TESTIMONY
Barika Williams, Executive Director of Association for Neighborhood And Housing Development (ANHD), on Community Housing Preservation Strategies and Housing Production Challenges
4:29:33
·
3 min
Barika Williams requests continued support for community housing initiatives and addresses challenges in affordable housing production.
- Asks for $4.95 million in FY25 budget for Community Housing Preservation Strategies Initiative (CHPSI)
- Highlights ANHD's Displacement Alert Project for providing analytics on housing issues
- Emphasizes HPD staffing shortages causing 42% delay in housing production
- Supports $2 billion 'Homes Now, Homes for Generation' campaign over four years
- Urges $250 million in emergency preservation funds for affordable and supportive housing
- Advocates for prioritizing affordable housing in accelerated permitting processes
Barika Williams
4:29:33
Okay.
4:29:34
Good evening.
4:29:35
My name is Berica Williams.
4:29:36
I'm the executive director of the Association for Neighborhood And Housing Development or ADHD.
4:29:41
Thank you chair Sanchez for having us here today, and thank you to the committee members and to the staff for I know it is a very long day.
4:29:48
So We also have extended written testimony that spans between housing and general welfare that will be submitted in writing because our housing is you span across the 2 to come.
4:29:59
I'm gonna hit the highlights as well.
4:30:01
So one asking request is for the council to continue to support the community housing preservation strategic strategies initiative, Chipsie, as we all call it, and requesting funding at 4.95 1,000,000 in the FY 25 budget.
4:30:17
This gets spread across 45 CBOs selected by their local council members.
4:30:23
To do local on the ground work with tenants, homeowners, counseling, direct services, and tenant associations.
4:30:31
This is really how we get to a lot of our direct services with CBOs to tenants through community based organizations.
4:30:39
Also included in that, I would just wanna lift this up is A And HD's displacement alert project.
4:30:45
The DOB commissioner mentioned wanting data specifically on I would love he said, I would love to have the analytics on this, and I was like, well, we have it.
4:30:54
We could already do that for you.
4:30:56
And so I think, especially with a little bit of additional support, could maybe provide them some customized analytics of what they're looking for from a program that the city council has historically supported.
4:31:07
Also requesting that we address HPD staffing, which has become a significant issue, is causing production of about 42% in the is causing a delay in production by about 42% in this upcoming fiscal year.
4:31:22
So becoming a huge issue for our pipeline of projects.
4:31:25
We support homes now, homes for generation campaign for $2,000,000,000 over the next 5 year 4 years.
4:31:32
Specifically 1,000,000,000 to neighborhood pillars program, as well as we ask the city council to contribute to Nieta Capital in order to preserve 15,000 homes, if I could continue and just finish.
4:31:47
And then just two additional things that haven't come up.
4:31:49
We urge the city to consider including and matching what we're hoping will come through at the is $250,000,000 in emergency preservation funds, recognizing that affordable and supportive housing were at the back of the line for renterrears and continue to have a back log and their ability to operate their buildings and units.
4:32:09
And I also just wanna lift up that one of the things that DOB mentioned is people paying for fees to for accelerated permitting, and this is something that actually we feel like very strongly.
4:32:22
Should be an accelerated process that is for our public good projects, not for our pay to play projects, and would like to see the accelerated priority lists really be prioritized for affordable supportive housing and community facilities and needs.
4:32:37
Thank you.
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Adriene Holder, Chief Attorney at Legal Aid Society, on improving NYC's Right to Counsel and anti-harassment tenant protection programs