REMARKS
HPD's Homeowner Help Desk program and its components
0:47:46
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4 min
Jenny Weyel, the Homeowner Advocate from HPD, presents information about the Homeowner Help Desk program and its various components.
- Program is a partnership with the Center For New York City Neighborhoods and local community-based organizations
- Three core components: public awareness campaign, in-person outreach, and one-on-one assistance
- Includes funding for estate planning and offers classes on various homeownership topics, including deed theft prevention
Jenny Weyel
0:47:46
Yeah.
0:47:46
Thank you, chair Minin and chair Hudson.
0:47:48
My name is Jenny Weil.
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I'm here to represent the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
0:47:54
I serve as the homeowner advocate, was designated, per local law, 125 of 2023, by your colleague, Council Member Brooks Powers.
0:48:04
And, we are very excited to launch, our homeowner help desk, which I think achieves several of the goals that you have highlighted.
0:48:14
So we realize that prevention when it comes to deed theft and generally, supporting, stabilizing homeowners prevention education is really key.
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So, this program is, a program that is a partnership with the Center For New York City Neighborhoods and local community based organizations across the city.
0:48:37
We're expanding this program based on a pilot that we did a couple of years ago, that was very successful, actually, in partnership with the Attorney General's Office, and it has 3 core components.
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1 is a public awareness campaign.
0:48:51
As you mentioned, there is really a lack of information among homeowners about the resources available to them, and so we're going to do a public awareness campaign, using a range of tools, radio ads, newspaper ads, multiple language, bus ads, 211 hold messages, everything you can think of to make sure that homeowners are aware of these resources, including the, the, service by the Department of Finance, to be notified of when a document is registered.
0:49:23
And then, the other key component is to make sure that we do outreach, in person outreach at senior centers, libraries, community spaces, to reach homeowners where they are and, again, to let them know of these resources.
0:49:41
And then through the homeowner help desk, which I should note is, an investment of $9,200,000 over 3 years, we also fund 1 on 1 assistance through housing counselors, HUD certified housing counselors, and attorneys, legal services providers throughout the city that can work 1 on 1 with, homeowners that are experiencing these issues, including deed theft.
0:50:07
We're also going to administer the new allocation by the city council of $1,000,000 for estate planning, which we think is is really key, given that estate planning is one of the best ways to prevent deed theft.
0:50:21
I should also note that since the Office of the Homeowner Advocate was created in March of this year, we have done a lot of, education in house.
0:50:30
We have or actually doing several classes for homeowners.
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One is broadly about owning a home in New York City.
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We have one about lead based paint, DOB rules and regulations, solar power, but we're also, offering a new class specifically on deed theft starting this week in collaboration with Brooklyn Legal Services.
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We offer these classes, both virtually and in person, and they've been very well attended.
0:51:00
We have offered 30 classes since March alone, that were attended by 400 people.
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We also, partner with our sister agencies on housing resource fairs.
0:51:12
As was mentioned, we just did, one specifically for senior, New Yorkers, but we do these on a regular basis.
0:51:20
Since March alone we have, hosted 9 resource fairs that were attended by, sorry, let me get the numbers right.
0:51:29
Sorry, I misspoke.
0:51:31
The classes were attended by 1200, people and our housing resource fairs were attended by 400 people.
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And then in addition to that, we, table at community events with informational tables, where we have information about deed theft and what homeowners can do to protect themselves.
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And we have, reached 16,000 New Yorkers since March.
