PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Kayt Tiskus, Member of the Public, on City of Yes for Housing Opportunity
10:01:12
·
95 sec
Kayt Tiskus, a queer New Yorker living in the financial district, strongly supports the City of Yes proposal, particularly for its potential to benefit vulnerable LGBTQ+ individuals. She highlights how the plan would help prevent homelessness among the people she works with professionally.
- The plan will re-legalize small and shared housing types, benefiting those in transitional or fragile life situations.
- Tiskus praises the change in the definition of family, which currently complicates housing for LGBTQ+ youth who may not be welcome with their blood relatives.
- She emphasizes that these changes would allow for more stable housing situations that are not possible under current zoning laws.
Kayt Tiskus
10:01:12
Hello, and thank you for your time today, an extensive amount of time.
10:01:16
My name is Kate Tiskis.
10:01:18
I am a queer New Yorker.
10:01:19
I lived just down the street in the financial district, and I dedicate most of my professional life working with other queer New Yorkers, especially folks who are in pretty vulnerable states.
10:01:30
And fragile transition points in life.
10:01:32
And I'm here to testify strongly in support of the city of yes for many reasons, but among them that these folks who I work with and worry about slipping into houselessness every day would be really benefited by a couple of specific provisions.
10:01:48
First, it's great that the plan will re legalize small and shared housing types that allow people who are just launching into adulthood or who just lost a job or who are having a point of fragility to still have some housing and to, you know, get into a stable situation that really is not possible under current and existing voting laws.
10:02:11
And one thing that I'm really delighted about is the change of the definition of family, which as one of my fellow panel members testified, is sixty years old and includes only people who are related to you by blood or who you're married to, which is a specific definition of what constitutes a family that really complicates housing, especially for youth who might not be very welcome with their blood family and who need to live with a trusted adult.
10:02:41
So the city of yes is a city of yes for me, and thank you for taking all this time today.
