BASTA Tenant File App #149
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Please include people with disabilities in the reporting because they need
reasonable accommodations. Please review the CSHB 4125 which has a minimum
mandatory reporting requirement and if you think this needs to be expanded
please let me know. It needs to be expanded for next legislative session to
include elderly persons as a protected class in low income, it needs
outreach and mandatory posting in visible areas like the fair housing
notices. Travis County is working with its courts to aggregate reporting of
evictions.
https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/86R/billtext/html/HB04125H.htm
I have done a lot of research on this and have access to reports
nationwide. I am currently working on disability access to housing and
disability access to justice as well as fixing enforcement and reporting of
abuse, neglect and exploitation of elderly persons and persons with a
disability. I work on policies.
Respectfully,
John Woodley
[image: ADA Logo Advocates for Disability Access TM - Final.PNG]
…On Thu, Nov 21, 2019 at 1:30 PM lizard12995 ***@***.***> wrote:
What problem are you trying to solve?
Tenants, especially low-income tenants, and advocates need to be save and
organize records related to units and complexes.
Records include photos, receipts, the lease terms, notes from the
landlord, fees/fines, and incident reports. We're looking for an accessible
platform designed for those that BASTA works with -- easy to text or upload
in, making metadata clear, and with flexible security settings.
That would be version 1.
Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from your project?
For later versions:
Eventually, we'd also like to be able to auto-generate forms and
complaints for repair requests and code complaints.
Include nudges/to-do lists to let tenants and others know when to submit
records or take other actions.
Incorporate Appraisal District and Census datasets.
Display data publicly on a map / something visually appealing.
Answer here.
Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from your project?
Tenant organizers and tenants facing gaslighting, neglect, or abuse by
landlords.
What other resources/tools are currently serving the same need? How does
your project set itself apart?
Answer here.
What other resources/tools are currently serving the same need? How does
your project set itself apart?
Justfix.nyc creates tech to help tenants, but only for those residing in
New York City. PDF checklist for Texans is here
<http://www.txtha.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/MIMOIForm1.pdf>. Other
[big PDF handbooks](
https://www.texasbar.com/AM/Template.cfm?ContentID=25969&Section=Free_Legal_Information2&Template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm
also exist.
Where can we find any research/data available/articles?
Links here.
Audrey McGlinchy <https://www.kut.org/people/audrey-mcglinchy-kut> writes
about housing, zoning, and eviction in Austin. This
<https://www.texasobserver.org/rent-by-another-name/> recent article
discusses ways in which tenants are taken advantage of with mandatory fees.
What help do you need now?
Answer here.
We're relatively new to legit web development, so we need help
with...everything! We want to think through the most reasonable way to get
this set up in stages -- first being very simple, then building out from
there.
What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?
@@ -32,7 +37,7 @@ Answer here.
How can we contact you outside of Github(list social media or places
you're present)?
Answer here.
@e_shackney on twitter
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Answer here.
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@Woodley Absolutely! We'll add this to our agenda to discuss. I'm wondering how you feel reporting should be integrated into this project -- are we asking tenants to self-disclose, or would that be information we could keep private and only legal advocates would access it? Or, are you suggesting that we ensure that this program is accessible to people with disabilities? (which I definitely want to be the case!!) |
|
You were talking about collecting datasets and I was merely asking that
people with disability be included in those datasets. They make reasonable
accommodation requests and get retaliated against or abused, neglected or
exploited. While it is legal for housing providers to ask about a
disability they have to provide reasonable accommodations and typically do
ask to show the nexus of the request to the disability.
Example if you have a service/support animal and the property management
refuses to change their pet policy to allow a service/support animal even
if they do not allow pets at all they must allow service/support animals if
a person with a disability has a disability related need for a
service/support animal. They can not charge pet fees or pet rents for
service/support animals.
You can read up on Service/support assistive animals here.
https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/SERVANIMALS_NTCFHEO2013-01.PDF
and
http://tenantsunion.org/pdf/Assistance_and_Service_Animals_for_Tenants_Who_are_Persons_with_Disabilities.pdf
*About 60% of all complaints reported to HUD is related to a disability.*
This is an under reported figure.
Eviction Courts are not keeping records of disability specific needs and
currently property managements are not required to notify report to anyone
if they post an intent to evict. Once they file with a court then the
courts have a record but may not be aggregated in a manner we need.
If someone reports to a tenant council or housing authority, they may not
keep a record of these complaints. The Housing Authority is NOT an
authority, they do not get involved in landlord tenant issues. The Tenant
Council are just case workers and have not enforcement and refer people to
Legal aid.
