TESTIMONY
Runa Rajagopal, Managing Director of Bronx Defenders, on Anti-Harassment Tenant Protection Program and Funding Fairness for Legal Services
4:42:33
·
5 min
Runa Rajagopal advocates for full funding of the anti-harassment tenant protection program and addresses pay parity issues in legal services organizations.
- Highlights the importance of the anti-harassment tenant protection program in fighting gentrification and tenant harassment
- Reports that the program helped tenants in 22,000 matters and filed almost 7,000 complaints last year
- Calls for a $75-100 case rate to fully fund the program and account for its costs
- Emphasizes the wage gap between legal services organizations and government sector, with some programs paying 10-50% less than city-level salaries
- Stresses the need for competitive salaries to recruit and retain staff, ensuring quality services for clients
Runa Rajagopal
4:42:33
Good evening.
4:42:34
My name is Runa Rajagopal.
4:42:35
I'm with the Bronx defenders.
4:42:37
I'm also in the steering committee for the Leap Leap College and I'm very grateful to be here before the council today.
4:42:43
Picking up where my colleague left off, I wanted to focus on two important points where we want to continue to partner with the council.
4:42:52
1 is to talk about the anti harassment tenant protection program that was recently RFPED in August.
4:43:01
And 2 is to talk about funding fairness and pay parity, which I know you all have been supporters and partners in talking about.
4:43:12
Just like my colleague talked about importance of right to counsel, the anti harassment and tenant protection program is unique and distinct and supplements with the right to counsel does.
4:43:24
As you all know, it developed in 2015, and the purpose is to fight against gentrification tenant harassment, housing displacement, mostly of black and brown communities in the city, and legal services organizations.
4:43:40
We partner with community organizers across the city to fight forces that displace tenants in their families to improve and preserve the quality and safety of affordable housing and to stabilize communities.
4:43:53
And we know that there's both the short term and long term harm of housing displacement, and there are all sorts of other harms and consequences that come from homelessness and losing one's home.
4:44:05
Legal system, entanglement, family separation, incarceration, and just the perpetuation of harmful apoverty throughout generations, in fact.
4:44:18
In the last year, in partnership with organizers and other partners, we were able to collectively help no less help tenants and no less than 22,000 matters just last year.
4:44:34
And almost 7000 complaints may I finish?
4:44:37
Yes.
4:44:37
Thank you.
4:44:39
Filed almost 7000 complaints to challenge rent hikes, fight discrimination, and demand essential services that tenants and their family these deserve.
4:44:49
Some of those complaints you discussed earlier to the DOB and other agencies.
4:44:56
Through this program, again, which is value added to write to counsel, it allows us to do to work against to address repairs and conditions, to provide group representation, building wide representation, and to help people 4 cases are filed, which again is an important aspect of this program.
4:45:21
And so we don't even know how far this program has reached tenants and families in terms of the benefits because there's so much un quantifiable benefit to it.
4:45:31
So similar to what what my colleague talked about.
4:45:35
We need investment in this program in terms of funding the program fully in terms of a case rate we talked about and wanna uplift the 75100 case rate to and wanna account for the full costs of the program to provide the level of services that our clients and tenants and community members deserve.
4:45:59
Earth, which takes me to funding fairness and pay parity.
4:46:05
We can't talk about this enough.
4:46:08
When we talk about our work, it's so important for us to center the need and how hard things are for the people we serve and are accountable to.
4:46:17
They are struggling.
4:46:18
They are marginalized.
4:46:19
They need more help than ever.
4:46:21
But it may or may not surprise you to know that in our programs, our staff who are doing the day in and day out of this work, and that's attorneys, but not just attorneys.
4:46:34
We need social workers, justice workers, Paralegals benefit advocates, the administrative staff and the like may not be that far away from our clients in doing this work.
4:46:48
And to provide, again, the quality Zealous level of services that our clients deserve and to make the work sustainable and equitable, we need to fight to in vest and and pay our staff at the level at competitive levels.
4:47:10
And I know that the council has been a partner in this?
Pierina Ana Sanchez
4:47:14
I I do need to ask you
Runa Rajagopal
4:47:15
to wrap up.
4:47:16
Okay.
4:47:16
I'm gonna wrap up right now, which is just to say there is a wage gap here.
4:47:20
We are not competitive.
4:47:21
We are losing people to government, the government sector.
4:47:27
And whereas the office of the attorney general makes starting 90,000, we're at, you know, we're not there.
4:47:35
We're at some of our programs are at 10, 20, 30, 40, 50%, or at least paying less than 10 to 20,000 at the city level.
4:47:48
And so we can't compete, and we can't keep people, and we know that retaining, recruiting the best, keeping the best is gonna allow us to provide the services that our clients deserve.
4:47:59
So now I'm going to pass it over to my colleague, Amisha.
4:48:03
Thank you.