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Rules Committee advances tenant assistance fund for residents displaced from hazardous housing
Summary
The Rules Committee advanced an ordinance creating a Tenant Assistance Fund to help tenants displaced after DBI or Fire Department vacate orders, sparked by a hazardous basement dwelling at 5 Persia. Officials gave case numbers, cost estimates and said the fund will be discretionary and pursue reimbursement from culpable owners.
Supervisor Usher Safai told the Rules Committee on Dec. 11 that a hazardous multi-tenant unit at 5 Persia prompted new legislation providing short-term financial help for tenants forced from unsafe housing.
The ordinance before the committee would amend the Administrative Code to establish a Tenant Assistance Fund to help eligible tenants displaced by administrative orders to vacate issued by the Department of Building Inspection (DBI) or the Fire Department. The fund is designed as a transitional subsidy — typically six months, with the HSA director allowed to extend assistance up to two years — to help people find more permanent housing.
"We discovered a very hazardous situation at 5 Persia," Safai said, describing roughly "almost 30 individuals" living in "dungeon like conditions" in a converted basement with insufficient exits, no windows and exposed wiring. He said a…
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