Turning over your ID to get access ...

I found this article by accident today, and want to know what Kenmore Hall tenants think of the answer to this question - people have been complaining about this issue here for years.  Please feel free to comment

Ask A NYC Housing Lawyer: Do I Really Have To Hand Over ID To Enter A Building?

Steve Dobkin and son contemplate tenants' rights on a Park Slope stoop. (Courtesy Private Jake Dobkin Collection)

Do you have a question about New York's complex and sometimes terrifying housing laws? Native New Yorker columnist Jake Dobkin has been receiving a lot of these questions lately, and he's decided to kick some of them over to his dad, longtime NYC tenants' lawyer and housing activistSteve Dobkin. If you have a question, email us and we will pick the most interesting ones to pass along to him.

Today's question comes from a deliveryman who can't stand it when a fancy building requires him to hand over ID just to bring food up to a customer.

So I deliver somewhat fancy food to somewhat fancy buildings. A lot of these buildings have policies that really dick me around—especially when I have to, with my one paper bag, exit the building, walk around the block to the service entrance, and then come back into the same lobby I was just in. But one thing I'm not sure about is ID stuff.

It annoys me to show ID to enter a building, but I get it. But how about the occasional building that makes you give them your ID to hold onto while you're in the building? Is that even legal?

I told the guy to just copy it down and please give it back; it stresses me out to leave it with people. I know it seems like a small thing, but other poor/lower middle class types will know why this annoys me.

Thanks!

A longtime housing attorney responds:

Since 9/11, purported concerns for the security of residents have been used to justify a host of measures invading the privacy of tenants, family members, guests, and visitors. The likelihood is that a delivery guy would be treated by the average judge with even less deference than a visiting in-law.

In 2005, Peter Cooper Village installed a massive electronic key card and video surveillance system which required tenants, family members and anyone who entered the buildings on a regular basis to use an encrypted key card with their picture on it. The Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village Tenants Association challenged the system in Court and at the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (“DHCR”) on a multitude of grounds, from violating leases and the Rent Stabilization Law to totalitarian enslavement, but in the end the Landlord’s repeated mantra of “Security,” backed by recommendations from a former FBI agent, two independent consultants, and the NYPD Crime Prevention Unit, outweighed all resistance.

Cynics and tenant activists suspected that the real motivation for the installation of the computerized key system was to measure the comings and goings of tenants for use as evidence against them in non-primary residence proceedings, a key feature of the campaign to eliminate long-term lower-rent-paying tenants.

The 2006 opinion by the DHCR Commissioner, which was upheld by the State Supreme Court, noted that since “security personnel may review the photos of card key holders as they enter their buildings, via the integrated CCTV system, it is only logical to allow security personnel to be able to ask for a photo ID of non-key card holders.”

Frankly, it’s hard to envision a realistic scenario in which you, as a delivery guy, will be in a position to challenge building management’s holding onto your ID while you’re in the building. Be thankful you haven’t (yet) been subjected to extraordinary rendition to a black site.

The opinion herein does not constitute legal advice, which may only be given in the context of a lawyer-client relationship.

If you've got a housing question you'd like answered, just drop us a line here.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

Gothamist in News on Nov 28, 2014 11:40 am

 

• advice
 
• ask a nyc housing lawyer
 

Fwd: Help Picture the Homeless Come Home

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brodie Enoch & William S Burnett, PTH Board Co-Chairs <development@picturethehomeless.org>
Date: Tue, Jan 20, 2015 at 2:19 PM
Subject: Help Picture the Homeless Come Home

