you know get people's feedback and uh hear their stories and be able to answer some questions we'll have uh three douas present uh to talk about their work one way to affect that that problem um um my background is an OBGYN so um I can also answer questions Etc so um yeah it'll be a hopefully a sort of nice warm intimate uh Community event and people will come away with maybe some information and we will come away with some information thank let me add yes let me add that the black maternal um H
ealth week commences April 11 if I remember correctly um and through the 17th what what are the even though you have it in the chat but just to State it uh April 11th through April 11th the 17th is M black maternal Health week yeah and your location our location is 43 St Nicholas place it's 152nd Street I'll put that in here as well the event right when you go there it's a lovely building um and Kota um is an alliance of about 12 organizations or more less uh Jana uh I'm not sure she yeah uh so
we try to uh be sort of a collaborative um umbrella organization and collaborate with other local community organizations as well as we have some Global work um and uh our our space is meant to be a welcoming space to host um events for other organizations as well and collaborative events and we're reaching out to more and more organizations now uh in in the Harlem Community okay thank you Jana um so as soon as you get that even though you um you have it in the chat email it to me tomorrow and t
hen um we'll request uh a mailing to those on uh the district's mailing list will you know reach out to you the friends our district manager to see you know she'll be able to get that out for us and then um others um as well who uh frequent this meeting who may also have those who you know are available to and some of our um uh I see Cheyenne is on on the phone too and perhaps she can get it to the northern Paran uh organization and birth Justice uh the birth of Justice movement as well uh so th
ere are others so I'll look forward to getting getting that and before we go forward I'm looking I see our chair on uh online I I I hope you still there Victor uh Victor Edwards Victor I know you attended the uh mon par um meeting speak meeting I was at the we meeting simultaneous got too late my but um I have uh you know received all your emails from Darren hul and there's something can add in reference to that um yes good evening all the meeting with um monery Park Association included sha Abu
our city council member uh special members of the New York City Police Department and we tried to talk about that Park and area in a holistic way there are security issues that we want the police to address as far as making people feel safe traveling to and from this Subway and the stores in that area Dwayne Reed in particular but we also wanted to address some of the um what I call social issues going on there people that need help maybe drug dependent um homelessness and also mental health is
sues so we've asked that the various agencies do Outreach at the location itself um especially from um the health department so I'm hoping that will start soon so we can get that going but I also asked the police to step up their presence there I passed there this afternoon and things were as they've been for quite some time not um very comfortable for some folks the other thing I wanted to ask of um Kota um was if you could hold one or two spots for a cb9 uh so we have someone to report back to
us I know you have only 20 spots and I can understand that making a very intimate setting but if you could hold one or two spots so someone can come and report back to us I would appreciate that oh absolutely yes no problem okay thank you so much thank you so much any um any questions uh or information to add to the uh announcements that have just been made and I'll make sure that everyone gets uh gets another cop um let's see one other uh announcement is that um community board 9 is co-sponsor
ing with huni School of Public Health it's um black maternal Health Week starting April 11th and they'll have a panel uh a video that they're showing and then a Q&A afterwards and so um I know that couple of us will be there in person we're trying to get some others to be there in person as well to just um um gain as much information as they can on this topic so that we can bring it back to the community and we'll be um disseminating that information once again as well but we are co-sponsors of
that event taking place on April 11th and uh you may have gotten I'm pretty sure you got some material in one of the emails but we'll send it out again on tomorrow um and speak Victor just mentioned the Department of Health and and getting some additional help uh Pauline fante is on the phone if there's anything you can mention Pauline in reference to the monery park uh report uh okay but otherwise maybe at the next at our May meeting uh once you have more information uh but Pauline uh we always
have a spot for New York City Department of Health and mental hygiene for any updates or information that you can share with the community hi good evening everybody so I don't have any major updates to share um but April 1st does start our standing water complaints season so as we know standing water does lead to the breeding of mosquitoes and uh so we ask folks to please call in any standing water complaints um this does not include streets though so if you see ping on the street that would be
referred to the do and also if it if it's within 5 days of a rainstorm or just a rain um that would not be taken in either standing water consists of you know stagnant water that is standing around for weeks on end where organic matter is growing and where it would be conducive for mosquitoes um to breed so that would be considered a uh standing water complaint and we would go out and investigate and issue violations to the buildings if we do find that there is a standing water problem that's i
t there used to be a major problem in uh St Nicholas Park um at one point uh hopefully that's not the case now but I'm pretty sure there there's an issue there is there a number you can drop in the chat or email have you yeah so we encourage everyone to call in complaints to 311 and it would be routed to our Vector team to inspect and to treat okay thanks Pauline thank you so we'll look forward to U I'll get information to you uh that we may have questions about as they come up during the meetin
g that you might be able to look into for us prior to the meeting yes absolutely thank you so much uh thank you Amanda is here Amanda lug with um the African Services committee and um um she's here to uh as a West Harlem Development Corporation Grant te and uh we want to hear about your services update a brief uh a brief summary of what's been going on what you're offering and what this new Grant will allow you to do thank you and do want is hear you okay and we have this excellent good evening
everyone um thank you for um inviting me to afan services to present this evening and apologies for missing our last one I that was me I went to the wrong office um so I'm glad I made it here today um thank uh uh first I just want to say again um major major thanks to whdc for the grant um we received uh 27,500 to uh to uh towards our food pantry at African Services um for those that aren't familiar with the with the agency um we are based just down on 127th between Morningside and Amsterdam um
we've been in that building since 2000 um since and that's actually when I joined the organization um but it actually began in uh 91 uh we served the African immigrant Community primarily um but of course our doors are open to all uh most of our services the majority of our services rather Focus around Health um but food P food of course is a necessary component of the lives of our clients and the way we were able to optimize folks coming in for food pantry is to be able to then introduce them t
