Council Member Lee explains vote on COPA and SCRI/DRI

Permission to explain my vote.

Permission granted.

Thank you.

Again, I just wanted to echo a lot of the sentiments of my colleagues and congratulate those that are passing bills today.

And thank you especially to Speaker Menon for passing Intro 943 today and being the speaker to finally push it and carry it over the line after so many years of it being deliberated in the past.

And also congrats to Councilmember Lewis.

Greedry, super important.

We've got to take care of our older adults and make sure they have dignity.

And as someone who ran senior centers and home-bound meals programs previously, I know how much this is going to impact the older adult community, so thank you.

And especially, I wanted to give a special shout-out to Councilmember Nurse, because I was on the last iteration of your bill as well as the current iteration,

and having worked with a lot of the nonprofit organizations that do this work in the community, like AFI, like St.

Nick's Alliance, and like so many others that build amazing housing opportunities for our communities.

I want to thank you for your...

perseverance for all the misinformation and you know all the misinformation that's being spread out there you handled it with such grace and you really tackled a lot of questions that everybody had

and again I want to reiterate this is a very very specific subset of

buildings that qualify and it's what the name says.

Opportunity is for the O.

It's an opportunity.

It's not guaranteed.

It just gives these nonprofits an opportunity to bid on some of these properties and turn them into housing that will make our communities proud.

So I just want to thank you and commend you, Council Member Nurse, for your hard dedication and work on COPA.

And with that, I vote aye on all.

Lewis.