| Saturday, April 06, 2002 - 09:35 pm This topic continues the discussion of how to deal with the crisis of insufficient representation available to tenants in Housing Court. The full question and initial responses are available here, please read them first: http://www.rentwars.com/discus/messages/5/157.html Any message, or part of a message, that discusses a topic other than this will be moved to the proper topic.
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| Sunday, April 07, 2002 - 04:17 am We already have civil penalties. The courts wont assess them. Whats the point of more?
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| Wednesday, April 10, 2002 - 01:06 pm Regarding the point that Ronin made about court ordered repair no-shows: Each time the judges ordered repairs they gave, at the landlord's request, multiple dates. This would mean two or three days that I had to take off from work, round up a few witness's and hope that the repair people would show up, while sitting at home all day. I lost a lot of work days. The judge finally got a court resource person involved. If the repair people didn't show up, I was to call this person at the court. They do reports that they then give to the judge. On another occasion the court resource person came to the apartment right after the hearing. This court resource person was professional and did provide an accurate report to the court. Landlords/property owners-managers are no longer using Mafia/strong arm tactics to drive tenants out of affordable housing. The planned and thought out NEW tactics are simply letting the building go, no cleaning or painting of the hallways, no repairs, making it very, very difficult to get simple repairs done in a timely fashion. I am expected to pay my rent in a timely fashion. If I don't I am fined a late fee or dragged into court. Why can't landlords be required to do repairs in the same timely fashion? When the landlord does not provide me with services, hires supers who do not do their job they are debting to me. About the civil penalaties? If the repairs aren't done just abate the rent starting with two months rent and going from there. Once a tenant gets six months rent abated then Civil Penalties will start to kick in. Civil Penalties go to the City Administration not to the tenant. A portion of these Penalties could go into a fund to halt evictions in non-payment proceedings- as in back rent payments. Welfare does not give a back rents payment unless other funds are located and made available. Another portion would go into a fund to buildreal affordable housing for working people. A percentage of the Civil Penalties could be used to house those who are currently homeless. Another part would be used to build up a fund to educate tenants and working people about the arcane and msytical procedures of housing court. This would include training and making available more tenant advocates, paralegals, attorneys and social workers.
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| Thursday, April 11, 2002 - 02:44 am "first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." - ghandi
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| Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 02:58 pm Wow!! Thanks Mohandas. That's quite an inspiring thought from a great man. Ronin
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| Thursday, May 02, 2002 - 12:41 pm Please, I am not great. I am merely a humble servant of tenants. How many people in India have no homes and when they put something together using discarded wood and metal they are forced out by armed soldiers? Their hutments are bulldozed and often these people are fatally injured and even killed. Housing is a human right. Everyone has a right to a clean, safe and affordable place to live.
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