PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Brianna Williams, Senior Planner of Housing Justice Initiatives at Center for Justice Innovation
1:37:14
·
176 sec
Brianna Williams from the Center for Justice Innovation testified about the challenges faced by NYCHA tenants, particularly regarding rent arrears and access to rental assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic. She highlighted the center's work with NYCHA residents and called for increased support for tenant education and rental assistance programs.
- Criticized the deprioritization of NYCHA tenants for ERAP (Emergency Rental Assistance Program)
- Described the center's initiative to create multilingual tenant education materials
- Recommended expanding tenant education, improving coordination for arrears assistance, and supporting the NYCHA Utility Accountability Act
Brianna Williams
1:37:14
Good afternoon, Chair Banks and the esteemed members of the public housing committee.
1:37:19
My name is Brianna Williams, and I'm the senior planner of housing justice initiatives at the Center for Justice Innovation.
1:37:24
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
1:37:27
The center works the center's projects work at with residents and property management property management across more than 30 Nike developments.
1:37:35
Staff at project sites such as the Red Hood Community Justice Center, the Harlem Community Justice Center, and the Queens Community Justice Center in Jamaica in Far rockaway work with thousands of nighthatens every year on rent lease and repair concerns.
1:37:48
Our primary goal is to ensure that every nighthat attendant we come across remains in housing that is stable, in good repair, and of affordable based on HUD income calculation guidelines.
1:37:58
Like the rest of the world, night attendants also experience COVID 19 hardships.
1:38:02
They experience inflation, loss of employment, and deaths in the family, including heads of household.
1:38:08
Despite experiencing the same aft the same impacts, New York state deprioritized night attendants for the largest pandemic rental assistance relief program, the emergency rental assistance program.
1:38:18
As a result, most night attendants either did not receive assistance or a forced to wait for months or even years for payouts.
1:38:24
Meanwhile, nitrogen, it's continued to struggle with obtaining desperately needed repairs and continued to face periodic utility outages that could last for weeks months or even years.
1:38:34
Last year, the Center for Justice Innovation took action with funding support from senate majority leader Schumer and in coordination with Nitro management services.
1:38:42
The Center developed multilingual tenant education materials about Nitro rent calculation and lease renewals.
1:38:48
These materials, we call Los Papolitos Ablon, or let the papers do the talking.
1:38:53
Our our an example of the type of tenant rights based approaches for the council committee should further support.
1:38:59
To effectively address the Rental Rears backlog and prevent evictions of Night attendants, and the the this council committee should increase access to rental assistance for Night attendants by continuing to dedicate staff time and quickly to quickly and efficiently processing rental assistance applications in coordination with this this 30 more seconds.
Chris Banks
1:39:18
30 more seconds.
Brianna Williams
1:39:18
In coordination with the city's human resource administration and the state's office of temporary and disability assistance, as well as instructing property managers to improve coordination with tenants to obtain arrear assistance.
1:39:30
We also ask that this council committee expand tenant education and community based organization navigation on night to lease renewals, including annual and interim recertifications and rent grievances, to reduce the backlog of past due recertifications so that rent is properly calculated related.
1:39:46
We also ask that this council committee recognize the financial hardships that night attendants experience when repairs go undone or utility outages persist as these directly impact rent collection.
1:39:57
We encourage the council committee also to support the state law change, the NAICI Utility Accountability Act, requiring NAICI to reduce tenant rent during utility outages that lasts more than 24 hours.
1:40:08
Thank you so much for this opportunity to test bye.
Chris Banks
1:40:10
Thank you for your testimony.