o perhaps there are services within the our site that they can use so um we have a range of Supportive Services in addition to food pantry we have um health education we also have uh as I mentioned a number of of health related services including case management we have an hi STI and hepatitis B testing center on site uh we also provide English language classes a number of the of the health related programs also have group support meetings um and and with the health the nutrition education we al
so have cooking classes we're um lucky enough to have in our building a full um kitchen um so yeah uh which is which the staff always enjoyed um so despite the initial challenges we had um in the Grant application to hire a pantry assistant we eventually did and we have successfully maintained our commitment to providing Pantry bags to our clients um in fact we not only sustain this work through this funding but we've been able to expand our reach by increasing the number of clients who receive
that assistance and adjusting the food quantities based on their family size we've also in the past 12 months been able to invest in a new freezer which allows us to acquire and store Meat and Fish for distribution tally turkeys and chicken during the um holiday seasons uh additionally we are um we have a partnership with or's Bakery um on up west side where they deliver their surplus of Bakery items that we add to the food pantry bags to distribute to our clients uh our Communications manager p
osts regularly on social media regarding our food pantry program where the public are informed about our hours of operation and the process necessary to receive that pantry bag now I would like to give just a little update um given the um which isn't used to anyone the the humanitarian crisis that we we have unfolded in in the city our numbers of recent arrivals um coming to our door uh primarily West African recent arrivals in the last um year um has been um has increased uh what's the word uh
dramatic dramatically will surise exponentially exponentially than yes with regard to the food pantry if I can just give you an example in um in December 2022 we distributed 319 bags individual food P bag December 2023 we distributed 520 bags um now of course the folks coming to us with this the the the what we calling the new New Yorkers coming to us the large majority are in shelters or 10 cities um and so the the uh the en environment they have to be able to cook is is pretty much non-existen
t so we have started looking now it may not be the most nutritious but it's hot food just looking at you know the noodles um where you just add hot water this is something that folks could you know are still able to take away and and put something put something in their stomachs in the summertime um we have an arrangement with um uh West Harlem CSA and we're also to take are able to take their Surplus vegetables like folks who who weren't able to pick up that week or extra extra vegetables that
they have and that's all all added to the bags as well um so yeah just to uh just to say that the the numbers uh see we see no signs of of decreasing um and I just I think I'll probably happy to answer questions but to leave you with this figure again with the the year's difference in J January 2023 we would see approximately five to seven people a day who would come to the office who did not have an appointment who came inquiring about Services maybe they'd heard about the food pentry but appro
ximately 5 to seven a day in January of this year we're looking at 70 to 75 people a day yeah wow so um we will be back for another application the need has only grown and unfortunately I think even without the recent migrants the need um for food um food uh for food for our communities um I mean you only have have to look at your you know your other other organizations who have um similar programs and the line now around the block with people are coming to for additional groceries so again than
k you for for for this funding and it directly impacting impct Community MERS direct and um well there's always a something related to housing but that I won't touch on but do you recommend a he um what are they doing for migrants or immigrants come or what are you able to do related to health providers care do you have clinics hospitals uh that you make recommendations yes we have yeah thank you for that yeah we have linkages with all the major Hospitals and Clinics in the city and we have a na
vigation program where folks are able who have uh oh and I should say um that the major the I I think it's 90% 95% now of the folks that we serve are undocumented um so most folks are coming to us because they don't have a clear access to whatever service or benefit that they need um that particularly with health as I said like our core Services being Health we have a navigation program where up until 6 months ago it was every two weeks but now it's every week given the amount of people who need
it and so folks who just who feel they need to see a doctor they need to um so whatever testing services that we don't provide they need that oneon-one with the doctor we're able to escort them we have a a relationship with both B and mon where we're able to take Vats and they receive Primary Care on a very minimal sliding scale I mean very minimal amount um and of course with the language translation um 70% of our 49 staff are African born so we have right now we have uh 10 different languages
and dialects spoken um but it's it's still not enough given the new the new demographics that are coming in um I don't know if I've taken my time just interesting we have mental health services as well yes and an lgbtq program for for lgbtq Asylum Seekers from Africa you talk about and so we maybe just uh let me ask we both can ask a a question we'll see who online has question uh without taking too much time uh are you utilizing services that are in District n that you're aware uh are are the
clients or using services like Heritage Health and yeah Healthcare uh I know we are but I don't want to say anything that isn't absolutely corre I can I get that information we can introduce that intruction I'm not sure I'm over on East myself I'm not sure of the organization all the organizations in this community board um with Ryan health or Mount those yes absolutely yes yeah actually Ryan Health come and do vaccinations at the site okay they've been doing vaccinations from covid uh impo as w
ell as flu okay yeah um and also even Columbia and Harlem Hospital is not in that's district 10 but still we claim it's just uh four hospitals uh clotel and then Heather and then we we won't take to you talk about food and you just mentioned that you had a lot of West African a lot of them are Muslim meaning that the food you will receive has to be very specific so that's why that's something so to avoid waste so I want people to know when you ask for bringing food we really need to bring the Fe
the food that you will be able to use for that Community oh I'm sorry we don't accept food donations um like meat donations from a food safety aspect okay so what kind of uh we don't take donations we have um programs yeah that are delivered from the city yeah yeah and Heather can you please give us the specific address and hours of operation of course it's 429 West 127th Street third floor second floor third floor depends if you take the elevator on stairs um and the zip is one27 and it's Mond
