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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Judith Goldiner, Attorney from Legal Aid Society, on Housing Preservation and City FEPS
5:05:53
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131 sec
Judith Goldiner from the Legal Aid Society testified on housing preservation, City FEPS funding, and issues with code violations and HPD's litigation bureau. She emphasized the importance of preserving existing housing units and addressing serious housing condition problems across New York City.
- Highlighted the need for $215 million allocation for City FEPS to help families at risk of eviction
- Expressed concern over a 25% increase in serious (B and C) code violations and lack of sufficient attorneys in HPD's litigation bureau
- Pointed out new issues with heat and hot water complaints being administratively closed without inspection
Judith Goldiner
5:05:53
Judith Goldner from the Legal Aid Society, and I wanted to thank chair Sanchez for her leadership on the housing issues.
5:06:01
It's always a pleasure to work with her.
5:06:03
I wanted to first start talking about city feps.
5:06:08
And this is really the broader conversation is really that HPD did not talk about preservation hardly at all and the real need to preserve the units we have now in fact is way more important than building new units.
5:06:21
We have no issue with building units, but we really need to keep people in the housing that they have now and make sure that it's safe for them.
5:06:28
So the council negotiates as part of City of Yes $215,000,000 over two years to expand city FEPs to people in the community.
5:06:37
Unfortunately, that commitment has not been achieved and it's really critically important that as part of this budget process we make sure that that money is allocated to families at risk of eviction in housing court right now.
5:06:54
We are also concerned that we are seeing such a large increase in code violations, 25% more of B and C violations, which are the most serious violations.
5:07:12
And what our clients experience is that those just linger on and are not addressed.
5:07:18
And part of that is the lack of enough attorneys in HPD's litigation bureau.
5:07:24
I know there was testimony that there are 30 plus attorneys in that bureau, but that is simply not enough for New York City and for the kind of problems in the housing conditions that we're seeing across the city.
5:07:41
We also are seeing a big problem with heat and hot water complaints.
5:07:46
This is a new issue that we are seeing people complain about heat and hot water and that those complaints get administratively closed with no inspection.
Kenny Margarito Alvarez
5:07:55
Thank you.
5:07:55
Your time has expired.
Judith Goldiner
5:07:56
So we hope that the council will address these issues through this budget process, and we appreciate the opportunity to testify today.