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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Jeremy Bunyaner, Constitutional Officer and Executive Board Member of Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys, UAW Local 2325
3:13:10
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Jeremy Bunyaner, representing UAW Local 2325, testified about the challenges faced by legal services workers who assist NYCHA residents and other New Yorkers with housing issues. He highlighted the underfunding of their services and its impact on their ability to provide quality assistance.
- UAW Local 2325 represents over 3,400 legal services workers in the New York City area
- Decades of underfunding have led to an attrition and workload crisis in legal services
- Low salaries and benefits are causing difficulty in filling experienced positions, leading to overburdened staff and loss of institutional knowledge
Jeremy Bunyaner
3:13:10
Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
3:13:12
My name is Jeremy Bignaner.
3:13:14
I am an elected constitutional officer sitting on the executive board of the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys, United Auto Workers Local two thousand three hundred twenty five.
3:13:25
UAW twenty three twenty five represents over 3,400 active and retired legal services workers at over 30 nonprofit organizations in the New York City Metro Area, including the majority of providers participating in the right to counsel universal access program.
3:13:42
Twenty three twenty five members are the workers who keep people in their homes, fight for repairs, and keep NYSHA and private landlords accountable to the law by making sure New Yorkers have access to justice in our courts and vital social services in our city.
3:13:58
Our members are an essential labor force, but like with NYSHA itself, decades of underfunding has led to untenable conditions.
3:14:06
We are facing an attrition and workload crisis.
3:14:10
Our salaries and retirement benefits have failed to keep pace with our counterparts in the district attorney's offices and corporation counsel.
3:14:18
When our wages stagnate, the services poor and working class New Yorkers receive are degraded.
3:14:26
Positions requiring experience go unfilled, leaving those who remain overburdened with rising caseloads, and we lose talent and institutional knowledge.
3:14:36
It takes experienced advocates to ensure tenants are not evicted over unpaid NYSHA section eight portions of the rent that are not their burden to pay.
3:14:45
It takes a depth of knowledge with NYSHA regulations to navigate succession in NYSHA units so that family homes can remain family homes after the death of a loved one.
3:14:56
Not every licensee holdover is actually that.
3:15:00
A lot of these people or at least some are entitled to these units.
3:15:04
Attempts to meaningfully fill senior positions in the organizations we work for have failed.
3:15:09
Our salaries are just too low, and the cost of living in the city is
Chris Banks
3:15:12
too low.