ay to Friday 9 to 5 and that building is located uh kind of in right in the center between Broadway and convent uh more well guess no it's Convent Avenue at that point the opposite Heritage House essentially main yeah was the main any questions online U you can raise your hand and I Alisa want to help me watch uh make sure are there any other questions for African Services committee representative Amanda love Monica asks can you rent space to feed them warm food can we rent space to feed the mov
e you mean if excuse me someone coming someone wants to come in and cook to provide that food to folks that's what you're saying uh you have space let's answer it that way and if she comes back online or she responds uh Heather will catch it okay yeah we do have rental rental space upstairs for events um uh meetings but I if you're if you're offer if you're talking about renting space to someone who wants to come and cook and give free food to people then we're not going to rent it to you and I
would love to have a conversation with you like you're not going to pay we're not going to charge you money if you if you want to help us with providing food for instance we have we started a new program in November specifically for the recent arrivals called Super S stress um just because we were seeing uh from from eight8 to 10 people in our English classes we were seeing 40 to 50 now a number of people were coming for their English lessons but as much were or more were coming for that sense o
f community somewhere War um so we started a program it's every other Wednesday where we do exactly that we cook and provide meals to um the recent arrivals who are coming in we provide the to use the wifi we have TV and we just started doing a half hour workshop for them that's from 4:30 to 8 every other Wednesday and we do a half hour workshop for them on your basic living in New York City um I know as well that that's what that's what my question was um how much how much would it cost to have
somebody come in and and feed the people every day like warm like real food you mentioned in your grant that you have well that's the pantry assistant that you have but not someone cooking right right so she do you have an idea very sensitive about cooking because they are very specific um you I I we that hasn't happened before where we paid someone to come in and cook um I think if you're asking about the cost of the food when we cook the meals of course it depends on what you put but when we
order in say an African meal it cost us about $200 on how many 20 20 plus thanks Monica for that question thank you so um I don't see any other hands uh but yes we do want you to come back Amanda keep us up to date it's a unique program um you know just because of the population it serves and um you know keep us up to up to dat thank you um I'm going to uh move the debriefing uh public heal for down um on the agenda so that we can accommodate Our Guest presentator uh presenters um we're very U h
appy to have Dr uh Leah Habersham of the icon school of medicine at Mount Si and she's assistant professor director of obstetrics Gynecology and reproductive Sciences um she um is doing research in the area of addiction and maternal mortality with the emphasis this month being on black maternal Health uh I thought it would be a really important topic for her to uh bring to us and uh she was not able to come to our Public Health Forum but we're happy to have her here there's a brief bio that you'
ll read U on the agenda pertaining to Dr habam and uh Dr habam if you need to be made a co-host I can do that because I think that you do if I remember correctly yeah I have slides can you hear me yes and so now okay great okay yeah right now it says it's disabled okay yes there you are um so I'm not able to share my screen still oh there it is there it is it didn't come up before yeah so thanks H um there okay you have just been made of co-host okay um are you able to see the slides yes great o
kay so again my name is Leah Habersham I'm an obstetrician and gynecologist I'm also an addiction medicine specialist and I lead the bridge program at Mount Si which is an integrated OBGYN um and addiction uh treatment program for women living with um substance use this orders including pregnant people and so um I'm really happy to be here with everyone to discuss this topic which is very important to me to the work that I do and the research that I do which is the role of substance use and mate
rnal mortality here in New York city so I was going to first just characterize the role of substance use and substance use disorders in maternal mortality here in New York City and then identify some causes of maternal substance use dis uh disorder disparities both nationally as well as locally and then review some mitigation strategies for maternal mortality and I intend on this just being about 15 minutes and then we can if anyone had any questions happy to answer so hopefully this is a review
for most but um majority of those uh maternal deaths that occur are happening after the time of birth and so this it's important to keep this in mind particularly with overdose deaths um occurring to women who have uh just had children and the leading cause of pregnancy related death it is uh they are mental health condition so that's suicide and overdose and when we look at a national level we see that those leading um in maternal mortality due to mental health conditions are Hispanic and also
white but then when we look closer at our New York City Data what we're seeing is that those numbers are actually um being characterized by Black and Hispanic women or Latina women um they are the ones that are leading uh with mental health conditions being the cause and when we look even closer at the data we see that the singular leading cause for pregnancy Associated mortality here in New York City is overdose um so that's really significant and it's important to bear in mind because we know
that maternity maternal mortality it's only the tip of the iceberg so those though these numbers are quite small um in comparison to numbers that we may look out for other things we know that this demonstrates really more deep-seated issues that lie beneath right and so when we look at the epidemiology during pregnancy using something like the national survey on drug use and health um data from 2021 was collected and that was what was put out in 2023 and pregnant women were surveyed with that d
ata and you can see from the results that substance use substance use disorders are just as common if not more common than many of the ailments that we um screen for during pregnancy and so 7.7% of women reported non-prescribed substance use 10.8% reported tobacco use the 99.8% report reported alcohol use and I'm sorry I know that the numbers on this slide are quite small but I'm going to just dictate to you what they're telling you because really the D the detail is in the numbers and so what w
e're seeing is that on a national level when we look at overdose deaths white women have been leading for some time but now that it's starting to flip Black and Hispanic are now the ones that are leading um not leading I should say but their rates of mortality are rising um much more steeply than that of white and so this is really concerning and is telling of what is to come that what we're seeing here in New York City with Black and Hispanic women leading um with overdose deaths being the numb
er one one of the number one causes that this is likely going to happen in the United States as well and when we look more closely at the timing of occurrence in regards to pregnancy and postpartum what we see is that most of these deaths are occurring during the late postpartum period or the last six months of that first post postpartum year and I myself I'm a mother um working with this population as well I can see how this is happening um if we think about the way that we approach prenatal ca
