Public housing tenants were finally being welcomed into the city\u2019s \u201cRental Ripoff\u201d hearings.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Public housing tenants were finally being welcomed into the city\u2019s \u201cRental Ripoff\u201d hearings
\n
Mayor Zohran\u00a0Mamdani said they too have a right to live in safe conditions
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Attorney General Letitia James, who spoke exclusively to NY1, said the goal of the hearings is to turn complaints into solutions<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are a NYCHA resident, we want and welcome your stories at \u2018Rental Ripoff\u2019 hearings,\u201d Mayor Zohran Mamdani said.<\/p>\n
He publicly announced the change on Thursday night in the Bronx.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have also come to expect little from a city government that has constantly turned a blind eye to disrepair. So the legacy of living in that housing is a legacy of being ignored. And I say that to say that it is our responsibility to rewrite that legacy,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n
This was the first time New York City housing residents were allowed inside. Mamdani said they too have a right to live in safe conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cNYCHA should not be an afterthought. NYCHA has been an issue for New York City for thousands of years,\u201d the Rev. Kevin McCall, a housing and tenant advocate, said.<\/p>\n
The news was bittersweet for housing advocates like McCall, who said the reprieve came a little too late.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were excluded at the conversation, not included. Now you want to be able to talk about it because of the pressure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
McCall said he\u2019s hopeful Mamdani will be able to finally invest and address the slew of issues at housing developments across the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mayor should clean up his own backyard before he goes to someone else\u2019s,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the hearing, tenants rallied for their bad landlords to be held accountable. NY1 spoke to a slew of residents who say they are living in units that are infested with rats and roaches and have problems with mold and elevators.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey continue to charge fees for things like washing machines and things of that nature, but they don\u2019t provide the services that we require and have a right to,\u201d Ann Maitin, a tenant, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe call management first, they don\u2019t respond, they take forever to respond. They tell the super to fix it, but then don\u2019t have the part the super needs. They take months to order the new materials,\u201d Diane Finch, a tenant, said.<\/p>\n
As part of the hearing, tenants who signed up got a chance to speak one-on-one with city officials for 3 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not the start of testimony but the start of solutions,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Letitia James, who spoke exclusively to NY1, said the goal of the hearings is to turn complaints into solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important that we hear from tenants because policy is usually framed from the issues tenants bring forward,\u201d James said.<\/p>\n
The next \u201cRental Ripoff\u201d hearing is scheduled for March 28 in Manhattan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Public housing tenants were finally being welcomed into the city\u2019s \u201cRental Ripoff\u201d hearings. What You Need To Know…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[2908,109,25,128,2907,6348,9,24,12,63,87,129,131,130,27],"class_list":["post-161040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-app-housing","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-bronx","tag-housing","tag-kelly-mena","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}