PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Hannah Anousheh, Campaigns Director of East New York Community Land Trust, on Tax Lien Sale and Property Protection Bills
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Hannah Anousheh, representing the East New York Community Land Trust, testified in support of several bills aimed at improving the Department of Finance's processes and protecting homeowners. She emphasized the need to abolish the tax lien sale and replace it with a fairer system.
- Supported Intro 783 and Intro 782-A for improving notifications about tax exemptions
- Advocated for Resolution 327 to allow retroactive tax exemptions
- Urged passage of bills to protect homeowners from deed fraud
- Called for full abolition of the tax lien sale and its replacement with a municipal debt collection system
Hannah Anousheh
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Can you hear me?
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Great.
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Good morning, council members.
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My name is Hannah Anoushe, and I'm the campaigns director for the East New York Community Land Trust.
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I'll try to shorten my testimony.
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So we formed the Abolish the Tax Lien Sale Coalition in 2020 when we realized that there were thousands of, residents in East New York and Brownsville who were impacted by the lien sale just like in many other working class black and brown communities across the city.
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And as I think you all know, as a coalition, we advocate for the full abolition of the lien sale for all properties in New York City.
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And we advocate for its replacement with a municipal debt collection system that ensures this that the city collects its debt.
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You know, we want the city to collect its debt, but also keeps homeowners and tenants in their homes by working with CLTs and other entities, instead of outsourcing this core government function to a private trust that's accountable to investors that it enriches.
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So we're really glad that the council is hearing, council member nurses' bills to improve Department of Finance's processes.
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We support intro 783, and intro 782 is just common sense.
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You know, the Department of Finance already sends out notices, so it should send out more detailed notices giving people information about existing exemptions.
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You know, we've done so much outreach in our neighborhoods, so we really understand, how easy it is for people to not get the information about exemptions.
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And we've come across so many people who weren't aware that they were eligible for an exemption, and then, you know, racked up so much debt compounded with interest and fees when they should have been exempt.
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So that's another reason why resolution 327, calling on Albany to allow retroactive exemptions, is so important because there's so many people in that situation.
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We also support council member Williams and Hudson's bills to protect homeowners from deed deed fraud.
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And we urge you to pass all of these bills out of committee so that they can get voted on in time to reduce the number of properties in the May lien sale.
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And lastly, I just wanna reemphasize or ask that this committee and the housing and buildings committee really work with us to fully abolish the lien sale and replace it with a more fair system.
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And there's a lot of lot of other bills that are important to making that happen.
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So thank you.