re postpartum care most of our energies are put into that prenatal period trying to have of course healthy moms Healthy Babies healthy pregnancies and deliveries and much less thought is put into a I should not say thought but much less care is put into that postpartum period so we see them at six weeks check on them and then ship them off and we don't see them again for about another year right and knowing that most of the deaths are occurring during that postpartum year there needs to be a gre
ater emphasis on that time period um because many of these many of these patients do not have the supports the resources the Family Support um that many of our other patients may have and so keeping that in mind is important and having continued contact particularly with this population is really important and so that's a great segue into the root causes of these very specific maternal mortalities um or this very specific type of maternal mortality I should say um and so what are the causes well
I can say that this disparities and substance use disorder treatment in pregnancy is one major cause so while there are no differences in race or ethnicity amongst women who have substance use disorders we know that nonwhite pregnant women are less likely to receive treatment for substance use disorders compared with white we also know that black and his and Latina women pregnant women are less likely to complete substance use disorder treatment compared with white and so what is the reason you
may ask well I'd have to say that working in this space I see a lot of it to be fear um we know that there are inequities uh in the way that we assess for substance use disorders one way is through urine drug screening or toxicology testing a lot of inequities in that there are also a lot of inequities in how um we report and who we report for child protective services so again despite the fact that there's equal use of substances amongst white and black pregnant women we test black women and L
atina women more they're many more times four and five times more likely to undergo toxicology testing so if you're testing one group more than the other obviously they will have more positive results right and so what does that lead to well black women are 10 times more likely than white women to be reported to Child Protective Services or here we call ACS right and so the Biden Harris Administration realized um many of the issues that surround substance use disorders in pregnancy they came up
with an action plan and within that action plan they identified that there needs to be policy or pregnant women with substance use disorders to reach out and get help get addiction treatment without having the fear of child removal they also realized that once women are engaged in substance use sort of treatment when they're brave enough to seek out and get that help many of them find that their services are often fragmented and they're difficult to access and I see that every day in the work th
at I do you know a woman if she is in methodone treatment she's going there daily for her treatment she has to make it to see me in my clinic fortunately for those patients who are on something like binori I can provide both in one space but I also have to send them to you know the highrisk doctor and send them for ultrasounds and there's so many different things that they have to get um and if they there's not a program such as mine elsewhere which I am the only mine is currently the only progr
am in New York City um it makes it difficult for patients to get all these services in one place and so yes of course the root causes of maternal mortality Health inequities they're the same for this population implicit bias and discrimination lack of access to Quality care and then social and structural determinance of Health but I think that one light at the end of all of this um dimsel darkness is the fact that the inequities that exist in this space are quite overt compared to many of the ot
her inequities that I see particularly when I was only practicing OBGYN um which were much more covert these are very overt they're very obvious and we there are mitigation strategies that we can employ to try and change things and so one thing that has occurred which many may not know is that there is joint effort on the behalf of ACS as well as the Department of Mental Health um they put out this joint guidance back in 2020 which stated that a positive toxicology result by itself does not cons
titute child abuse it does not necessitate a report to the SDR and if a substance disorder is identified a plan of Safe Care should be developed and monitored and so really the movement is intended to be that instead of linking patients with ACS it's really that you should be linking patients with treatment and so really we need to have standards of care for substance use disorders within this population we need to be able to screen patients and when they screen positive get them a real diagnos
nois and get them on to treatment and so we also and so to to enable that one great way is the expert model which is screening brief intervention referral to treatment having this implemented throughout prenatal care facilities and birthing hospitals would be a great way of facilitating this educating our providers on espert and stigma and bias training specific to substance use during pregnancy and for parenting people would really be helpful and combating inequitable toxicology testing inequit
able CPS referrals and inappropriate foster care placement also key things that we can do the other thing is that we need to increase access to treatment so I can tell you there is limited access um there are limited numbers of residential facilities that will affect pregnant women and women with children and I can also tell you no facilities except children over 10 and so that means if a woman with a child that's 12 is have a you know flid substance use disorder wants to get help and needs Resi
dential Treatment there is nothing for her we also have limited impatient detox rehab facilities during pregnancy which is necessary in cases of alcohol use disorder necessary for opioid use disorder necessary for benzo diap use disorder and so we only have two facilities actually that are inpatient hospital um based programs we also have limited intensive outpatient um for women with children so that means a woman who can't get into a residential program her next step would be intensive out pat
ient where she's going daily but imagine having a child that you need to carry along with you at certain points many of the programs don't allow children to be present for obvious reasons but there is a need for these patients so I know of one program in the Bronx that does allow and then as I stated mine is the only current currently The only integrated program um in New York City I know that there are efforts to expand that but it's very difficult to get funding just to get the basics like hav
ing a social worker that can provide counseling to this population A specialized Addiction Counseling very difficult um and so having more funding opportunities would be really beneficial and so in summary overdose is the leading cause of maternal mortality and morbidity um it's inequitably impacting black and Latina women here in New York City mitigation requires decreasing barriers and increasing access to substance use disorder treatment particularly for those who have children so thank you a
