STATEMENT: Rochester Housing Advocates Quit Mayor’s Housing Task Force Over Fairness Concerns

Rochester tenants call on Mayor to scrap task force, replace with a community-driven process

ROCHESTER, NEW YORK – On Friday, June 10, Liz McGriff, representing the City-Wide Tenant Union, and Stacey Jerningan, appointed to represent the Rochester Homeless Union, withdrew from Mayor Malik Evans’s Housing Quality Task Force (HQTF). The representatives made the decision following growing concerns that the HQTF did not accurately reflect the needs of tenants and homeless residents of Rochester. In response, the City-Wide Tenant Union of Rochester, a grassroots organization of tenants fighting to make housing a human right, issued the following statement. The statement can be attributed to Liz McGriff, Campaign Coordinator for the CWTU:

“Rochester is in crisis. Slumlords have taken over our community. Rents are skyrocketing. Eviction court is overflowing with cases. Countless families are forced to live on the street. That’s why we must use every tool at our disposal to ensure all families in our city have access to safe, stable, and affordable housing. 

We had hope that the Mayor’s Housing Quality Task Force could get us closer to this goal. Yet while we began the process with optimism, we cannot in good conscience participate in a task force that does not uplift the experiences and perspectives of tenants, low-income homeowners, and homeless Rochesterians. Two out of three Rochester residents are tenants, but landlords outnumbered tenants on the task force. Most of the recommendations that community groups brought up weren’t even brought to a vote. Policies that tenants overwhelmingly support - such as stronger protections for evictions - were diminished. We are concerned that the final recommendations of the task force will not reflect the needs of our community, nor create long-lasting solutions to our housing crisis. 

While we can no longer support this task force, we maintain hope that Mayor Evans and the City of Rochester can implement a community-driven, resident-focused process. Our community must come together and make housing a human right in our city. But for any policy or process to truly address our housing crisis, it must center the people who are most directly impacted. We look forward to working together on a body that adequately represents the Rochesterians who will be most directly impacted by its work.”

Read the City-Wide Tenant Union’s full list of recommendations to the Housing Quality task force here.