Yvette Chen of Fair Housing Justice Center testifies on accessibility and discrimination

Good afternoon, my name is Yvette Chen and I'm a policy associate at the Fair Housing Justice Center, a civil rights nonprofit organization serving the NYC area.

Our mission is to eliminate housing discrimination, promote accessible and inclusive communities, and strengthen the enforcement of fair housing laws.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

We welcome the administration's initiative to address the city's deeply inequitable housing crisis.

However, building new affordable housing will not in itself produce housing equity or be effective without the enforcement of fair housing laws.

I will focus on three priorities today.

First, accessibility.

The city must act urgently because disability discrimination is rampant.

DOB and HPD must work together to review plans and inspect new developments, rather than relying on self-certification, which lets violations go undetected.

The city should also enforce the 5% UFAS requirement, bar non-compliant developers from subsidies and approvals, and target retrofits to buildings with documented complaints.

Second, discrimination will persist without the enforcement of the human rights law.

We ask the council to urge the administration to fund and support CCHR to eliminate source of income discrimination and enforce the Fair Transfer Housing Act.

SOI discrimination has been illegal since 2008, yet it's ceased.

CCHR's most common complaint.

The Fair Transfer Housing Act took effect in January 2025, yet CCHR received no additional funding to enforce the law.

Without adequate funding to enforce the law, vouchers will go unused and thwart the city's housing mobility strategy.

Lastly, invest in fair housing education and coordinate growth with neighborhood investment and real community participation through comprehensive planning so that new housing is paired with the infrastructure and services neighborhoods need to thrive.

Thank you.