333 Community Advocacy Plan
The Issue
To New York City, State and Federal Officials,
Request for immediate actions to address the community's needs following the January 9 Fire in the Bronx
Background: On Sunday January 9th, a fire broke out in the Twin Parks Northwest building (333 East 181 Street).17 people lost their lives 8 of which were children. This historic tragedy was the worst this city has seen in decades. As an organization that was created for and led by members of the tight knit immigrant community of New York, The members and leadership of the Gambian youth organization are in deep mourning. While we grapple with the loss of one of our own organizational members, and extended family members of many GYO members, we are also reflecting on all of the reasons why this fire was preventable. As a community of Black, Immigrant and Muslim people, we are all too familiar with the ways in which systems of power fail our communities.
The residents of 333 East 181 Street and our community at large, exist at the intersection of economic disadvantages, anti-Blackness, anti-immigrant sentiments and islamophobia. Our right to live safe and dignified lives have been willfully ignored or outright attacked. In one of the coldest weeks of the winter, no one should have to resort to a space heater to keep themselves and their family warm. It should not take more than one tenant complaint about the building heating to for a landlord to make appropriate repairs. It should not take the loss of multiple lives for a city to finally look into years of housing code violations. From the greed and negligence of the building owner to the city turning a blind eye to the years of complaints, each one of these failures was an act of violence against the residents of 333 East 181 Street. Forcing hundreds of people to live in such deplorable conditions, deprived of basic necessities, made their death almost inevitable. The Twin Parks Northwest building was a deathtrap and it was only a matter of time before it claimed lives.
Many of the residents of 333 East 181 Street were immigrants. Every single person who passed away as a result of the fire was an immigrant or child of immigrants. As people mourn the loss of loved ones and attempt to move forward from the trauma of the fire, fear of immigration enforcement should be the last thing on their minds.
We as a community will never forget this tragedy, and we are dedicated to ensuring that something like this never happens again.
To right the systemic wrongs that led us to this moment we the Gambian Youth Organization, community leaders and the impacted families of the 333 East 181 have collectively compiled a list of demands to be implemented at the City, State and Federal level. We demand for a new bill to be introduced in New York City Hall to address the housing issues raised in this proposal. Additionally, the new heat sensor legislation carried into the Senate and the House of Representatives must be amended to include the proposed housing and fire safety measures mentioned below.
Urgent Needs
1.The City to expedite the relocation process to a safe and adequate permanent housing for all displaced families of 333 East 181 Street still in hotel shelters. Each family should be provided funds to hire a broker, and to pay for first month rent and security deposit fees. CVR, HPD and Section 8 inspections and voucher approval process should be expedited for displaced families.
2. An immediate inquiry by the State Department into the mass visa denials of immediate family members of those that passed away. The U.S Embassy in the Gambia, Guinea and Mali to re-evaluate and grant visas on a case by case merit and all new visa application fees waived for those that have to reapply.
3. All families of 333 East 181 Street should be provided with emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and cash assistance benefits, effective immediately through January 31, 2023, regardless of income, documentation status and lease status.
4. The Mayor’s Fund must constantly and transparently communicate with all families impacted by the January 9 fire. The families demand full disclosure of how much was raised by the Mayor’s Fund and a say in how the funds should be distributed. The Mayor’s Fund team should organize a Roundtable with impacted families and community organizers to better understand the needs of the families and the best way to allocate the funds to them.
5. The City should partner with local community-based/non-profit social services and specialists to ensure that all residents are in receipt of mental health services. The City must provide free mental health services, culturally-competent and other forms of psychotherapy to all residents of 333 East 181 Street.
6. At least two local community based non-profit organizations, that have cultural competency for the Black and Latinx immigrant populations, should be added to the city’s contract to do case management alongside BronxWorks. Case management should be provided to all residents regardless of immigration or lease status.
7. The City must make sure that the World Central Kitchen is providing displaced residents at the shelters with nutritious and culturally familiar meals that include: fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy, grains, and protein.
8. All pending criminal charges, court hearings or other procedures against residents and their families impacted by the January 9 fire should be pardoned.
Housing
1. The City should create a permanent housing strategy immediately to ensure all residents of 333 East 181 Street, who are still displaced, including undocumented residents and additional families that are not on the lease, be provided with safe permanent housing.
2. The City, State and Federal government should impose a monetary fine on all negligent landlords, who have been found to provide inadequate heat/hot water and have failed to provide other routine maintenance needs. Negligent landlords who are recipients of Section 8 Housing Vouchers or CVR should also have their payments suspended until they are found to be in compliance. Negligent landlords who have also been found to have an excess amount of violations, accounting for fifteen or more in a calendar year, should have criminal charges pursued against them by the City.
