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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Pilar de Jesus, Senior Advocacy Coordinator of Housing Unit at TakeRoot Justice
5:40:06
ยท
146 sec
Pilar de Jesus from TakeRoot Justice urged the council to continue funding programs that support their work, including AHTP, RTC, Stabilizing NYC, and CHPI. She shared a case study of tenants in an East Harlem building facing severe neglect and safety issues, emphasizing the importance of legal service providers in supporting tenants' rights.
- The East Harlem building has 30 units with over 200 code violations and required $33,000 in emergency repairs by HPD.
- Tenants faced issues including inadequate heat, no hot water, infestations, lead, mold, crumbling facade, and carbon monoxide poisoning.
- After four years of struggle, the tenants are close to securing an enforceable agreement with their landlord.
Pilar de Jesus
5:40:06
It's my mom.
5:40:08
Anyway, so it's lot of mother daughters here and shout out to Yaya and just wanna say muchas gracias.
5:40:15
Thank you to the clients.
5:40:16
My name is thank you council and everyone here being patient.
5:40:20
My name is Bilal de Jesus.
5:40:21
I'm a senior advocacy coordinator in the housing unit at Take Root Justice.
5:40:26
These are long time clients of ours.
5:40:29
I'm here today to urge you to continue funding the programs that make our work possible like a I hate the acronym.
5:40:35
AHTP, RTC, stabilizing NYC, and CHPI.
5:40:41
My colleague Paula Siegel is gonna be speaking Paula is gonna be speaking about community land trust initiative which is a key to making sure our neighborhoods stay affordable and aren't taken over by spectators.
5:40:53
And I'm gonna be submitting a more specific testimony but I'm gonna use my time now to talk about this East Harlem building that the tenants here are representing.
5:41:05
So we've been working with the tenants since 02/2021.
5:41:08
This is a 30 unit building with more than 200 code violations.
5:41:13
HPD has spent more than 33,000 in emergency repairs to make up for the landlord's neglect.
5:41:20
The building is home to families who have lived for decades, family who has who have helped sustain the city.
5:41:26
Our involvement began when our community partners reached out alerting us that the tenants in this building were dealing with severe neglect from their landlord who had failed to maintain the property for over twenty years.
5:41:39
These tenants endured inadequate heat, no hot water, rat and roach infestations, lead, mold and crumbling facade, and even landlord violence.
5:41:49
At the time we were contacted, some of the tenants had suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty boiler.
5:41:55
After the Department of Buildings shut down the boiler and ordered repairs, the landlord simply turned its back releasing more turning it back on releasing more carbon monoxide and sickening the tech tenants a second time.
5:42:07
The tenants sought to understand their rights and our with our support, they fought back.
5:42:12
Through organizing, legal action, and unwavering determination, they held their landlord accountable and now after four years of struggle, they're on the verge of securing legible enforceable agreement with their landlord and again I can go on and on but just to really encourage the the real need for legal service providers to really support what's happening to tenants.