PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Aixa Torres, President of Alfred E. Smith Houses, on NYCHA Rent Arrears and ERAP
1:44:52
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128 sec
Aixa Torres, President of Alfred E. Smith Houses, testified about the challenges NYCHA residents faced with the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) and criticized NYCHA's legal department for not helping residents avoid eviction. She emphasized the role of residents and local elected officials in pushing for ERAP funds for NYCHA tenants.
- Highlighted a case where a resident's arrears were significantly reduced after receiving ERAP, from $20,000 to an $8,000 credit
- Questioned NYCHA's legal department's budget and staffing, criticizing their lack of assistance to residents
- Expressed frustration with NYCHA's general counsel taking credit for ERAP work that residents had done
Aixa Torres
1:44:52
Good afternoon.
1:44:54
I wanna thank you for letting me speak.
1:44:57
My name is Ike Sartorius.
1:44:58
I am the president of Alfredi Smith Houses.
1:45:02
And in terms of ERAP, I have to say that it was the residents who pushed back on the governor and the elected officials from my district Assemblywoman Graceland, Assemblyman Harvey Epstein, and state senator Brian Kavanaugh, who helped us organize to push back and demand that we get the air wrap money.
1:45:36
Why?
1:45:37
We are still people are still having issues with the air wrap.
1:45:43
I have very quickly, I had a young man who almost had a nervous breakdown because of the way it was handled and getting evicted.
1:45:53
When all was said and done and he got his credit, he went from, like, 20,000 in change to having an $8000 credit.
1:46:04
The problem, right, the problem is that the how they're calculating the rents.
1:46:13
And the other piece of this is somebody please explain to me the council since you over you look at their budget.
1:46:21
Why night shift legal department has 300 employees
UNKNOWN
1:46:26
a $50,000,000
Aixa Torres
1:46:28
budget.
1:46:29
And the general counsel has actually online taking credit for the work for air wrap.
1:46:35
That that kind of upset me.
1:46:37
Right?
1:46:37
Because I'm the one that got up at 4:30 in the morning and organized at least in my district, how the legal department has not helped, instead of evicting residents, how they have not helped, right, to ensure that we get the money that we're supposed to get and that residents don't get evicted.
Chris Banks
1:46:59
Thank you for your testimony.
