Chair Sanchez questions Director Weaver on tenant outreach for distressed building
Sanchez describes a tenant from 165 West 197th Street who asked for help organizing for repairs. Weaver outlines MOPT's approach: checking for tenant association meetings, connecting with community-based organizations, providing strategy support, and offering Talk to Tenants NYC 101 trainings.
I'm going to go out of order and ask a question for Director Weaver, just because this tenant came to me over the weekend, and there's this thing in your plan, and it seems like you should have the answer, right?
This is regarding streamlining tenants'rights and communications and outreach through the mayor's office to protect tenants.
So I had a tenant who came, who was at a backpack distribution event, and she said, 165 West 197th Street, we have been organizing ourselves.
We have knocked on all of each other's doors, and we met once in the lobby.
We really need your help.
And they said, Birina, can you come to our building and talk to the tenants and help us organize for repairs?
There's all kinds of vermin and rats.
and bad apartment conditions.
So there's a protocol that I follow in my office, but what would the rental ripoff report recommendations tell a council member like me with a tenant and a building like this to do next?
Can you repeat the address again just so I get it down?
165 West 197th Street.
In the Bronx.
So the tenants are, thank you for the question.
So we are providing a significant amount of support to tenant associations through our office every single day.
And we typically ask the people who reach out to us, are they having regular meetings in the building lobby?
Have they connected with an existing community-based organization?
You have many in your district who are quite good.
So we typically will then direct people to either existing resources like the community-based organizations, the legal service providers based on the context that they're providing about what's going on in their building.
We provide strategy support to tenant association leadership about how to target.
You know, a campaign to improve living conditions in their building if they need that.
And we are also providing ongoing tenant organizing 101 trainings through our Talk to Tenants initiative that we're working on with the Mayor's Office of Mass Engagement.
So we might consider recommending that this tenant association come to one of our upcoming Talk to Tenants NYC 101s where we can actually provide more.
end up support about how to form a TA in your building and what next steps you can take.
All right, thank you.
I will be following up with you, Director Weaver, for this building.