PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Oksana Mironova, Housing Policy Analyst at Community Service Society of New York
2:09:36
·
3 min
Oksana Mironova from the Community Service Society of New York (CSS) testified in support of Intros 429 and 925, emphasizing the need for improved safety measures in New York City's aging housing stock. She highlighted the long-standing issues of deferred maintenance and inadequate code enforcement that have led to unsafe living conditions for many tenants.
- CSS has a history of advocating for housing safety, dating back to the city's tenement laws in the early 1900s
- Mironova criticized the city agencies' focus on tenant education as an inadequate approach to addressing housing safety issues
- She argued that the administration's stance on administrative burdens being a hindrance to implementation is a poor excuse for inaction on tenant rights and building safety legislation
Oksana Mironova
2:09:36
Thank you, Charice Sanchez, for holding this hearing.
2:09:38
My name is Aksana Miranova, and I work with the Community Service Society of New York.
2:09:43
And I'm here to testify in support of intros 42925.
2:09:49
City's engagement CSS's engagement with the health and safety of the city's housing stock goes back to our advocacy for the city's tenement laws in 1901 1919.
2:10:01
Today, a substantial share of the city's 2,300,000 tenant house holds continue to live in the same buildings that were built in the wake of those laws almost or more than a 100 years ago.
2:10:11
83% of the city's apartments are are in buildings that were built 50 years ago or more while 16% are in buildings built before 1919.
2:10:22
Some of these buildings have been subject to the whims of multiple negligent landlords for decades who have cut costs by deferring maintenance.
2:10:30
At the same time, the city's proactive code in enforcement capabilities have wanes.
2:10:35
The combination of these factors have resulted in unhealthy and unsafe living conditions for many.
2:10:41
For example, 105 New York households experience heating breakdowns in 2023.
2:10:47
And households earning under 300% of the federal poverty line were more likely to be in that situation.
2:10:53
Nearly 104 have experienced a heating breakdown.
2:10:57
At the same time, we know from the housing and vacancy survey that 38% of household have kept their windows open throughout most of the last winter.
2:11:08
This is an indication of aging and imprecise steam heating systems.
2:11:13
Sometimes, this type of deferred maintenance leads the tragedy, and I commend Benjamin's family's advocacy for this bill and their partnership with the Ambrose family as well.
2:11:28
We at CSS compelled the city council to take action on both of these laws.
2:11:33
And in addition to that, since I have a little bit of time to go back to the testimony of the agencies, I completely echo Alexis Critique a bit focusing on tenant education is in addition to the moral problems with with that stance, it's just it's just bad policy.
2:11:54
Assuming that tenants are gonna have the time to be able to actively do code enforcement by themselves, just doesn't make any sense.
2:12:03
And in my child, I do a lot of review of bills that come through the city council and the the administration's position that administrative burdens are a hindrance to getting anything done is consistent across all sorts of legislation that CSS supports.
2:12:23
And it is just it's bad cover, and it doesn't make any sense.
2:12:28
With this particular with these particular bills or any of the other bills that for board the rights of tenants and make the building stock safer in New York City.
