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Q&A
Challenges in contacting displaced tenants after fires
1:15:20
·
119 sec
Council Member Alexa Áviles raises concerns about contacting displaced tenants in the aftermath of fires and proposes ideas to ensure agencies can reach affected residents.
- Áviles suggests compelling landlords to provide tenant contact information to agencies, as landlords already collect this data for rent collection.
- HPD Deputy Commissioner AnnMarie Santiago explains that vacate orders now include QR codes linking to information pamphlets, which provide necessary contact details for tenants.
- For larger fires, HPD requests tenant information from building owners to account for all households.
- The discussion touches on the challenges of reaching all affected tenants, especially when not everyone in a household is listed on official records.
Alexa Áviles
1:15:20
Just a quick follow-up to that.
1:15:23
Know, that moment where you lose people, where they're in trauma and they don't wait around for something, is there a way that you could compel the landlord landlords are collecting rent from somebody.
1:15:37
They have the contact information.
1:15:40
Is there a way to compel that we make sure we get who's living in those buildings to make sure we don't lose them in this kind of moment of trauma?
1:15:53
Or that they are not at home and they come back later and nobody's there, right?
1:15:57
Has has the agencies considered that as another way to make sure that we get access to the tenants who are in those buildings?
AnnMarie Santiago
1:16:06
I I think one of the things that we've done, and I believe buildings has as well, is the vacate order itself now does have a QR code that takes them to that pamphlet that we worked with your office on, and that does provide them hopefully all of the contact information they need in order to, even if in that moment of trauma they they didn't register with EHS, they didn't take ARC information, brings them back to that place where they can start that process.
1:16:36
In larger fires especially, we do ask the owners for tenant information.
1:16:45
So I think we make sure that all of the households are accounted for, that anyone registering for services, you know, knows that we know that they are maybe come to us for services.
1:16:57
But sometimes not everybody in the household is on that.
Alexa Áviles
1:17:00
Sure, sure.
1:17:01
Know that I'm sure that's a real problem, and I have a specific instance of that in my district where there was a fire.
1:17:08
But in terms of when you say larger, is there a threshold limit that we're talking about?
1:17:13
Is it 50 units?
1:17:14
Is there
AnnMarie Santiago
1:17:15
I would have to get back to you council member.
1:17:17
There's a hard
Alexa Áviles
1:17:18
Thank you, thank you chairs.
1:17:19
Great.