Legal Aid only has 1 attorney for every 8,000 clients and that is under
reported as they are not accepting all complaints. They may not create a
case file unless they accept a complaint.
Legal Clinics are run by various legal services providers and may not be
keeping track of all complaints or aggregating the data in a manner we
would need for a complete dataset. They may not crate a case file unless
they accept a complaint.
Disability Rights Texas is the State of Texas's Protection and Advocacy
group for people with disabilities. They have never accepted a single
complaint I or others with a disability have filed with them and they do
not create a case number for tracking cases unless they accept a case and
file with a court. They are formerly known as Advocacy Inc.
Other legal services providers and case workers have similar issues.
All of these non-profits may collect minimum data for TAX purposes.
I think all complaints need to be documented regardless of if a complaint
is accepted.
I like your idea of documenting the rental contracts as they are not always
TAA contracts. Some are written in a way that guarantees a breach of
contract and many do not read the contracts. They get pretty complicated.
Some contract provisions are not enforceable under law but property
management companies continue to use those provisions in their contracts
and harass, abuse, threaten tenants.
Many companies are not providing a contract in an alternate format and
forcing someone who is vision impaired into signing a contract by
misrepresenting the contract or failing to read the whole thing. Same with
cognitive disorders.
Respectfully,
John Woodley
Advocates for Disability Access
[image: ADA Logo Advocates for Disability Access TM - Final.PNG]
…On Fri, Nov 22, 2019 at 1:40 PM lizard12995 ***@***.***> wrote:
@Woodley <https://github.com/Woodley> Absolutely! We'll add this to our
agenda to discuss. I'm wondering how you feel reporting should be
integrated into this project -- are we asking tenants to self-disclose, or
would that be information we could keep private and only legal advocates
would access it? Or, are you suggesting that we ensure that this program is
accessible to people with disabilities? (which I definitely want to be the
case!!)
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Here's an organization that seems to have made a lot of progress on a similar problem https://gbls.org/MADE |
|
Hi @Woodley - these are super important aspects to keep in mind! Thank you. We're gathering our thoughts now and will be able to provide a bit more direction after this week. @mscarey, this is good, and I've met Quentin (who was the muscle behind this) at a legal services IT conference. Their approach is more of a guided interview, and very focused on eviction. We'll have some materials to explain how we want to simultaneously build power, not just deliver a service. |
|
See our original thought process in these diagrams :) |
|
@lizard12995 Hey Lizzie, this is Aaron R! |
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What problem are you trying to solve?
Tenants, especially low-income tenants, and advocates need to be save and organize records related to units and complexes.
Records include photos, receipts, the lease terms, notes from the landlord, fees/fines, and incident reports. We're looking for an accessible platform designed for those that BASTA works with -- easy to text or upload in, making metadata clear, and with flexible security settings.
That would be version 1.
Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from your project?
For later versions:
Eventually, we'd also like to be able to auto-generate forms and complaints for repair requests and code complaints.
Include nudges/to-do lists to let tenants and others know when to submit records or take other actions.
Incorporate Appraisal District and Census datasets.
Display data publicly on a map / something visually appealing.
Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from your project?
Tenant organizers and tenants facing gaslighting, neglect, or abuse by landlords.
What other resources/tools are currently serving the same need? How does your project set itself apart?
Justfix.nyc creates tech to help tenants, but only for those residing in New York City. PDF checklist for Texans is here. Other big PDF handbooks also exist.
Where can we find any research/data available/articles?
Audrey McGlinchy writes about housing, zoning, and eviction in Austin. This recent article discusses ways in which tenants are taken advantage of with mandatory fees.
What help do you need now?
We're relatively new to legit web development, so we need help with...everything! We want to think through the most reasonable way to get this set up in stages -- first being very simple, then building out from there.
What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?
How can we contact you outside of Github(list social media or places you're present)?
@e_shackney on twitter
Find us here: #p-tenant-file-app
Checklist for ACTIVE projects 🔥
Let's get this project started! When this idea starts taking off, the Projects Core Team will start helping this project's lead(s) out with project management and connecting you to resources you may need. To get there, please complete and check off the following:
backlogso others know you'll get back to it when you have the time. If nobody hears from you at all in more than two months, we may mark it asabandonedso that others can pick up this idea and run with it.Checklist for FEATURED Projects 🎉
To have your project FEATURED on Open-Austin.org, complete the following documentation. In past projects, well-documented featured projects have more contributions than other projects.
Add [my project] to projects page. An Open Austin leader will review this issue and post your project 🎈If you get stuck at any point, feel free to reach out to the leadership team on Slack by adding @Leadership to your message. We're here to help you make real changes to our city.
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