nd open to any questions yeah Laquita yes Monica thank you thank you Dr we entertaining questions now the first is coming from Monica thank you so much um I'm a criminal defense attorney in the Bronx and substance abuse is one of the largest issues affecting uh my clients across all spectrums but can you just uh speak to them a little speak to the committee a little bit about um drug treatment programs and access to drug treatment programs because we really have a very difficult time finding a d
etox center to send our clients to and we have a very difficult time trying to get a a a bed for our client even though people are under this perception that the Attorney General is sending all this money out into the community so that people can get treatment can you just address that a little bit yeah there are only two so I'm speaking of um for pregnant people there are only two programs in New York City that will accept pregnant women for detox that's my Hospital on Mount at Mount Si West an
d then Flushing Hospital that's it so if these programs are out of Beds which does happen um because they're accepting from all over the city um where does the patient go if she I have seen it happen a patient wants to stop using and there's nowhere to send her nobody because the two programs won't take her because maybe they're full or they had a covid outbreak or whatever it is um so it it's a real problem and that's just looking at detox rehab impatient I mean I I think the loud and more conc
erning problem I mean at least there's two what about women who have older children who need help um not having not one program that you can send a patient to if she needs residential treatment and then telling her well you can put your kids in Forester care you know that's your next option I don't think that that's that's not it's not acceptable you know there just really is nothing out there like I said there's only one if we can't get her into a residential program because she has an 11year o
ld I only know of one intensive outpatient program which is basically like an all day program um where women may go from 99 to 5: but you can imagine people who have children they may need to pick them up from school and then bring them there to spend the remainder of their time and so uh all having only one program that would allow that that's you know what if a person lives in Staten Island for instance it it just makes it next to impossible for many patients to get treatment um and that's rea
l disservice um it's a failure on on our you know on our community on our community's part um to not have more services available to this population particularly those that need the help and want the help Evelyn Rich has her hand up uh oh yes and she's on okay go ahead I want to thank you for this presentation I think it was very very informative because you're talking about a problem which from my perspective is invisible we really don't see or acknowledge how serious it is now you know there's
an old saying if you always do what you always did you'll always get what you always got all right I know Lita to Henry from 50 years ago when we true 1980 is when I met you 80 well 43 anyway we were together in this group called The New York Coalition of 100 black women and we had a series of what we call Ro model programs which tried to help young women and put them on the right path to living productive lives as adults M and as I listen to you I heard you talk about the things that people al
ways talk about a lack of programs a lack of money and so my question is have you considered doing something different meaning something like a role model program where if you could find an africanamerican woman who would agree to be a mentor to a woman who is on drugs and has children perhaps that might be as a pilot project a different response our experience 40 years ago was if we took young women who had babies their first baby in they were still in high school because they did this in the s
chool where I was a principal and we gave them six weeks uh modeling an africanamerican woman in a job where she went to work every day and we paid these young women to do this we found that they did not get pregnant again that the notion of seeing and being with someone one who had aspirations really made a big impact so my question is have you at Mount Sinai explored other ways of maybe getting money i' I've had a lot of experience raising money for all kinds of things and sometimes if you go
to a potential funer with a new idea saying we want to do something different and this is what we want to do and we need $50,000 let's say to try this out you could sometimes be successful I commend you for what you're trying to do but as you said it's a drop in the bucket and these are our women and somehow or other we have to do something different I agree I agree we need to do something different um I think that that's a great idea to have women have role models and um but still just to get t
hem to get the treatment that they need the basic treatment so that they can get to that point that they can really accept and you know Embrace having a role model and be able to utilize it to its full potential is still an issue um but I do see your your point is not lost with me and I do see it um and I think that that would be a great idea for those patients who are doing well in their recovery definitely I'm going to give you a call after the meeting and maybe we'll explore possibilities tha
nk you thank you and then Stephanie mcra has her hands up Stephanie hi actually oh can everybody hear me yes well hi thank you actually this is Nina my name is Nina Norwood I'm the new ex assistant M MC hello how are you hi hi thank you yes thank you so much for having me on the call I've been listening and soaking so much of this up this is an amazing amazing information and it's such a powerful you know way of looking at how we can better service the women in our community and just the familie
s in our community I just wanted to ask my question as to you know looking at it of course as warm representing domestic violence and VI against women and intimate partner violence how much um that plays a role as far as your study is concerned because we know largely when you're dealing with domestic violence and intimate partner violence or just violence within the home you know in any shape or form you know women are afraid to speak out they're they're afraid to come forward so they may turn
to substance abuse and they may turn to the streets trying to find a safe place and you know going to the wrong areas and finding love as we always say in the wrong places and how we can help in that regard with creating a safe space for those who may be afraid to speak up and say I'm at home being hurt and that's why I use drugs or I'm at home being harmed and that's why I feel like carrying a baby's not the best idea right now so I tried to have to get rid of it you know ways we can create tha
t conversational spaces to let women and not just women men and just our community know in general that we're out here looking at this at all facets of ideology thank you because um with intimate partner violence that is so closely linked and you know really intermingled with substance use for women specifically so it's important that we have those resources uh including your program if you could share your information in the um in the chat that would be a resource for us with our program absolu
tely I would be more than happy to do that exponentially thank you so much thank you Dr habish what's the name of your program at Mount Sonic what's the name of this particular program I know you may have stated it it's the bridge program bridge at the bridge the bridge okay and I'm gonna add my email in the chat and then also the bridge email in case anybody wanted to reach out okay and the bridge is an actual clinic at M yeah right not just a program but actual program in a Clin okay yeah it's
