Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Oksana Mironova, Housing Policy Analyst from Community Service Society of New York
5:59:15
·
135 sec
Oksana Mironova from the Community Service Society of New York testified on various housing issues, including the Right to Counsel program, Community Land Trusts, and the preservation of legacy social housing. She commended the city council for securing funding but expressed disappointment in the implementation of Right to Counsel.
- Advocated for doubling the Community Land Trust Initiative budget to $3 million
- Highlighted the importance of legacy social housing (public housing, Mitchell Lama, HDFCs) which houses over 275,000 families
- Called for permanent and deep affordability in housing stabilization efforts
Oksana Mironova
5:59:15
you so much.
5:59:16
Thank you chair for sticking around until the bitter end and I will be quick because I'm sure you want to be done with this.
5:59:24
My name is Alexander Meronaba and I am a housing policy analyst with the Community Service Society of New York.
5:59:31
And thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
5:59:34
We commend the city council for securing a $5,000,000,000 commitment in funding for housing during the City Of Yes negotiations.
5:59:43
But I have to say that we're disappointed that the full right to council ask did not make it into the final package.
5:59:51
We just published a new eviction analysis that found that right to counsel in tandem with stronger rent laws have helped reduce the eviction filings by 49%.
6:00:04
Even though the program's impact is really clear, gaps in implementation are growing.
6:00:09
We are seeing more and more qualified tenants not being offered legal counsel in housing court and are seeing a troubling rise in evictions among moderate income tenants as well.
6:00:19
So we're calling on the city to honor its commitment to full implementation of right to counsel.
6:00:25
Thank you so much.
6:00:26
I've been watching the testimony the whole day today.
6:00:29
And your commitment to neighborhood pillars, open door, and capacity building within HPD and DOB are hugely a huge deal, and thank you for that.
6:00:42
I want to echo what the previous panel has discussed in regards to the Community Land Trust Initiative.
6:00:49
We would love to see its budget double to $3,000,000 And we're also happy to see the focus in HPD and with the City Council on our legacy social housing.
6:01:03
So that's public housing, Mitchell Lama, HDFCs.
6:01:06
I know that they have been mentioned multiple times throughout the day today.
6:01:10
And just to add that they house over 275,000 families, so huge portion of our housing stock.
6:01:21
The one thing that we want to contribute to this conversation is that during the stabilization efforts we'd love to see permanent and deep affordability as well.