PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Kevin Wolfe, Deputy Director for Advocacy and Public Affairs at Center For New York City Neighborhoods
2:34:15
·
3 min
Kevin Wolfe from the Center For New York City Neighborhoods testifies in support of two pieces of legislation aimed at combating deed theft, while offering recommendations for improvements. He provides data on deed theft referrals and discusses the organization's role in assisting homeowners.
- The Center has seen an increase in deed theft referrals, with 86 cases so far this fiscal year compared to 69 last year.
- Wolfe supports Intro 901 but notes existing funding for similar initiatives, emphasizing the need for coordination.
- For Intro 888, he suggests implementing higher civil penalties and improving methods to determine fair market value.
Kevin Wolfe
2:34:15
Great.
2:34:16
Thank you, chair Hudson.
2:34:18
My name is Kevin Wolf.
2:34:20
I am the deputy director for advocacy and public affairs at the Center For New York City Neighborhoods and we are the largest homeowner service organization, in New York City.
2:34:30
We're a nonprofit and we, provide assistance, to New Yorkers at all stages of the homeownership journey.
2:34:37
We do have written testimony, so I'm not gonna go through everything, but I did want to say that, we we are testifying in support of both of the pieces of legislation, that have been put forward.
2:34:48
We do have some recommendations, some tweaks that we would like to see, for both of those legislation.
2:34:55
But overall, we want more tools in the toolkit to combat deed theft.
2:35:00
As we've heard, throughout the day, deed theft is a major issue, that's affecting New Yorkers.
2:35:05
And, actually, in response to some of your questions, I did we we did pull the numbers.
2:35:10
One one thing that I should note is that the center does, when homeowners call 311, they are many times directed towards the center, for New York City neighborhoods, and so we do get quite a few deep theft referrals.
2:35:24
So far in this fiscal year, we have seen 86, deep theft referrals, and that's been an increase, from last year's 69.
2:35:32
We're not, obviously, we're not done with this year.
2:35:35
And, you know, when we get those when the homeowners do call, we do our best to provide assistance to them, best to connect them to legal services and housing counseling.
2:35:44
On the on the legislation, I did just wanna note, for, intro 901.
2:35:51
We intro intro 901, we do do support the the concept of the legislation, but we wanna note that the council already provides funding, for the foreclosure prevention initiative, as well as there's new funding for the estate planning initiative, and that's funding housing counseling and legal services.
2:36:07
And so we wanna connect coordinate with the city as much as possible.
2:36:10
On intro, 888, we did want we did have some recommendations.
2:36:16
We to support the concept of it.
2:36:19
But we did have some recommendations for how to make the legislation better.
2:36:23
It may be possible that to have civil penalties, for for these people who come up with these unsolicited, unsolicited, offers to purchase the home.
2:36:35
We do think that the the civil penalties are a little bit too low, and there is the issue of how to determine the fair market value.
2:36:42
We did have some suggestions on how to better, determine that maybe using, data from DOF.
2:36:49
It may be possible, but those are those are sort of the the two issues that that, we we wanted to, hit on on the, the legislative front.
2:36:58
Otherwise, I will, will submit our written testimony, make sure that the the council's able to see that, and we're happy to if you do have any questions about the services we provide, we talked about the homeowner help desk, which, the center is excited, to to, operate and thankful for the council's support.
2:37:16
But we're happy to answer any other questions that you have, and thank you for your time.
Crystal Hudson
2:37:20
Thank you so much.
