Andrew Sokolof Díaz remembers how difficult it was for him to be displaced after a fire in Jackson Heights in 2021, which left more than 200 families homeless.
“It was a great chaos, it took twelve hours to coordinate in hotels, we in Jamaica Queens with our newborn and many families in the Bronx, in Brooklyn, in all the boroughs,” Sokolof said.
Andrew says one of the hardest things was being denied access to his apartments.
“And we thought that if they were not going to give access to the buildings because they were our things, we are talking about jewelry, we are talking about the immigrant who only has a photo of his family, of his town that he will never recover and that will never more we have recovered,” added Sokolof.
On top of all this, Andrew added, it took the property owner almost three years to complete the repairs.
Aiming to protect tenants in circumstances like Andrew’s, Councilman Shekar Krishnan on Thursday introduced the “Coming Home Act,” a package of laws that among other things seeks to speed up the return of tenants in the event of eviction.
“This happens many times in rent-stabilized apartments, because it is a way for the owners to remove the apartments from the stabilization of these transactions and this system,” explained the councilor.
“Today I introduced a package of legislation that will ensure our government protects tenants and keeps them in their homes, without contributing to their illegal evictions.
“When tenants are displaced from their homes, they are more vulnerable. However, the government fails them,” the councilor also wrote in a message on social networks.
Today, I introduced a package of legislation that will ensure our government is protecting tenants and keeping them in their homes, not aiding in their illegal eviction.
When tenants are displaced from their homes, they’re at their most vulnerable. Yet government fails them. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/qG7VBDfj2e
— Shekar Krishnan (@voteshekar) March 7, 2024
With rental availability at just 1.4%, Krishnan notes that landlords are raising rents by destroying properties, delaying repairs and illegal evictions, while the city relocates tenants far away, complicating their return and increasing thefts from vacant buildings.
In response to these problems the three bills seek to:
Keep families in your community or nearby.
Deploy relocation specialists to assist tenants and oversee repairs.
Take legal action against owners for late repairs.
Require landlords to inform tenants of the right to return after an eviction.
And report the use of the special reparations fund.
“We are happy, we are optimistic to see how this continues because the work does not stop here but this is a great relief for the next people displaced by the hurricanes or fires that are going to come,” said Andrew.
According to city data, of the more than 460 eviction orders from 2023 still active, 70% have been in effect for more than 6 months.
And one in ten eviction orders remain in effect for a period of two years or more.
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2024-03-08 17:51:00
#Bills #protect #tenants #displacement #homes
