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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Jackie Del Valle, Coordinator of Stabilizing NYC at Take Root Justice
5:42:38
ยท
122 sec
Jackie Del Valle, representing Stabilizing NYC at Take Root Justice, requests funding for various housing initiatives and highlights the critical need for tenant support in the face of increasing housing threats. She emphasizes the importance of community organizing and legal representation in combating tenant harassment and preserving affordable housing.
- Requests $5 million for Stabilizing NYC, $3 million for community land trusts, and $4.95 million for community housing preservation strategies
- Describes Stabilizing NYC as a coalition of 20 organizations combining tenant organizing with legal representation
- Highlights the urgent need for contract registration and addressing the backlog of funding, with some organizations going nearly two years without receiving money
Jackie Del Valle
5:42:38
Hi, good afternoon.
5:42:39
My name is Jackie Davalle and I'm coordinator of Stabilizing NYC at Take Root Justice.
5:42:45
I work with Pilar and Paula and thank you counsel for your leadership and it's really great to meet the baby.
5:42:53
So we are requesting $5,000,000 for stabilizing NYC, Three Million Dollars for the community land trust, and $4,950,000 for the community housing preservation strays initiative.
5:43:05
I think Pilar illustrated really well about how Take Root is the money, and we're gonna hear from Paula soon.
5:43:11
So let me just tell you a little bit about stabilizing NYC.
5:43:15
We're 20 organizations that combine tenant organizing with legal representation to combat tenant harassment and preserve affordable housing.
5:43:24
We work across landlord portfolios whose landlords have often made highly speculative investments with a plan to push out tenants and flip the units out of rent stabilization.
5:43:35
We through our coalitions, we have run rent strikes, prevented eviction, corrected hazardous conditions, passed legislation with the council, and empowered hundreds of tenants to lead the rent fight in Albany for the past eleven years.
5:43:48
Yet despite all these tremendous ink plaques, tenants home or tenants homes are more under threat than ever.
5:43:54
We have a federal government hostile to nonprofits and tenants.
5:43:58
You opened this panel with the call to have this be the most pro tenant budget ever, and I think funding, organizing, and these programs is very critical to that.
5:44:11
And also, it's been talked about before, but the need for the contract registration and the backlog.
5:44:16
We are going on almost two years of no money, and it's actually despite all the progress, we are in worse shape than ever.
5:44:23
I submitted and gave you a copy of my testimony to contracts last year and I work with Ben in your office.
5:44:29
And everyone is trying but without we need the money advanced going forward.
5:44:35
It's magical thinking to think that suddenly procurement is gonna get better.
5:44:39
Thanks.