a clinic Pro program it's also the title of my research program as well so the body of work that I am doing research in it's the bridge but also it's the clinic too when do you anticipate um completing your research on this oh no this is ongoing like I'm building a researchr so that's ongoing I won't that that won't end and this program is intended to last as well the clinic the clinical program is intended to last as well you back um we definitely want you to come back and share more update an
d Dr ronr has a a raised hand there um Dr R yes thank you Leah that was a very uh very very useful presentation it's really nice to be able to see you sort of hone down on the what the where the actual problems are I think there's a lot of misinformation out there right now and maybe a little bit of unnecessary Panic among otherwise healthy women having you know normal pregnancies about the risks because this is really the facts that you're presenting um but I was wondering are you able to sort
of hone in even more on the let's say uh like data as you're collecting the data on for instance immigration status like how many you know of these maternal mortality maternal mortalities are occurring among immigrants who are afraid to go to the doctor for instance because they they're not they don't have a status in in um and also the other thing that occurred to me um um which now flew out of my head so never mind you can answer that question no but that's a great question really important um
but I have not to be honest with you I have not really I've only been referred one patient who was of immigrant status and had an uh a substance use disorder but I have been hearing that as the numbers are increasing that that number is increasing as well because I was put in contact with um Department of Health or a program where they were going to start sending patients and a number one client are um those with of immigrant status so I can get back to you on that because I probably have more
information so but now I don't have much right and the other thing that I just remembered is uh how much is sex trafficking uh figuring into this because sex trafficked women often use drugs you know that's not really an area that I've been looking into um and so I really don't have data on that I'm sorry I know that I do see I'm sorry no no I I do see not sex trafficking but sex work work I think that those patients who are in who are actually being sex trafficked I don't think they're getting
linked with care you know it's going to be once they're able to get away from that um and so which is unfortunate Laquita I just want to say um generally programs will not accept people uh who have no status because they can't sign them up for Medicade um so there are a few programs in the city Arcadia is Arcadia is one of them that will actually accept people who are uh who are undocumented I think though because um if they're pregnant it's a little different like I know with the one patient th
at I was referred she was able to get emergency Medicaid and she was undocumented yeah I because she was pregnant but for for like single for single people I mean it's a it's a big problem we have in treatment court because if that person's undocumented there's only one program that's taking them aadia and you know once they run out of bed that's it yeah it's it it's really it's a real issue particularly when they're not pregnant it's it's easier to get people to be willing um you know to make s
pace for a patient um but if they're not pregnant it's so much more difficult true and then add to that um being undocumented I I can't even imagine wow fascinating discussion but I mean how hopeful are you Dr Hab I know the project is is going on but in terms of reaching what can we do to help I mean are will duess help in a situation like this um you know in terms of the um in terms of this whole uh aspect of of of mental stress and the second thing I was going to uh really ask also has to do
with um I understand that another Factor um with maternal mortality is uh uh bleeding uh and particularly among uh black women there's a lot of a lot of us who bleed and that is problem also post part as well well guess I'm sorry I'm having difficulty hearing you at the end for some reason oh there's there's a train the train went P overhead ohing about uh women who there's a tendency I understand for particularly black women to be bleeders um you know to bleed more heavily or or easily and ther
eby I don't know if that causes strokes but leading to Strokes and all as well in terms of maternal mortality so uh can you speak to that is that true or what aspect is does that play I mean we leave period in disparities um having to do related to cardiovascular to bleeding to everything and um it's unfortunate we start off more anemic um than most and so that puts us at a dis advantage to begin with so um I think it's important to help women to have a voice when they um when they're laboring u
m and to be advocates for themselves if they feel that something is not right and they're not being heard to have you know having support there with you is helpful but also being able to speak up for yourself and not taking your your concerns being brushed off um not taking that you know laying down or sitting down sometimes you have to be persistent um and so I think that that's you know the biggest unfortunate thing as well that we have to be our own Advocates because people often don't listen
to us they don't listen to our complaints they don't you know they don't take us seriously maybe it's that they think that we don't know as much as they do um but that's the reality and so knowing that I think you have to be vigilant what about D you think D sorry in terms ofal stress or I I think that need to have to recognize identify a mental stress situation what can you say speak related to that D I think that duelist are a great um in to in regards to any type of um maternal Health dispar
ity cause um and that's because they are dealing with this on a regular basis they're familiar with the issues and what to look out for and they are Advocates um so they're not only knowledgeable they're advocates for patients and there a support that many patients don't have and I think it's difficult though for my population because so many of them are so guarded they don't trust they've had you know like 80 to 90% of women um particularly pregnant people who have substance use disorders have
a background of trauma and so many of them are not really open to having a doula but if it could be possible that one could be integrated into a program I think that that might be the best way to um to get patients to be more open to utilizing that resource um because I think it really is important and it helpful if it's utilized I think Anita Anita were you you were not muted but that were you also making a statement question no I'm sorry I'm sorry my dog stepped on a blueberry sorry okay any o
ther questions for Dr habash thank you so very much and we definitely want you to come back for an update um on this pressing topic and I'm so happy you were available this evening and so uh so there are those who uh were uh making contact with you I believe you dropped your information in the chat I think you did or not okay um so we'll move on um and I think while uh while we're on it this is also the month for Earth Day and so uh the other half of our responsibility to our public is getting o