3. The City government should revamp its building inspection apparatus, to ensure that buildings are properly inspected and landlords rectify any violations. Residents should be notified by mail and public postings in their building of any pending violations. Inspections of residential buildings in the City of New York should be increased from five years to three years.
4. The City and State should commit to building more units in new residential buildings, as part of its affordable housing, that accommodate large families with a household occupancy of five and greater.
5. The New York City Public Advocate’s Office should create and administer a citywide Tenants Association, with the objective of elevating housing related issues and building a housing apparatus that prioritizes landlord accountability and tenants rights. The Association should serve as a conduit for advocating for New York City tenants.
6. All residential housing units should have temperature control monitors inside the apartment. The current temperature law for all residential buildings during winter months in the City, set at 62°F from 10PM to 6PM , should be increased to 68°F to better accommodate the decreasing temperatures during the City’s coldest months.
Fire Safety
1. The City government should install hall-way sprinklers, self-closing apartment doors and two-way operating intercom systems in all residential buildings in the City of New York.
2. The City government should ensure that all apartments in residential buildings throughout the City of New York have a smoke detector, a fire extinguisher and fire escape plan. Every residential building in the City of New York should have at least two designated trained Fire Marshals, responsible for executing the building’s fire escape plan.
3. The City government and the New York City Fire Department and e should ensure that the management of all buildings in the City of New York provide proper fire safety training to all tenants in case of an emergency on a quarterly-basis.
4. The City government should revamp its building inspection apparatus, to ensure that buildings are properly inspected and landlords rectify any violations. Residents should be notified by mail and public postings in their building of any pending violations. Inspections of residential buildings in the City of New York should be increased from five years to three years.
Immigration
1. Family members of all those who passed away as a result of the fire, who live outside of the United States, must be provided visas to the U.S. so they can mourn the loss of loved ones and provide emotional and other types of support to loved ones in the states.
a) Visa application fee should be waived or covered
b) All travel related expenses should be covered
c) Temporary lodging should be provided for visiting family members upon request.
2. Family members of those who passed away who wish to go back to their home countries to mourn with extended family, should have the right to do so through advance parole or similar immigration mechanisms that would grant them reentry into the U.S.
a) The initial immigration status of a person traveling to the home country should not impact their eligibility for advance parole or any other kind of travel document that would allow them reentry into the U.S.
3. Undocumented residents of 333 East 181 Street should be able to have access to immigration relief by way of registry or a similar legislative mechanism that would provide them with green cards and a pathway to citizenship. After surviving the trauma of the fire on January 9th, the last thing anyone should have to worry about is imminent detention or deportation.
a) Registry is a provision of immigration law that enables certain individuals who have been present in the United States since Jan. 1, 1972, the ability to apply for a Green Card (permanent residence), even if they are currently undocumented.
b) Many of the residents in the building have lived in the U.S. for decades and would qualify for green cards if the registry date was advanced to 2015 or a more recent date.
c) Congress, with the leadership of our very own state elected officials such as Majority Leader Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Congressman Torres and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez have the power to pass legislation that includes these immigration provisions before the end of the year.
4. USCIS and all other immigration agencies should be flexible with interview dates, document requirements and document replacement fees for all residents of 333 East 181 Street who have pending immigration cases. This includes:
a) Allowing the rescheduling of appointments and interview dates
b) Understanding that many original documents such as birth certificates and passports may have been lost of damaged as a result of the fire.
Education
1. The State should create a scholarship to fund college education for families that are affected by the fire, including but not limited to tuition and other miscellaneous items needed for a successful college experience.
2. The Department of Education should provide individualized assessment, followed by support, to all students living in 333 East 181 Street, for compounded trauma.
Social Services & Economic Empowerment
1. The City government should continue to build its language access bank, to ensure trained and certified interpreters for local African dialects (Soninke, Wolof, Mandinka, Fulani, Hausa, etc.) in all city agencies and for all emergency response measures.
2. The Federal government should invest more dollars in low-income and immigrant communities of color throughout the nation to tackle systemic racism and poverty. Federal measures such as universal basic income, paid family leave, free public college education, pathways to homeownership and quality and accessible public health care should be implemented to help improve the quality of life of such communities.
Accountability
1.As a result of the lack of accountability to this fire that resulted in the death of 17 people, we demand the immediate removal of Rick Gropper, co-founder of the Camber Group, from the Mayor’s transition team and his resignation.
2.The State Attorney General, Leticia James, and Bronx District Attorney, Darcel Clarke, should conduct a criminal investigation into the management of the Twins Park North West for foreseeability and negligence resulting in the tragic fire.