We're going back to East Harlem/El Barrio! Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Dear Friends, Members, and Allies, Picture the Homeless is moving, and we need your help! Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar by a generous donation from the Sparkplug Foundation.  Picture the Homeless just signed the lease on a beautiful wheelchair-accessible storefront office on 126th Street off of Lexington, around the corner from 3 subway lines and great bus service, but we will need your help to cover moving expenses. Please donate to our GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign today, and help spread the word to create the momentum for us to reach $10K. Please chip in with whatever donation you can manage, and - perhaps more importantly - help us build buzz for this effort on Facebook via the "Share" buttons on the campaign page, and tag your friends - along with a personal note telling them why our work is important to you. We also ask that you forward this email to your networks and tweet the link to the GoFundMe page: http://www.gofundme.com/jvuvpk Here's why this is so important. As a city-wide organization it's essential that we be more accessible to all 5 boroughs. For years we've been meeting strong leaders stuck in shelters in Staten Island and Central Brooklyn for whom traveling to our current spot in the Bronx is simply not possible - most shelters have curfews, some fairly early at night. This move puts us steps away from major bus service to Queens, the 4/5/6 trains and much easier access to Brooklyn and Staten Island, as well as all of Upper Manhattan - which is in the throes of gentrification.  And when it comes to homelessness, the intersection of 125th and Lexington is an incredibly crucial spot. It's the main stop for the M35 bus, the only way off of Ward's Island for the 1,000+ people who are placed in shelter there. It's the site of the Pathmark recycling machines, the most widely-used redemption site for hundreds of men and women who make a living picking up recyclable bottles and cans. It's ground zero for countless kinds of "underground economy" jobs... and, because of all these things, it's become a flash point for civil rights conflict, with rookie cops assigned to that intersection to "practice" violating people's rights via arrests and summonses for quality of life violations. East Harlem/El Barrio is also the center of our Community Land trust work, organizing between homeless people and low-income tenants to collectively develop a community development agenda that stops displacement while creating new housing and decent-paying jobs. Our goal is to raise $20K by January 23rd. A generous donor, the Sparkplug Foundation, has offered a match of $10K, so we have $10K to go! This includes some build out, wiring for computers and phones, packing materials and a truck rental.   Click here for our crowd-funding page, via GoFundMe, and make a personally-meaningful donation today.   In addition, we are super-grateful for any help you can offer in promoting the crowd-funding campaign, spreading the word to your friends and social media networks. Pass it on to all the people of good will in your life, along with a note about why you're supporting Picture the Homeless!   With gratitude, Sam J. Miller Communications & Policy Picture the Homeless  follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Support the leadership of homeless New Yorkers by  making a tax-deductible donation today! Copyright © 2015 Picture the Homeless, All rights reserved. A message to friends, members and allies of Picture the Homeless. Our mailing address is: Picture the Homeless 2427 Morris Avenue 2nd Floor Bronx, NY 10468 Add us to your address book  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

--

"Never underestimate the power of a small, dedicated group of people to change the world; indeed, that is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

Fwd: The NYPD Just Admitted That 90% of Their Work is Unnecessary. Homeless People Have Been Saying That For Decades!

From: Homeless Civil Rights Warriors <news@picturethehomeless.org>

TEXT UP HERE Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. The "Broken Windows" theory of policing has shaped New York City since the 1990's, with police under tons of pressure to make arrests and issue summonses for nonviolent offenses that aren't even against the law - anything to get poor people and people of color out of public view, and make the city safe for business and real estate to jack up the rents and make middle- and upper-class New Yorkers feel safer. Until now. This week, as a political ploy to put pressure on a mayor they say is their enemy, the NYPD has called off business as usual. The leading police union issued a memo telling all officers that "NO enforcement action in the form of arrests and/or summonses" is to be taken "unless absolutely necessary."  The result? Arrests have dropped by 90%. Think about that. The NYPD has just let us know that 90% of the arrests they make are unnecessary. "The reported offenses they aren't enforcing as much are [mostly] not criminal offenses: parking violations, urination in public, public intoxication, as well as some marijuana possession. Do we really want over 4,000 people a week locked up for peeing behind a dumpster?"  asked Marc Krupanski, a program officer at the Open Society Justice Initiative, in an article in Vice Magazine. Our members are the people who have been hit the hardest by broken windows policing. Homeless people face harassment and ticketing and arrest on a daily basis by the NYPD. The city spends billions of dollars to criminalize and persecute and arrest and try and incarcerate the poorest of the poor - but won't spend a dime of that on getting people housing. So we asked our members - what should New Yorkers learn from this work stoppage? Chris: This NYPD scare tactic is idiotic. They've basically just said to us "90% of the work that we do is unnecessary." All this taxpayer money being wasted to lock someone up for a bag of weed or someone peeing behind a dumpster? Dave: So all that crap with Broken Windows was unnecessary. That was overkill. The PBA is not the Policemen's Benevolent Association. It's PMA - the Policemen's Malevolent Association. Thirteen: I talk to cops. I talk to the brass, even. Police are not down with making bogus arrests. That's why top cops have been quitting. Unnecessary arrests just make people mad at cops. That's why people hate cops. When I was a kid the police knew everyone in the neighborhood. We need to get back to that model of community policing. Scott: They can do a lot with the money they save with this. A 90% reduction in the amount taxpayers spend on incarceration could pay for a lot of public restrooms... to say nothing of housing. Maria: They need to listen to what we have to say. They're wasting our time in courtrooms, making us miss work, getting us logged out of shelters, and now we see how unnecessary that was. Sidat: We need to drive home that they're not supposed to be arresting people in the first place. This is going to end - they're going to return to business as usual. They don't . So we need to get the public behind us to say "OK, you've admitted how little of what you do is about protecting people, let's do things differently."?   Andres: We need to hit the streets with cameras. Cop Watch. Keep them behind the law. Let them know someone is watching. Dave: They need to apply Broken Windows to Wall Street. Everyone who steals a stapler, every banker who gets a bonus for kicking someone out of their home. Send some lawyers to jail, let some rich people feel what it feels like, and you'll see things change pretty fast. The PBA, and individual officers, should be the ones held financially responsible for settlements of lawsuits. Having taxpayers pick up the bill for cops violating people's rights creates no incentive on cops to behave. Nikita: Our communities are missing so many resources. Housing, education - they need to take this money and use it in the neighborhoods they're systematically depleting through gentrification and overpolicing, so that we can uplift ourselves.  follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend Support the leadership of homeless New Yorkers by making a tax-deductible donation today! Copyright © 2015 Picture the Homeless, All rights reserved. A message to friends, members and allies of Picture the Homeless. Our mailing address is: Picture the Homeless 2427 Morris Avenue 2nd Floor Bronx, NY 10468

