During his life, Xavier has seen both sides of the coin and knows that in order to rise, one must have secure housing, a foundational education and training for a bright future and the inner grit to drive forward. Xavier cares deeply about affordable housing and NYCHA (public housing). His father grew up in the Mill Brook Houses; raised by a single mother who sewed cloth diapers for a living in the Garment District. From an early age, Xavier knew that installing the rungs back in the ladder would be integral to the community's generational upward mobility. His work with affordable housing initiatives such as Sendero Verde, MIH during the 2017 Rezoning and the CORENET Affordable Housing Forum just begin to scratch the surface.

Educating our youth to see their true potential extends beyond a standard college degree. With the decline in the trades, there is ample opportunity for our youth to learn about the mechanical sciences, which re-enforce S.T.E.A.M. classes in school today. Today's youth can be tomorrow's card holding members who can afford to raise their children in the same neighborhood they grew up in.

Caring Communities means Safer Streets. It is time to bring about a Renaissance 2.0 for our slice of Manhattan. That requires safer communities where children may grow and thrive. Albany has the opportunity to create an atmosphere that other neighborhoods benefit from by completing the work of criminal justice reform. That starts with leaders that our parents and grandparents raised us to be; leaders that the next generation aspire to be.