ut information on the environment or environmental topics so we have Cameron Clark and um Cameron um if you can um let's see I can make you a co-host um and let's see here there we are okay so while you're setting up uh I thank Dr Habersham and uh uh we'll be hearing from her again and Cameron take it away I think all right thank you so much Lita um yeah say you may already obviously we see your weact but you can give us uh uh something on weact and yourself as you're giving your presentation fo
r sure yeah um but yeah great to meet everybody my name is Cameron Clark I'm a a medical student up at Colombia but I'm also an environmental justice fellow at we act for environmental justice we a you know probably most of the folks in the call are familiar but we're uh an environmental justice nonprofit based in Harlem um advocating for Northern Manhattan and today I wanted to talk to you about our campaign for housing affordability and environmental justice called our homes under our control
and because is the the health committee meeting I wanted to link it um to health so as I'm sure everyone on the panel is you know everyone in this group is familiar New York we're currently in an affordability crisis um across multiple Dimensions um so you know we have record numbers of folks who are unhoused we have energy bills that are set to double by 2025 that's um ConEd gas electricity we have you know more than a third of New Yorkers that are spending half of their income on rent um and w
e have I think it was recently that I heard that the price of a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan is crossed to being more than $4,000 um so I think you know it's it's it's something ridiculous I know that's not affordable for me and I doubt it's affordable for most of the people on this call um and you know this impacts our district specifically so I'm you know I'm a resident of CB 9 you know and as as we see from the data from provided by New York City over half of the residents of West Harle
m um are rent burden that's actually a higher proportion than Manhattan overall and then more than a quarter million New Yorkers are at a eviction risk which actually just means that evic an eviction case has been filed in the housing court but if you're looking at folks who are you know susceptible or under threat to eviction because they owe back rent or you know anticipate falling behind on the rent that's another quarter million so that's almost half a million New Yorkers in total that are e
ither in the process of being evicted or at risk of being evicted in the near future and you know this is not something that's distributed equally among you know all boats you know this is something that is really impacting lowincome folks um dramatically more than than everyone else in the city you know we see that rents are rising twice as fast as wages um and you know this is 84% of low income households are spending more than half of their income on rent um you know I know folks are familiar
that we did have an eviction moratorium in the midst of the pandemic once that ended since then evictions have been up more than 25 times um like what they were during the the midst of the pandemic um and you know and it's not just about rent actually it's it also applies to energy and utility bills what something what many of many folks might not be familiar with is the notion that you know if you are lowincome you're actually spending not just a higher proportion of your income on your utilit
y bills but in addition utility bills are actually allocated in a re in a regressive Manner and that you're actually spending more per unit of energy um if you're using very little energy relative to if you're using a lot of energy so if you live in a large house multiple rooms you've got TVs in every room you're actually spending less for each unit of energy than if you live in like a one-bedroom apartment and you just have one stove because of the way that con Edison's billing algorithm Works
um that actually leads to the lowest income folks in the city spending you know 10 15 up to 25% of their income just on utilities and so when you take utilities plus folks are spending more than half of their income on rent you see that we come to a scenario where folks it's completely unaffordable for people to live in this city so why is this a Health crisis you know we understand that these are problems and issues of affordability but what does this have to do with health um because housing i
nstability is a health issue you know we see data Journal after Journal article that comes out that links a lack of housing affordability to numerous adverse Health outcomes I just picked a small selection of the Articles talking about you know the association of multiple moves and multiple evictions with child health um can lead to early hypertension high cholesterol obesity diabetes negative Health impacts it can lead to developmental delays learning disabilities issues in school also in at th
e extremes it leads to increased incidents of substance use disorders psychiatric illness anxiety depression and ultimately elevated all causes mortality if you're living in a more unstable housing situation High rents also lead contribute indirectly to you know uh worse Health outcomes because you know by by the principle of when housing is more unaffordable and options for housing become more limited it empowers folks who are in control of housing you know folks who are landlords to you know r
aise the prices of existing housing without necessarily making improvements to those housing because the supply is so scarce and so that results when you're a person who's you know a consumer in the market you often end up with lower quality housing with more maintenance deficiencies that can contribute to or worsen existing health conditions so that's stuff like if you're living in an apartment with lead paint if you live in an apartment where you have pest infestations like roaches and rodents
if you have you know damp in your walls because of leaks that can contribute to mold and to mildew or if if you have something as simple as you know insufficient heat and insufficient cooling all of those things can contribute to brain develop mental delays kidney illness reproductive issues pests in particular in addition to mold and M do we see contributing extremely to asthma exacerbations which is a huge issue in our community in particular we have one of the highest asthma rates in the cit
y um and then insufficient Heating and Cooling can contribute to you know heart disease hypothermia in the winter and heat stroke and respiratory illnesses in the summer and if we look at you know this chart right here on the bottom it it it discusses that you know we are one of the most impacted neighborhoods um by maintenance deficiencies in the entirety of Manhattan and we also one of the most rent burdened neighborhoods so we're being hit you know sort of with a double whammy of unsustainabl
e um land use practices so it's not something where I'm just coming on this call to like you know beat up on landlords and stuff like that but you know it's it's really really uh a symptom of the laws and the policies that we have in place have sort of enabled Bad actors to exploit our communities for profit um and so what we want to do is sort of you know change the laws so that those Bad actors are not given that same leeway and leverage to exploit our communities and contribute to some of the
se Health outcomes that we're seeing um so that we're doing this in two ways um so this is called the our homes under our control plat platform and I think it's really unique because we act as like an environmental justice organization that also has like a membership base that is based in this community we have the ability to look at things from an environmental justice standpoint but also look at things that impact people's you know material conditions so you know there are a lot of different P
