PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Reverend Terry Troia on Staten Island's Housing Crisis
7:38:40
·
104 sec
Reverend Terry Troia, a native Staten Islander and pastor, testifies about the severe affordable housing crisis in Staten Island. She highlights the increasing number of homeless individuals, families living in overcrowded conditions, and the dire need for affordable housing solutions.
- Approximately 1,500 Staten Islanders lost their homes last year, with many more living in overcrowded or unsafe conditions.
- Rent prices are extremely high, with rooms costing up to $1,700 per month.
- Staten Island families are burdened with rents and utilities consuming 50-70% of their wages.
- Troia emphasizes the urgent need for initiatives like the City of Yes or other programs to develop more affordable housing in Staten Island.
Terry Troia
7:38:40
My name is Terry Troya, and I'm a native Staten Islander.
7:38:45
I'm a Staten Island homeowner as are my siblings.
7:38:48
My parents, my grandparents, and my great grandparents were all Staten Island homeowners.
7:38:52
I'm a pastor who has worked for the last 40 years with unhouse people, and today I represent myself.
7:38:57
Last year, about 1500 Staten Islanders lost their home housing and ended up in a shelter or sleeping in a chair in our drop in center.
7:39:05
What's not counted are the numbers of Staten Island families doubled, tripled up, quadrupled up.
7:39:11
People living in illegal basement apartments are just renting a mattress in someone's basement.
7:39:15
Families living in campers and in cars on back roads or tenting under our beach Broadwalks in the winter.
7:39:21
Last Monday night, October 14th, a seventy one year old disabled senior citizen was found sleeping in a shack on our island's North Shore.
7:39:28
There are homeless Staten Islanders living in encampments, in abandoned cementaries, under train tracks, in abandoned buildings, and every day I see phone calls about native Staten Islanders who can't afford a room or a studio apartment on their disability or Social Security check.
7:39:42
Rooms are renting for upwards of 1700 a month, just a room.
7:39:47
Staten Island has hundreds of families dumbled up and tripled up in overcrowding apartments because one family can't pay in the rising rent.
7:39:53
And Staten Island families are burdened with rents and utilities that suck up 50, 60, 70 percent of their wages.
7:39:59
We have a serious affordable housing crisis on Staten Island and we need a serious plan to make more affordable housing available in Staten Island.
7:40:06
Whether it's the city of yes or some other initiative that develops more affordable housing, that is what we need and we need to create units now.
7:40:15
Staten islanders die on the streets of Staten Island because they can't afford a place suitable for human habitation.
7:40:20
No one should die because they don't have a safe place to live.
7:40:24
Thank you.
