Chair Thomas-Henry questions Khan on biggest needs from commercial tenants and multilingual outreach
Thomas-Henry asks about recurring needs from businesses served. Khan says lease review is the most common casework, notes challenges for businesses with limited English proficiency, and describes SBS sending mailers to businesses from open data to promote programs. He confirms services are available in multiple languages with multilingual staff.
What are some of the biggest needs from these businesses that you service that you're finding?
Like what's coming up repeatedly for commercial tenants?
The vast majority of the casework is generally limited to or generally pertains to lease review.
So businesses often...
And it speaks to Councilmember Brewer's bill where businesses may have trouble understanding that document and all of the implications of that document.
And then if you add on other challenges like...
Other challenges that business owners may have, not having a lawyer in their partnership team that is opening up the business.
It can be complicated if you're a speaker of English with limited proficiency.
That's another complication now you have while you're navigating whether or not to sign that lease.
And we know that the commercial rental market is not the easiest with plentiful options in every single corridor.
And so businesses may be forced to make a decision in the interest of time to move without legal advice.
And that's where we want to step in.
We want to serve those businesses ahead of time.
One thing we're really interested in doing and speaks to Councilmember Murano's point of
Is there a backlog or why is it so few businesses that are partaking in the service?
We would love to do more.
And we've even been sending mailers to businesses from open data with the state whenever we've seen data that suggests that a business may be opening.
Whether it's a residential address or a storefront address, we will send you a mailer that says we want to help you open.
Here's the program for business permitting, which is our NYC Business Express Service Team.
And here's the commercial lease assistance program.
If you haven't signed a lease yet, let us know and we want to help you understand what those terms are.
So really excited to keep working on this issue and also why we think we support the goals of Councilmember Brewer's bill of
some transparency and assistance to businesses in understanding what their liabilities would be in a commercial lease.
Those mailers, and then are they sent in multiple languages?
I can get back to you on the mailers and the languages, but all of our services are available in all the languages in the city.
Our team that provides this legal service is also comprises of multilingual staff.
So the direct service of the legal advice can be provided in multiple languages as well.
It's not just relying on a third-party interpretation service.
Got it.