PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Pamela Herrera, Land Justice Coordinator of Western Queens Community Land Trust
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Pamela Herrera, representing Western Queens Community Land Trust and the Abolish the Tax Lien Sale Coalition, testified about the importance of preserving homeownership and promoting racial equity. She shared observations from door-knocking in Queens, highlighting issues with vacant commercial properties, neglected apartment buildings, and struggling homeowners.
- Herrera strongly supported two bills: Intro 782-A (improving access to ACRIS) and Intro 783 (alerting property owners to accruing debt)
- She emphasized the urgency of passing these bills to help reduce properties in the May 2025 lien sale
- Herrera also expressed support for efforts to reduce fraud opportunities, thanking council members Williams and Hudson
Pamela Herrera
0:56:36
Hello.
0:56:37
Good morning, committee on finance chair Brannon and all committee members.
0:56:40
My name is Pamela Herrera, and I'm the land justice coordinator for the Western Queens Community Land Trust.
0:56:46
I belong also to the Abolish the Tax Lien Sale Coalition.
0:56:49
As Paula mentioned, we preserve homeowners and tenants' ability to stay in their homes, promote racial equity, and support community land trusts.
0:56:59
My testimony is, more about door knocking.
0:57:02
When I had gone to a story in Queens and I had noticed that, there are a lot of, vacant commercial properties and neglected apartment buildings.
0:57:12
We saw legal conversions.
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We saw unlit hallways, broken front doors, broken intercoms, and more alarming dangerous conditions.
0:57:20
These conditions continue the predatory practice we see across our boroughs.
0:57:24
As for homeowners, we saw the deceased relatives with no left, with no plan left behind, leaving behind a stack of bills with no resources.
0:57:34
We saw income restricted families trying to make ends meet.
0:57:39
And today, we're really glad that the council is hearing the 2 imperative bills that council member nurse, will that will improve the DOF's process.
0:57:50
So let's pass intro 1782 that will give owners access to ACRIS, which is another form of altering families and DOF, alerting families and DOF and giving them another form of communication to support low income families and intro 1783, which can alert property owners to accruing debt about which they may not have been aware of before and help them avoid the lien sale, speculation, and foreclosure.
0:58:20
We also are supportive of all efforts to reduce the opportunities for defraud, which we thank, council members, Williams and Hudson for identifying ways that the city can use its powers to do that.
0:58:34
So please vote on these bills so that it can become law in time to help reduce the number of properties headed to the May 2025 lien sale.
0:58:42
Thank you.