During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become common for politicians to interact with their constituents virtually and Marcela Mitaynes, an assembly member for District 51 (which includes Red Hook, Sunset Park and northern Bay Ridge) has continued that trend by holding a series of fireside chats.
The chats were streamed and recordings can be found on Mitaynes’ Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. She gave participants an opportunity to ask questions and find out about her job and her goals. She responded to all questions in both English and Spanish.
Mitaynes spoke about her efforts to get the Good Cause Eviction bill passed.
“There are a lot of people who had leases that expired during the pandemic and have landlords that are unwilling to renew them because they owe rent or possibly another arbitrary reason,” Mitaynes said.
“They can refuse to renew the lease, which means the tenants will be evicted. This legislation would mean the landlord must provide a good reason for why the tenants cannot stay in the apartment. This bill provides protection for tenants that live in small houses or units of five or less and would also prevent arbitrary rent increases.”
There had been an eviction moratorium, which protected tenants from being evicted during the pandemic, but the moratorium expired on January 15th. According to her biography on nyassembly.gov., Mitaynes herself “was evicted from her rent-stabilized apartment of 30 years, which began her life’s work of empowering her neighbors to know their rights and find their voices to fight to stay in their homes.”
Mitaynes also spoke about where she wants to focus her efforts, saying, “I didn’t hear anything from [Governor Kathy Hochul] about the Excluded Workers Fund, which is something I want to prioritize. We got $2.1 billion last year, which was historic but we’re going to need $3 billion this year. We need to let our neighbors know that the governor has not prioritized our needs. A great way to get involved is to contact our office [(718) 492-6334.]”
The Excluded Workers Fund provides compensation to workers with low-wage jobs who lost income due to the pandemic, as long as they are not eligible for Unemployment Insurance due to immigration status or other factors.
Mitaynes also answered a question about what she thought of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) and its goals.
“The governor included the homeownership pilot program as a priority, a small program to develop low-income housing homeownership projects, and 421a,” Mitaynes said. “For those who don’t know, 421a is a program that gives tax abatements to landlords and property owners. [421a] really is wasting a lot of resources. We put a lot of money into this program and the amount of units that we’re getting in return is not sufficient.”
The chats were informative and provided an opportunity for Mitaynes’ constituents to get to know her. So far, her chat from January 15th has more than 600 views. However, while technology provides an easy, safe way for people to connect during the pandemic, it does come with downsides too. During the chat on January 15th, there was no sound for the first 13 minutes.
Mitaynes’ district office is located at 4907 4th Ave. Suite, 1A in Brooklyn. Her email is mitaynesm@nyassembly.gov.
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