DON'T PANIC - IT'S A GOOD THING!

Many tenants got two-page rent summaries and receipts today, and some people were confused about what they meant. I think some people thought they were behind in their rent, when in fact they were just fine. We're all legally entitled to rent receipts, by the way - but I, like many people, rarely if ever request one.

Even if you actually DO owe rent and are behind, the rent statement is potentially a good thing. Sometimes public assistance makes a mistake and doesn't pay (even though you may assume they're up to date), and H.S.I. may not tell you until it's been going on for quite a while, and at that point, you may be getting close to an eviction proceeding. Having the statement in hand gives you information you badly need - and allows you to go down to the Waverly or 16th St. offices to straighten it out before you wind up in Housing Court.

DON'T PANIC. Go down to the rent office on the second floor (not your case manager) and have them go over it with you. It's better to know more about this stuff than remain in the dark. Finally, H.S.I. has taken the initiative to do something right for tenants on their own.

ARE YOU HUNGRY?

IS IT GOOD NEWS OR BAD NEWS?

LOOK WHAT WAS POSTED ON RICHARD FIELDS' OFFICE DOOR!





Jeez.This is just a bit frosty, isn't it? He doesn't even merit the usual good-bye send-off that other departing usually get. Just "he's gone"! Poof! No indication of whether he was laid off, handed in his resignation, nothing, zip, zilch! I know he wasn't the most popular guy on the block, but really! Anyone have any idea what happened? Inquiring minds need to know! Comments are welcome.

Happy New Year....

Best wishes for the coming year - the blog has had 36,144 hits in 2014, and I hope that most of them are from tenants who have found useful information that's helped them improve their situations.

TENANTS' BILL OF RIGHTS

THIS IS THE BILL OF RIGHTS (INTRO 477) THAT JUST RECENTLY PASSED... It's supposed to be publicly posted in rent stabilized buildings, but because H.S.I. is in DEEP denial that that's what Kenmore Hall is (even though the building is still classified that way with the appropriate government agencies), tenants will probably never see it publicly  posted.

Your Rights As A New York City Tenant
Tenants living in privately owned buildings in New York City containing at least three apartments have the rights listed below:

Eviction
Only a marshal or sheriff with a court order can legally perform an eviction in New York against you
• if your landlord has ever accepted rent from you, or
• if you have a valid lease for the apartment, even if the lease has expired, or
• if you have lived in the apartment for 30 days or more, even if no rent was paid and there is no lease.
If any of the above criteria apply, it is illegal for anyone other than a city marshal or sheri ff to remove you or your possessions, prevent you from entering your apartment, or discontinue essential services
such as water, heat, or electricity as a means of forcing you out. You can report such actions to the police, or seek re-entry and a restoration of services by bringing an illegal lockout case at your borough’s housing or civil court.
Before having the right to hire a marshal or sheriff, your landlord must fi rst obtain a judgment and a warrant of eviction from a court, and you have the right to defend yourself in the court case. The
landlord, court, and marshal, are all separately required to notify you if you are subject to an eviction case. These rights apply to everyone, including roommates, family members, subtenants, and guests.

