Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Danette Chavis, Tenant Association President of LaGuardia Houses
5:14:19
ยท
143 sec
Danette Chavis, the Tenant Association president of LaGuardia Houses, testifies about concerns regarding NYCHA's RAD/PACT program and issues affecting tenant associations. She criticizes the lack of time for residents to speak at hearings and expresses frustration with NYCHA's implementation of RAD/PACT without proper resident voting.
- Chavis argues that NYCHA is constructively dismantling tenant association boards by withholding funding and providing inadequate training.
- She criticizes NYCHA for forcing TA leaders to sign agreements they haven't had a chance to read or understand.
- Chavis calls for action to address these ongoing complaints and issues affecting tenant associations.
Danette Chavis
5:14:19
Hello?
5:14:21
Yeah.
5:14:22
Hi.
5:14:22
I'm Janet Chavis.
5:14:23
I'm the TA president of LaGuardia.
5:14:26
And first off, I wanna say three minutes is not nearly enough time to hear all the issues of concern.
5:14:31
It's upsetting to attend these hearings and hear NYCHA give ample amount of time to say what are lies and not have any TA leader have the ability to refute it.
5:14:42
Anyway, despite decided violations of NYCHA being committed in regards to RAD PAC and the outright rejection of the residents who didn't even have a chance to vote, who told from day one that a survey was given, not a vote, NYCHA has been allowed to proceed nonstop with RAD PAC and has basically nearly completed half their portfolio.
5:15:08
In
Jeannie Lopez
5:15:09
the
Danette Chavis
5:15:09
midst of that, NYCHA is taking actions that I believe account to a constructive dismantling of the TA boards themselves.
5:15:19
They arbitrarily make moves to withhold the funding needed to to govern and function these boards, and the training that's given is substandard.
5:15:29
You cannot have a situation where anybody in the development can run for office based on compliance and being the right age only and then entrust them with thousands of dollars and give them what accounts to a fifteen minute video.
5:15:44
No hands on training, no way to ask a turn if they understood the training, and leave it in their hands.
5:15:50
And then at the same time, you cannot force TA leaders to come into an agreement that they must sign, and if they don't withhold their funding, which they've never read or had an opportunity to even understand what's being written.
5:16:04
And that agreement has more restrictions on it than the previous agreement that they signed.
5:16:10
So while they say they provide these boards with the funding needed, they restrict it by the limitations imposed.
5:16:17
And then to turn around and literally hold hostage such an agreement that you ain't seen, that you ain't read, that nobody's been educated.
Louis Bartot
5:16:25
Thank you.
Danette Chavis
5:16:26
What it is is ridiculous, and
Chris Banks
5:16:28
it needs
Danette Chavis
5:16:28
to be addressed.
5:16:29
May I have thirty seconds additional time?
Chris Banks
5:16:32
You may have thirty seconds.
Keisha Crawford
5:16:33
Beep heard
Danette Chavis
5:16:34
these complaints over and over and over again, and I don't see or understand what action, if any, is being taken.
5:16:42
Thank you.