PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Evan Henley, Staff Attorney at Legal Aid Society
2:08:30
·
122 sec
Evan Henley from Legal Aid Society testified on the issue of illegal lockouts, expressing support for measures to ensure swift and effective relief for occupants. He raised concerns about specific aspects of proposed bills, particularly regarding potential negative impacts on tenants.
- Highlighted the prevalence and harmful effects of illegal lockouts across New York City
- Expressed support for increased penalties for landlords who commit illegal lockouts (Intro 623), but warned about potential negative impacts of restricting city benefits
- Raised concerns about giving NYPD discretion in lock-changing procedures (Intro 993)
- Supported the intent of requiring air conditioning (Intro 994), but shared concerns about costs
Evan Henley
2:08:30
Hi.
2:08:30
Good afternoon.
2:08:31
My name is Evan Henley, and I'm a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society.
2:08:33
And thank you so much to the chair and the committee for holding this hearing.
2:08:37
So Legal Aid Society practices across all 5 boroughs, and we do see illegal lock lockouts happening, pretty frequently.
2:08:45
And they are a scourge on our community for the reasons that have been set forth.
2:08:49
And it's also clear that the current framework of laws and policies and practices is really failing occupants in the situation.
2:08:56
In our written testimony, we talk about a client in the Bronx whose trial took 5 and a half months to conclude.
2:09:03
And when she did get a judgment in her favor, the landlord had changed the layout of her room, and so that was just a piece of paper that gave her no redress.
2:09:13
So we are in support of measures to ensure that occupants have swift and effective relief in this situation.
2:09:20
Due to the limited time, I just do wanna focus on a few concerns that we have about some of the bills.
2:09:26
So with intro 623, we certainly are in favor of increased penalties for landlords who commit this conduct.
2:09:32
However, we think that the proscription on receiving the city benefits would have negative impacts that would outweigh the deterrent or punitive effect, particularly for tenants who rely on scree or dree or Ref City FEPs, the inability to benefit from those subsidies could have really disastrous effects and cause them to be displaced.
2:09:54
For the intro 993, we think that giving the NYPD that amount of discretion in that situation, also could be harmful.
2:10:04
You know, for example, sometimes landlords quickly rent to unsuspecting tenants after performing these illegal lockouts, and so changing the locks again, just by the police, I think, could be quite negative.
2:10:17
And then, the the other bill regarding, air conditioning for enter 994, we definitely support the intent of that, but, we share the concerns about the cost and would be happy to talk more to council member Ressler about that.
2:10:31
Thank you.