Repairs and Services
Your landlord must maintain your building in good repair, keep the hallways and public areas clean, paint your apartment every three years, exterminate rats, mice, roaches, bedbugs, other vermin, and
deal with any other matter dangerous to life or health, in a timely manner. Your landlord must also maintain electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, and ventilating systems, and appliances installed
by your landlord, in good working order. These rights cannot be waived.

Heat and Hot Water
Every tenant has the right to hot water all year long at all times at a minimum temperature of 120° F, and to adequate heat, with an inside temperature of 68° F from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., when the outside
temperature is below 55° F, and an inside temperature of 55° F from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. when the outside temperature is below 40° F, during the period of October 1 through May 31.

Roommates
You have the right to have family members reside with you so long as the apartment does not become overcrowded. If only one person has signed a lease, you also have the right to share your apartment
with one other adult not related to you, and that person's dependent children, but overcharging roommates in rent stabilized apartments is prohibited. Exceptions and restrictions to the rights to
share your apartment apply to tenants living in subsidized housing and those who receive rental assistance based on income-eligibility. Always check your program's rules before taking in another household member.

Subletting
In privately owned buildings with at least four units, your landlord may not unreasonably deny your request to sublet your apartment. You must follow speci c rules when making a request to sublet.
Subletting without making a proper request and/or obtaining consent from your landlord may be grounds for eviction. Tenants in subsidized housing, or who receive rental assistance based on
income-eligibility, may not have the right to sublet while participating in the programs. Always check your program's rules.

Discrimination
It is illegal for landlords and their agents to discriminate in the rental of housing, or the provision of services, based on actual or perceived race, creed, color, national origin, gender (including gender
identity), disability, age, marital or partnership status, the presence of children, lawful occupation, sexual orientation or citizenship status. If your building - or another building owned by your landlord
- contains six or more dwelling units, you are also protected against discrimination based on a lawful source of income: The landlord may not refuse to rent to a tenant based on his or her intention to
pay the rent using a rent subsidy, or to refuse such subsidy from an existing tenant. If you have been discriminated against, you may contact the New York City Human Rights Commission by calling 311.

Taking Your Landlord To Court
If your landlord does not maintain the building and/or your apartment, or fails to provide reliable services, you can go to your borough’s housing court by yourself or with other tenants in your
building and start a court case called a Housing Part (HP) Action against your landlord, and request the court to order repairs or the restoration of services. Low-income tenants can ask for the court fees to be waived.

Tenant organizations
You have the right to form, join, and participate in a tenants’ organization for the purpose of protecting your rights. Tenants organizations have the right to use common areas of the building,
including the lobby if a community room is not available, free of charge for meetings. Your landlord is forbidden by law to harass you for tenant-organizing activities.

Seniors and Tenants With Disabilities
For tenants living in rent stabilized, rent controlled, and Mitchell- Lama apartments: If you are sixty-two years of age or older or a disabled tenant, and you pay one-third or more of your income in rent, and your income falls below a certain income threshold, you can apply to have your rent frozen through the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) or Disability Rent Increase Exemption (DRIE) programs. You may apply for such programs through the Department of Finance by calling 311. If you are disabled, your landlord must provide reasonable accommodations so that you may enjoy equal access to your housing

Additional rights of Rent-Regulated Tenants
Rent-stabilized and rent-controlled tenants (rent-regulated tenants) have additional rights relating to maximum legal rents, causes for eviction, and leases. Consult the New York State Homes and Community Renewal for more about your rights as a rent regulated tenant. Call 718-739-6400 or visit nysdhcr.gov/rent

Lease renewals and riders
Landlords can only end the tenancy of rent-regulated tenants for specifi c reasons set forth in the laws governing rent-regulation. In most cases when tenants are in compliance with their leases, rent-controlled tenants have rights to continuous occupancy, and rent-stabilized tenants must be off ered the option of either a one-or two-year renewal lease, but if a renewal is not o ffered, the old lease remains in e ffect. Rent-stabilized tenants are not obligated to sign any riders or amendments that change the
terms of their original lease.

Succession
Certain family members (including non-traditional family members) who live with a regulated tenant for a period of time before the primary tenant moves or dies have the right to take over the lease for the apartment under the same terms, conditions, and rent levels as the departing tenant.