886
The Issue
To New York City, State and Federal Officials,
Request for immediate actions to address the community's needs following the January 9 Fire in the Bronx
Background: On Sunday January 9th, a fire broke out in the Twin Parks Northwest building (333 East 181 Street).17 people lost their lives 8 of which were children. This historic tragedy was the worst this city has seen in decades. As an organization that was created for and led by members of the tight knit immigrant community of New York, The members and leadership of the Gambian youth organization are in deep mourning. While we grapple with the loss of one of our own organizational members, and extended family members of many GYO members, we are also reflecting on all of the reasons why this fire was preventable. As a community of Black, Immigrant and Muslim people, we are all too familiar with the ways in which systems of power fail our communities.
The residents of 333 East 181 Street and our community at large, exist at the intersection of economic disadvantages, anti-Blackness, anti-immigrant sentiments and islamophobia. Our right to live safe and dignified lives have been willfully ignored or outright attacked. In one of the coldest weeks of the winter, no one should have to resort to a space heater to keep themselves and their family warm. It should not take more than one tenant complaint about the building heating to for a landlord to make appropriate repairs. It should not take the loss of multiple lives for a city to finally look into years of housing code violations. From the greed and negligence of the building owner to the city turning a blind eye to the years of complaints, each one of these failures was an act of violence against the residents of 333 East 181 Street. Forcing hundreds of people to live in such deplorable conditions, deprived of basic necessities, made their death almost inevitable. The Twin Parks Northwest building was a deathtrap and it was only a matter of time before it claimed lives.
Many of the residents of 333 East 181 Street were immigrants. Every single person who passed away as a result of the fire was an immigrant or child of immigrants. As people mourn the loss of loved ones and attempt to move forward from the trauma of the fire, fear of immigration enforcement should be the last thing on their minds.
We as a community will never forget this tragedy, and we are dedicated to ensuring that something like this never happens again.
To right the systemic wrongs that led us to this moment we the Gambian Youth Organization, community leaders and the impacted families of the 333 East 181 have collectively compiled a list of demands to be implemented at the City, State and Federal level. We demand for a new bill to be introduced in New York City Hall to address the housing issues raised in this proposal. Additionally, the new heat sensor legislation carried into the Senate and the House of Representatives must be amended to include the proposed housing and fire safety measures mentioned below.
Urgent Needs
1.The City to expedite the relocation process to a safe and adequate permanent housing for all displaced families of 333 East 181 Street still in hotel shelters. Each family should be provided funds to hire a broker, and to pay for first month rent and security deposit fees. CVR, HPD and Section 8 inspections and voucher approval process should be expedited for displaced families.
2. An immediate inquiry by the State Department into the mass visa denials of immediate family members of those that passed away. The U.S Embassy in the Gambia, Guinea and Mali to re-evaluate and grant visas on a case by case merit and all new visa application fees waived for those that have to reapply.
3. All families of 333 East 181 Street should be provided with emergency Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and cash assistance benefits, effective immediately through January 31, 2023, regardless of income, documentation status and lease status.
4. The Mayor’s Fund must constantly and transparently communicate with all families impacted by the January 9 fire. The families demand full disclosure of how much was raised by the Mayor’s Fund and a say in how the funds should be distributed. The Mayor’s Fund team should organize a Roundtable with impacted families and community organizers to better understand the needs of the families and the best way to allocate the funds to them.
5. The City should partner with local community-based/non-profit social services and specialists to ensure that all residents are in receipt of mental health services. The City must provide free mental health services, culturally-competent and other forms of psychotherapy to all residents of 333 East 181 Street.
6. At least two local community based non-profit organizations, that have cultural competency for the Black and Latinx immigrant populations, should be added to the city’s contract to do case management alongside BronxWorks. Case management should be provided to all residents regardless of immigration or lease status.
7. The City must make sure that the World Central Kitchen is providing displaced residents at the shelters with nutritious and culturally familiar meals that include: fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy, grains, and protein.
8. All pending criminal charges, court hearings or other procedures against residents and their families impacted by the January 9 fire should be pardoned.
Housing
1. The City should create a permanent housing strategy immediately to ensure all residents of 333 East 181 Street, who are still displaced, including undocumented residents and additional families that are not on the lease, be provided with safe permanent housing.
2. The City, State and Federal government should impose a monetary fine on all negligent landlords, who have been found to provide inadequate heat/hot water and have failed to provide other routine maintenance needs. Negligent landlords who are recipients of Section 8 Housing Vouchers or CVR should also have their payments suspended until they are found to be in compliance. Negligent landlords who have also been found to have an excess amount of violations, accounting for fifteen or more in a calendar year, should have criminal charges pursued against them by the City.
