REMARKS
Council Member Sanchez advocates for Intro 89-A to improve fire emergency response
0:01:33
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151 sec
Council Member Pierina Ana Sanchez delivers a speech in support of Intro 89-A, which would require notifications to council members about serious fires in their districts.
She emphasizes the importance of improving the city's response to fire-related displacements and shares a personal experience of her family being displaced by a fire.
- Sanchez highlights the current processes in place for fire emergencies, including the roles of first responders, American Red Cross, and various city agencies.
- She points out gaps in the current system, such as issues with vacate orders and notification to relevant parties.
- The council member stresses the long-lasting impact of displacement, citing average lengths of stay in emergency housing shelters.
Pierina Ana Sanchez
0:01:33
Thank you so much, Chair, Ariola, and good morning, everyone.
0:01:36
Displacement following a fire or structural problem in your building is one of the most disruptive experiences a New Yorker can have.
0:01:43
Imagine running for your life, barely remembering to grab your shoes, probably not dressed well enough.
0:01:49
Certainly, you forgot your wallet and identifying information.
0:01:52
Only to stand or sit on your sidewalk for hours looking up, not being sure what comes next.
0:01:58
Well, this can happen approximately two thousand times per year across our cities, across our city.
0:02:04
In New York City, we thankfully have some processes designed to help New Yorkers through these destabilizing times.
0:02:10
Graditude, 1st and foremost, to our first responders, who risked their lives to pull us out of fires and emergency conditions.
0:02:16
Then American Red Cross, who who per a contract with HPD, visits fire in other emergency sites to help residents with emergency shelter and provisions in certain circumstances.
0:02:26
And our agencies from the emergency management to buildings to housing preservation and the fire department again, who each have different roles to ensure our buildings are safe.
0:02:35
And that there is some degree of interagency coordination.
0:02:39
Yet for all that New Yorkers have, we can and still must do better.
0:02:44
On dozens of occasions in my 3 years in office, and I know this is true for my colleagues as well, I have visited fire sites discovering issues such as buildings or HPD not issuing a vacate order where they should have, ARC not being notified, the American Red Cross, and residents being left in limbo.
0:03:01
The displacement can be long lasting.
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In the 1st 4 months of fiscal year 2024, the average length of stay for single adults in emergency housing shelters was 592 days.
0:03:12
For family adult families, 464 days, and for families with children, 330 7 days.
0:03:18
So I'm thankful for this committee.
0:03:20
Thank you, Chair Ariola, for moving intro 89 forward, because intro 89 would provide council members and other key public officials with notifications when fires occur in their district, setting the setting up important stakeholders with good information right at the striking of an emergency.
0:03:37
This is important because the bill is creating infrastructure to stabilize the New Yorkers and their families after a fire event.
0:03:43
It's creating another fail safe in our systems to protect New Yorkers.
0:03:48
This is personal for me as my own family was displaced by a fire when I was just three years old, left with nowhere to go, and no one to turn to, except to look up at the flames of what had been our home.
0:03:58
Thanks for taking the step with me chair, Ariola, and committee, and I encourage all of my colleagues to vote.
0:04:03
I.