Rent reductions
Regulated tenants may apply for a reduction of rent with HCR for decreased services or for repairs  that are not addressed in a timely manner.

Illegal overcharges
A rent-regulated apartment's unique history determines its legal maximum rent. You can contact HCR to investigate, challenge, and seek a rent adjustment and refund of an overpayment, if you believe that you’re being overcharged or if you believe that your apartment was illegally deregulated.

How HRA Needs to Improve Services to Clients on Welfare

This article appeared in today's Center for An Urban Future electronic newsletter, and may be of interest to many of our tenants. (It's about time someone other than welfare recipients recognized what's really wrong with the welfare system...) Here's the link to the original article: https://nycfuture.org/research/publications/a-new-day-at-hra COMMENTARY/OP-ED - NOVEMBER 2014 A NEW DAY AT HRA Though the Human Resources Administration places more New Yorkers into jobs than any other city agency, providing clients with the support they need to find long-term employment has not been a priority for nearly 20 years. As new Commissioner Steven Banks prepares to take the agency in a new direction, CUF workforce fellow David Fischer outlines three principles for success. by David Jason Fischer Tags: workforce development | economic opportunity | human capital | low income The Human Resources Administration (HRA) is by far the largest New York City agency to offer employment and training services, requiring approximately 56,000 cash assistance recipients each month to engage in work activities as a condition of assistance. At approximately $168 million per year, HRA’s workforce budget easily exceeds the combined workforce expenditures of the Department of Small Business Services (SBS) and the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), the other city agencies primarily responsible for providing workforce services to adults and youth respectively.1 But despite the scale of its operations and the enormous amount of money spent, HRA has not really functioned as a workforce development agency for many years. Since the mid-1990s, its focus has been on cutting the public assistance caseload rather than providing recipients with the support they need to find long-term employment. In the words of Jason Turner, a welfare reform pioneer in Wisconsin who served as New York City’s HRA Commissioner from 1998 through 2001, the mission of the agency essentially has been to “create a crisis” in the lives of public assistance recipients in order to spur them to work. The basic idea behind welfare reform—that those receiving support should make a real effort to advance toward self-sufficiency—is in line with the social contract that underlies much of our system of governance. During the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations, however, HRA went well beyond the idea of mutual obligation, effectively using cash assistance as a reward that recipients could earn only by navigating a series of obstacles and requirements. A large share of recipients—approaching half the caseload at times—fell afoul of complex and inflexible program rules, and saw their benefits reduced or eliminated, with punishment continuing even after they were back in compliance. The Work Experience Program (WEP) compelled recipients to perform menial work that did little or nothing to help them find permanent employment. Although 60 percent of cash assistance recipients who are required to participate in work activities lack a high school diploma or equivalency, and about one in six has math and reading skills below a ninth-grade level, access to education and training was severely limited.2 This adversarial approach was effective in reducing the city’s public assistance rolls: from 1.1 million in 1995, the caseload fell to fewer than 350,000 in 2013. But the city’s poverty rate has remained stubbornly high, at around 21 percent, and a recent HRA analysis found that approximately one out of every four New Yorkers who moved from cash assistance into employment returned to the rolls within 12 months. Mayor de Blasio’s appointment last spring of Steven Banks as HRA’s new commissioner left no doubt that the new administration would scrap the previous strategy. As head of the Legal Aid Society, Banks had repeatedly clashed with the agency over its welfare policies. Banks joked at his first press conference, “I’ve been at the Legal Aid Society through five mayoral administrations and this is the first one I’m not going to bring a lawsuit against.”3 Testifying to City Council this past May, Banks offered a withering critique of HRA’s previous practices. He explained how the agency had inflated its gaudy job placement claims by including tens of thousands of New Yorkers who found employment on their own, after HRA had rejected their applications for assistance, and noted the outsized share of clients who became homeless after the agency closed their welfare cases.4 Banks hinted that his predecessors had manipulated applications—staggering rejections and acceptance of reapplications—to keep the total caseload steady even through the Great Recession.5 As proof that the agency’s approach could not hold up to objective review, he cited HRA’s low 10 percent victory rate in disputes with clients that went to a hearing. Under HRA’s new paradigm, the agency views cash assistance and other supports not as a reward for good behavior but a means to help sustain recipients while they take steps to improve their employability and earning power.6 Earlier this fall, the full dimension of HRA’s strategy came into focus when the agency released its biennial Employment Plan, which each of New York State’s 58 social service districts must submit to the state Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance. Under