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Council Member Chris Banks opens Public Housing Committee meeting and addresses rent arrears issue
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Council Member Chris Banks opens the Public Housing Committee meeting, addressing the critical issue of rent arrears in NYCHA housing following the COVID-19 pandemic. He highlights the challenges faced by NYCHA tenants and expresses the need for a plan to return to pre-pandemic rent collection levels while ensuring stable housing for residents.
- Banks notes that NYCHA residents are dealing with over $400 million in rent arrears.
- He mentions that NYCHA tenants were initially excluded from the state emergency rental assistance program but were later included after advocacy efforts.
- The council member emphasizes the need for NYCHA to be fiscally stable to provide safe and stable housing for residents.
Chris Banks
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Marie, I'm calling this meeting to order.
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Good morning, everyone.
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I am Counseling and Chris Banks Chair of the Committee on Public Housing, and I'm glad to be joined by my colleagues and on the committee Council member of Avelis, council member of Parais, salary Sanchez, and nobody owns them.
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Right?
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The COVID 19 pandemic and economic upheaval that came with it changed our city.
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4 years after the first wave of infections and the lockdowns, Nitro and Nitro residents are still dealing with the legacy of the pandemic.
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In the form of over $400,000,000 in rent arrears.
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While market rate rents were able to get assistance to the state emergency rental assistance program, we call erent.
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In the the initial rollout of the program, nitrogen tenants were not immediately eligible for assistance.
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Only after nitrogen and nitrogen tenants advocacy in Albany were nitrogen tenants included in the program.
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But even with this funding and other sources, there is still a staggering amount of arrears.
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For many tenants, arrears have grown to a point where they they may feel overwhelmed while the issue has also pack the daily operations for Nitro, are further impacting residents' quality of life.
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Today, we are looking briefly to the past to make a plan for the future.
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I wanna know what what Nitro is doing today and what we should be telling night your residents with a risk to do and what the plan to get back to pre pandemic rent collection.
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All of us in this room want the same thing, safe and stable housing for night your residents.
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To get that, Nitro has to be fiscally stable, and I went ahead a plan to get to that point today.
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I would like to thank my staff and Michael Lambert along with the public housing committee staff Jose, Connor, Dan, Nicholas, Christopher, Charles, for all the work they've put in to this hearing.
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And with that, we'll allow the nitrogen staff to make this statement.