Former Democratic New York City councilman Antonio Pagán, known for his inconsistent stances on low-income and AIDS housing programs, died Sunday morning at Beth Israel Medical Center, The New York Times reports. He was 50. The cause of death is unknown.

Before his election to the City Council in 1991, Pagán served as executive director of the Lower East Side Coalition Housing Development—a nonprofit housing developer for low-income families—and was a founding member of the Hispanic AIDS Forum.

According to the article, while Pagán was celebrated for being one of the city’s first openly gay councilmen alongside Thomas K. Duane, his conservative stance toward housing and social programs made him a controversial figure among liberal activists in his Lower East Side District.

In 1997, Pagán was named Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s commissioner of employment, a position that he held until 2002.