the Plan, HRA proposes to: Greatly expand access to training and education, particularly for 18 to 24 year olds Replace WEP with different models of supported work activity Shift from standardized employment programs to customized approaches for serving shelter residents, foster youth, individuals with limited English proficiency, and domestic violence survivors Take a collaborative rather than confrontational posture towards clients Partner with other city agencies In the charged context of welfare reform, these changes are certain to prompt criticism. Removing the politics, however, the new approach seems like nothing more than common sense. If policymakers perceive low skills and language barriers as an obstacle to employment, the logical response is to increase access to education and language programs. Thus, recipients up to age 24 now will be allowed to participate in full-time basic education beyond the current 12-month limit—a necessary provision for those with very low basic skills.7 Further, cash assistance recipients enrolled in a four-year college program can count that as a mandated work activity. And the approximately 4,000 recipients with limited English proficiency can now participate full-time in English as a Second Language classes for up to 12 months, up from the previous two days per week. In addition to education and skills, relevant and meaningful work experience is another powerful consideration for potential employers. But HRA’s WEP program simply didn’t deliver value: an internal evaluation found that 45 percent of placements ended in failure within six weeks. HRA will continue to phase out WEP as its existing contracts for employment services wind down, and pledges to replace it with “other more effective and sustainable work programs.” Finally, HRA seems ready to partner with other city agencies to better serve the clients they have in common. The Employment Plan proposes to work with the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) on a strategy for youth in foster care, and with DOE and DYCD on a broader approach to engaging young adults. Banks and others also have noted employment initiatives now in development by the mayor’s Jobs for New Yorkers Task Force as a resource for HRA and its clients. If effective, HRA’s new workforce-focused approach to welfare reform will open up opportunities for tens of thousands of New Yorkers, strengthening the overall city economy and countless communities across the five boroughs. To this end, the Center for an Urban Future recommends three broad principles as HRA implements its plan: Quickly flesh out the new rules, and hold to them. Encouraging as the Employment Plan is, it represents a vision rather than a fully developed strategy ready for implementation. The agency must move rapidly to fill in some of the gaps, such as what constitutes “sufficient progress” toward an educational credential and what models of subsidized or otherwise supported employment might replace WEP. Likewise, while HRA has eased requirements for cash assistance recipients and developed less confrontational procedures for resolving conflicts, the credibility of its reforms will come under question if recipients violate those rules with impunity. Provide strong and sustained technical assistance for contracted providers that will be doing business in a very different way. The confrontational pose of front-line case workers for the past twenty years was no accident: from the initial tactic of “diverting” applicants for assistance to the high rates of sanctioning, the tacit idea of welfare reform here was to make the experience as unpleasant as possible. While HRA’s policies are changing, for the most part the same workers will be charged with carrying them out. They will require time and support to internalize a new approach. Normalize welfare recipients within the workforce system. One concern regarding HRA’s role in workforce development has been that employers might be leery of a population stigmatized by receiving public assistance. While HRA’s changes could well reduce that stigma, its clients will benefit by being presented to potential employers as no different than other New Yorkers served through employment programs. The de Blasio administration’s moves toward creating a coherent and coordinated workforce system, rather than a set of programs siloed by agencies, should help to enable this change—as should HRA’s new commitment to partner with other public actors. 1 New York City Office of Human Capital Development, “Following the Money: An Analysis of FY2013-FY2014 Funding for NYC Workforce Development and Adult Education,” Dec. 5, 2013. 2 HRA Biennial Employment Plan, Executive Summary: online at http://www.nyc.gov/html/hra/downloads/pdf/news/internet_articles/2014/oct_2014/EmploYPlan2014ExecSummaryAppendixfinal.pdf 3 Yoav Gonen, “De Blasio picks ex-thorn to run HRA,” New York Post, March 1, 2014. http://nypost.com/2014/03/01/blaz-picks-ex-thorn-to-run-hra/ 4 Banks testimony to NY City Council, May 19, 2014. 5 The monthly average caseload in 2013 was 356,000, just 3 percent higher than the figure in 2009. The total that received assistance over the course of 2013, however, was 602,700. Of this number, 500,000 received recurring benefits. 6 For instance, HRA will now accept a federal waiver allowing un- or underemployed adults without dependents to access the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as Food Stamps), qualifying about 40,000 additional New Yorkers ages 18 to 49. 7 The Center for an Urban Future’s September 2014 report on workforce programs for youth and young adults, “Bridging the Disconnect,” strongly urged such a step. “A New Day at HRA” is part of a series of commentaries about workforce development and human capital issues that was generously funded by the Altman Foundation.

