Rochelle Thompson testifies on senior tenant harassment and eviction

Oh, all right.

Hi, my name is Rochelle Thompson, and I am known as the First Lady of Jazz in Harlem, USA, the continent that I love.

I've lived in my rent-stabilized apartment for 41 years.

They have tried to evict me 19 times, every entity, five of them that's come into the building.

They have tried to take me to court.

Recently, they tried to do a holdover, and I was in HP court.

I did win my court.

battle, but in the HP court, Judge Leslie A.

Granger signed a warrant for my eviction.

So I reported her to the Judicial Oversight Committee.

I'm here today to let the council know, as seniors, we are targeted, we are not listened to, we're constantly in court, we cannot get counsel.

I had to face three

landlord attorneys alone, but I kicked their you-know-what.

So I am hoping that the council will take in consideration that our leases or recertification

should be automatically done, that we're, again, there's a cap on how many times they can take us to court.

I've been down here before and spoke about this four times.

Please listen to the senior citizens.

Please be proactive.

Please, if we are in class C violations with mixing valves and scaffolding in front of the building,

please have the code enforcement from HPD just come into the building, go into the basement, and fix the mixing valves before there is a fire in the building.

Thank you for letting me speak.

You're welcome.

And thank you to this panel for testifying today.

The next panel will consist of Christina Weggs, Zenip Turin, Andrea Goldwyn, and Emma Bartley.

And we'll be in first with Andrea Goldman.

Take your time, Andre.

I'm not rushing you.

No, not at all.

I don't want you to trip.

You can begin, Ms.

Andrea.