3. The City government should revamp its building inspection apparatus, to ensure that buildings are properly inspected and landlords rectify any violations. Residents should be notified by mail and public postings in their building of any pending violations. Inspections of residential buildings in the City of New York should be increased from five years to three years.
4. The City and State should commit to building more units in new residential buildings, as part of its affordable housing, that accommodate large families with a household occupancy of five and greater.
5. The New York City Public Advocate’s Office should create and administer a citywide Tenants Association, with the objective of elevating housing related issues and building a housing apparatus that prioritizes landlord accountability and tenants rights. The Association should serve as a conduit for advocating for New York City tenants.
6. All residential housing units should have temperature control monitors inside the apartment. The current temperature law for all residential buildings during winter months in the City, set at 62°F from 10PM to 6PM , should be increased to 68°F to better accommodate the decreasing temperatures during the City’s coldest months.
Fire Safety
1. The City government should install hall-way sprinklers, self-closing apartment doors and two-way operating intercom systems in all residential buildings in the City of New York.
2. The City government should ensure that all apartments in residential buildings throughout the City of New York have a smoke detector, a fire extinguisher and fire escape plan. Every residential building in the City of New York should have at least two designated trained Fire Marshals, responsible for executing the building’s fire escape plan.
3. The City government and the New York City Fire Department and e should ensure that the management of all buildings in the City of New York provide proper fire safety training to all tenants in case of an emergency on a quarterly-basis.
4. The City government should revamp its building inspection apparatus, to ensure that buildings are properly inspected and landlords rectify any violations. Residents should be notified by mail and public postings in their building of any pending violations. Inspections of residential buildings in the City of New York should be increased from five years to three years.
Immigration
1. Family members of all those who passed away as a result of the fire, who live outside of the United States, must be provided visas to the U.S. so they can mourn the loss of loved ones and provide emotional and other types of support to loved ones in the states.
a) Visa application fee should be waived or covered
b) All travel related expenses should be covered
c) Temporary lodging should be provided for visiting family members upon request.
2. Family members of those who passed away who wish to go back to their home countries to mourn with extended family, should have the right to do so through advance parole or similar immigration mechanisms that would grant them reentry into the U.S.
a) The initial immigration status of a person traveling to the home country should not impact their eligibility for advance parole or any other kind of travel document that would allow them reentry into the U.S.
3. Undocumented residents of 333 East 181 Street should be able to have access to immigration relief by way of registry or a similar legislative mechanism that would provide them with green cards and a pathway to citizenship. After surviving the trauma of the fire on January 9th, the last thing anyone should have to worry about is imminent detention or deportation.
a) Registry is a provision of immigration law that enables certain individuals who have been present in the United States since Jan. 1, 1972, the ability to apply for a Green Card (permanent residence), even if they are currently undocumented.
b) Many of the residents in the building have lived in the U.S. for decades and would qualify for green cards if the registry date was advanced to 2015 or a more recent date.
c) Congress, with the leadership of our very own state elected officials such as Majority Leader Schumer, Senator Gillibrand, Congressman Torres and Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez have the power to pass legislation that includes these immigration provisions before the end of the year.
4. USCIS and all other immigration agencies should be flexible with interview dates, document requirements and document replacement fees for all residents of 333 East 181 Street who have pending immigration cases. This includes:
a) Allowing the rescheduling of appointments and interview dates
b) Understanding that many original documents such as birth certificates and passports may have been lost of damaged as a result of the fire.
Education
1. The State should create a scholarship to fund college education for families that are affected by the fire, including but not limited to tuition and other miscellaneous items needed for a successful college experience.
2. The Department of Education should provide individualized assessment, followed by support, to all students living in 333 East 181 Street, for compounded trauma.
Social Services & Economic Empowerment
1. The City government should continue to build its language access bank, to ensure trained and certified interpreters for local African dialects (Soninke, Wolof, Mandinka, Fulani, Hausa, etc.) in all city agencies and for all emergency response measures.
2. The Federal government should invest more dollars in low-income and immigrant communities of color throughout the nation to tackle systemic racism and poverty. Federal measures such as universal basic income, paid family leave, free public college education, pathways to homeownership and quality and accessible public health care should be implemented to help improve the quality of life of such communities.
Accountability
1.As a result of the lack of accountability to this fire that resulted in the death of 17 people, we demand the immediate removal of Rick Gropper, co-founder of the Camber Group, from the Mayor’s transition team and his resignation.
2.The State Attorney General, Leticia James, and Bronx District Attorney, Darcel Clarke, should conduct a criminal investigation into the management of the Twins Park North West for foreseeability and negligence resulting in the tragic fire.
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Petition created on March 15, 2022