Nothing Happening Here Tonight...

NEWSFLASH

Another Kenmorean tries to escape before

Halloween... lotsa luck with that!

 

 

It's not JUST about the money - it's your REPUTATION, too!

I'm posting this article from the New York Times because it directly addresses some of my concerns about H.S.I.'s - and the CCoC's - gathering of PPI (Personal Protected Information) about their tenants (who they refer to as homeless, even though they have leases and pay rent - or have rent paid for them through various subsidies including Section 8). They use a protocol and software referred to as HMIS, and report data to HUD and other government agencies in order to receive additional funding to pay for the supportive housing programs in S.R.O.s.  Who knows where else it goes on the way to the government agencies - or where it goes afterwards? H.S.I.'s Privacy Policy is only available and posted on their website; I've posted the document on this blog because I have informally asked tenants at Kenmore Hall if they've ever seen it or been made aware of it when they're talking to social workers on the second floor, and so far, I haven't met anyone who's seen or heard of it. I'm tired of hearing other tenants blindly repeating the phrase "It's all about the money" like sheep; of COURSE it's all about the money - H.S.I. wants to collect as much government funding as possible to provide social services to tenants as possible, or they wouldn't be able to cover their salaries or the cost of programming for tenants (rent collected from tenants goes primarily toward covering maintenance and costs associated with keeping the "physical plant" aspects of the building covered). BUT - it's also about MUCH MORE - it's about your PRIVACY and REPUTATION, TOO. If you're poor, your reputation is harder to protect - and it matters much more. If you don't care, keep talking to social workers and staff. According to their Privacy Policy, H.S.I. apparently feels no particular obligation to let you see your records - especially if they think you're gathering information while planning a lawsuit.

The data collected by H.S.I.'s social workers whenever tenants talk to them may promote a false profile of each and every tenant living in their buildings; the profile includes being chronically homeless (remember, they call their tenants who are NO LONGER HOMELESS, HOMELESS even though there's a logical contradiction in terms once someone signs a lease and starts paying rent - or having it paid for them by participating in an appropriate program) or MICA (Mentally Ill, Chemically Abusing). Not all of us are chronically homeless, and many of us are NOT mentally ill, drunk or high. Who knows how long the profile will be attached to tenants, or who/what agencies it's actually being shared with, or how long the profile will be kept on file with other agencies? Who knows how much of the information identifies specific people?

I'm bringing this up on the blog because many of the very people who complain about having the social workers aggressively pursue them to participate in H.S.I.'s program don't seem to get the full implications of what's going on. It's annoying to have to connect the dots for people who don't seem naive or gullible, but who keep asking the same questions over and over. I'd like to give people credit for having the intelligence I assume they have based on their age and potential wisdom gained through life experience - but I've been repeatedly providing the same information in print and here in the virtual "blog-o-sphere", which is this: Tenants in S.R.O.s who have rent stabilized leases, like we do at Kenmore Hall, have plenty of rights. There are responsibilities that go along with those rights, too; on a practical level, you have to comply with what's in your lease, and make sure your rent is paid. You're NOT, however, obliged to cooperate with anything that's NOT in your lease, including the social services provided by a supportive housing program. This isn't a jail, shelter, or nursing home. READ YOUR LEASE: not just the most current one, but the ORIGINAL one. And think carefully about how you want social workers, who have an agenda that may not match your own, to represent you to other organizations. The potential damage to your reputation could be significant and long-lasting.

By the way, many of us may already be on the Tenant Blacklist referred to in an earlier post to this blog (scroll down). Anyone that's been through housing court has a good chance of landing on that list - and it's just one particularly juicy example of how personal data gets sold and works to the DIS-advantage of the people included in the list.

The Dark Market for Personal Data

By FRANK PASQUALE OCT. 16, 2014

Inside

Photo

Credit Sam Potts

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BALTIMORE MD- THE reputation business is exploding. Having eroded privacy for decades, shady, poorly regulated data miners, brokers and resellers have now taken creepy classification to a whole new level. They have created lists of victims of sexual assault, and lists of people with sexually transmitted diseases. Lists of people who have Alzheimer's, dementia and AIDS. Lists of the impotent and the depressed.

