Rev. Terry Troia, Minister of The Reformed Church of Huguenot Park, on the affordable housing crisis and homelessness in Staten Island
9:19:15
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3 min
Rev. Terry Troia, a native Staten Islander and minister who has served homeless people for 40 years, describes the evolution and current state of the housing crisis in Staten Island. She highlights the growing homelessness problem, affecting families and low-wage workers, and the prevalence of overcrowded and unsafe living conditions.
- Troia details the expansion of homelessness from primarily affecting individuals with mental health or addiction issues to impacting families and low-wage workers since the mid-1990s.
- She describes various makeshift living situations, including families living in cars, campers, and multiple families sharing small apartments.
- Troia emphasizes the prevalence of illegal basement apartments and the high cost of rent, with rooms without kitchens going for $1700 a month.
- Homelessness has grown significantly on Staten Island over the past 40 years
- Affordable housing crisis in Staten Island, affecting low-wage workers, families, disabled people, and seniors
- Many families are living in overcrowded conditions or makeshift housing
- Illegal basement apartments are common and often unsafe
- Rent prices are extremely high, even for single rooms
- Construction workers who build houses on Staten Island often can't afford housing themselves
- Homelessness in New York City is at its highest level ever
- Staten Island is experiencing a 'tale of two cities' with stark inequality in housing
[EXPERIMENTAL]
Which elements of City of Yes for Housing Opportunity were discussed in this testimony?
- Residential Conversions
- ADU
- Small and Shared Housing
The following are AI-extracted quotes and reasoning about which elements of the proposal were discussed in this testimony.
This is a quick, close approximation. Occasionally, the connection between a testimony's transcript and specific elements of City Planning's proposal is tenuous.
Read about this AI-generated analysis here.
Residential Conversions
"Thousands of people live in illegal basement apartments on Staten Island."
This quote indicates that people are already living in converted spaces like basements, which relates to the residential conversions element of the proposal, although the current conversions are illegal.
"The irony is that there are many new one family houses that construct basements that are ready to rent."
This statement suggests that there are spaces ready for conversion to residential use, which aligns with the residential conversions element of the proposal.
ADU
"Thousands of people live in illegal basement apartments on Staten Island."
This quote relates to the ADU element of the proposal, as basement apartments are a form of accessory dwelling unit. The speaker highlights that these are currently illegal, which the proposal aims to address.
"The irony is that there are many new one family houses that construct basements that are ready to rent."
This statement suggests that there are potential ADUs (basements) ready for use, which aligns with the ADU element of the proposal.
Small and Shared Housing
"There are families, hundreds of families, 2, 3, 4, 5 families living in 3 bedroom apartments, one family in each bedroom, and family renting the living room."
This quote relates to the small and shared housing element of the proposal, as it describes people living in shared spaces due to housing shortages and affordability issues.
"Rooms on Staten Island right next door to where my office is. Rooms without a kitchen with a hallway bathroom going for $1700 a month and how many people can you cram into one room to afford to pay $1700 a month."
This statement describes a form of small and shared housing, with people sharing facilities like bathrooms, which aligns with the small and shared housing element of the proposal.
About this analysis:
This analysis is done by AI that reasons whether or not a quote from the testimony discusses a particular element of the proposal.
All the prompts and data are open and available on Github.
You can search for testimonies that mentioned a specific element in the table on the main meeting page.
When an element is explicitly stated in the testimony (e.g. "Universal Affordability Preference" or "UAP"), the analysis is accurate.
But the connection between a quote from the testimony and an element of the proposal is sometimes implicit.
In these cases, the AI might eagerly label a testimony as discussing a proposal when the connection is tenuous, or it might omit it entirely.