There are lists of 'impulse buyers.' Lists of suckers: gullible consumers who have shown that they are susceptible to 'vulnerability-based marketing.' And lists of those deemed commercially undesirable because they live in or near trailer parks or nursing homes. Not to mention lists of people who have been accused of wrongdoing, even if they were not charged or convicted.
Typically sold at a few cents per name, the lists don't have to be particularly reliable to attract eager buyers '” mostly marketers, but also, increasingly, financial institutions vetting customers to guard against fraud, and employers screening potential hires.
There are three problems with these lists. First, they are often inaccurate. For example, as The Washington Postreported, an Arkansas woman found her credit history and job prospects wrecked after she was mistakenly listed as a methamphetamine dealer. It took her years to clear her name and find a job.
Second, even when the information is accurate, many of the lists have no business being in the hands of retailers, bosses or banks. Having a medical condition, or having been a victim of a crime, is simply not relevant to most employment or credit decisions.
Third, people aren't told they are on these lists, so they have no opportunity to correct bad information. The Arkansas woman found out about the inaccurate report only when she was denied a job. She was one of the rare ones.
'Data-driven' hiring practices are under increasing scrutiny, because the data may be a proxy for race, class or disability. For example, in 2011, CVS settled a charge of disability discrimination after a job applicant challenged a personality test that probed mental health issues. But if an employer were to secretly use lists based on inferences about mental health, it would be nearly impossible for an affected applicant to find out what was going on. Secrecy is discrimination's best friend: Unknown unfairness can never be detected, let alone corrected.
These problems can't be solved with existing law. The Federal Trade Commission has strained to understand personal data markets '” a $156-billion-a-year industry '” and it can't find out where the data brokers get their information, and whom they sell it to. Hiding behind a veil of trade secrecy, most refuse to divulge this vital information.
The market in personal information offers little incentive for accuracy; it matters little to list-buyers whether every entry is accurate '” they need only a certain threshold percentage of 'hits' to improve their targeting. But to individuals wrongly included on derogatory lists, the harm to their reputation is great.

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The World Privacy Forum, a research and advocacy organization, estimates that there are about 4,000 data brokers. They range from giants like Acxiom, a publicly traded company that helps marketers target consumer segments, to boutiques like Paramount Lists, which has compiled lists of addicts and debtors. Companies like these vacuum up data from just about any source imaginable: consumer health websites, payday lenders, online surveys, warranty registrations, Internet sweepstakes, loyalty-card data from retailers, charities' donor lists, magazine subscription lists, and information from public records.

It's unrealistic to expect individuals to inquire, broker by broker, about their files. Instead, we need to require brokers to make targeted disclosures to consumers. Uncovering problems in Big Data (or decision models based on that data) should not be a burden we expect individuals to solve on their own.
Privacy protections in other areas of the law can and should be extended to cover consumer data. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or Hipaa, obliges doctors and hospitals to give patients access to their records. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives loan and job applicants, among others, a right to access, correct and annotate files maintained by credit reporting agencies.
It is time to modernize these laws by applying them to all companies that peddle sensitive personal information. If the laws cover only a narrow range of entities, they may as well be dead letters. For example, protections in Hipaa don't govern the 'health profiles' that are compiled and traded by data brokers, which can learn a great deal about our health even without access to medical records.
Congress should require data brokers to register with the Federal Trade Commission, and allow individuals to request immediate notification once they have been placed on lists that contain sensitive data. Reputable data brokers will want to respond to good-faith complaints, to make their lists more accurate. Plaintiffs' lawyers could use defamation law to hold recalcitrant firms accountable.
We need regulation to help consumers recognize the perils of the new information landscape without being overwhelmed with data. The right to be notified about the use of one's data and the right to challenge and correct errors is fundamental. Without these protections, we'll continue to be judged by a big-data Star Chamber of unaccountable decision makers using questionable sources.

Frank Pasquale, a professor of law at the University of Maryland, is the author of the forthcoming book “The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information.”

A version of this op-ed appears in print on October 17, 2014, on page A31 of the New York edition with the headline: The Dark Market for Personal Data. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe

time to set your clocks back - NEXT WEEK

1. Daylight Saving Time (United States) 2014 began at 2:00 AM on

   Sunday, March 9

   and ends at 2:00 AM on

   Sunday, November 2