rogressive organizations that have you know um supported you know sort of good cause eviction and Universal rent stabilization laws um and there are a lot of good you know en environmental groups that have campaigned for the New York heat act but what we Act is doing is bringing these two things together and saying you know number one environmental justice is housing Justice these two things are inextricable from one another because of the impact that they have on folks who are living in these y
ou know marginalized communities and so I'm going to talk a little bit more about each of these things and then I'm going to get into how you know you can support um some of our work so first thing talking about rent so you know you're you're familiar the vast majority of folks in the city are renters this is a city of renters um and you know we obviously have you know different varieties of tenant protections whether you're living in a rent controlled unit or a rent stabilized unit or a Nicha u
nit or some other form of housing but 1.6 million households don't fall into any of those categories so they're just existing on the market and renting at the beest of where wherever they can find a place to stay um and so essentially when you're in that environment um your landlord can choose not to renew your lease for any reason whatsoever and raise the rent as high as they want so if they decide that they don't want you in that apartment because maybe you are a tenant who pointed out that th
ey have a maintenance deficiency and you're trying to you know maybe organize some of the other tenants in your building to get that deficiency repaired they can decide Retaliator that they don't want you in that building because maybe you're a troublemaker and they can either choose to just not renew your lease or they can choose to hike your rent up by 300% 400% as much as they want and there is no real recourse in housing court that you have to resist that eviction so what good cause would do
is it's not you know it's it's not full rent control it's not full rent stabilization but it's the type of protections that you know exist in States as foreign and exotic as New Jersey um so you know it it all it does is it requires landlords to justify rent hikes greater than 3% in court in front of a judge why do they need to hike the rent more than 3% um when they renew a lease the other thing that it does is it gives tenants the power to challenge evictions that might be arbitrary retaliato
ry or discriminatory so if the tenant has followed their lease if they haven't caused damage to the building if they've paid their rent on time um a landlord would need to sort of justify the cause for for an eviction so they are still you know you would still be able to evict somebody as a landlord if if they were violating the terms of their lease or if you had a you know if you or a family member or a close person needed to take possession of the unit but if you decided that you wanted to jus
t evict somebody because they were you know because maybe there was you know some sort of uh dispute that came up that where nobody violated the lease but you just decided that this isn't a person that you wanted in the building that is something that the tenant would be able to challenge and say no this is not um a Justified eviction all right so you know talk a little bit about the history so we almost so this exists um in Europe this exists in California Oregon Washington New Jersey and you k
now different iterations of this bill have been being introduced since 2019 um last year was you know the closest that we got um unfortunately governor hok was not really a fan of of good cause eviction and ultimately resisted it um but this year you know we're we're seeing a lot of pressure we're seeing you know a lot of legislators who maybe were a little bit more uh resistant to it that are more open to it this year and I think that this is like the ultimate one of the greatest opportunities
that we have to finally get this across the Finish Line um and so we're you know asking for for support and sort of getting this across you know if you're familiar with the budget process you know that the budget was supposed to be uh released by due by April first um that's ultimately been postponed um I think until April 4th um is the New York state budget so there's still opportunities for folks to like contact the legislators call the governor's office and demand good cause eviction all righ
t second thing that we're going to talk about is energy so if you're if you're live if you're sitting in New York City right now chances are if you drill down 300 ft you you would see that there is a dense network of gas and fossil fuel pipelines that are snaking underground all around you um and so essentially what happens is that you know there's this huge interconnected web of fossil fuels that are connecting all of these buildings um and you know as more and more buildings transition off of
gas and onto electric we starting to see that the need for this huge fossil fuel network is diminishing um unfortunately um because of New York state law if you have uh build a new building and you decide that you you know want to connect that building to fossil fuels that is completely subsidized by the state it is completely free for you to connect your building to the existing fossil fuel network not only is it free it is paid for by the taxpayer um so there is essentially an incentive to eve
ry new building to connect up their existing you know they're building to fossil fuels regardless of whether or not it actually makes Financial sense in the long term for tenants to be connected to fossil fuels um you know we see that you know we we already have in the city we have you know the all all electric buildings law where sort of newer larger buildings are going to be electric but there's still you know an automatic incentive provided even to those buildings to connect up to the fossil
fuel Network um and so essentially what this does is not only does is it costing us money with each new connection but just the maintenance of this huge network is going to cost an estimated $500 billion do just to maintain over the next 50 years um so this is not free at all um at you know for the consumer or for the taxpayer over the long term um Additionally you know there's there's other energy projects that we can talk about you know if you're if you're familiar with geothermal um there's y
ou know the opportunity that different communities have to do neighborhood geothermal where the entire neighborhood can get energy just from the heat of the earth um but another provision in the existing law essentially allows just one individual building to opt out and that kills the project entirely so even if the entire Community says hey we want renewable energy we want clean energy we want non gas we want nonfossil fuel energy one building can say actually I'm not interested and that kills
the project entirely um so what uh New York heat would do um is that essentially it would remove the subsidies to these uh systems so as more and more people break up with gas gas um you know currently under the current system you'd have fewer and fewer buildings that would be paying to support this giant oversized aging decrepit system and what ConEd and the energy providers are going to do is and that they're already starting to do is they're going to start jacking up the prices for the few re
maining buildings that are connected to these gas systems so what we want to do you know and so just to talk about you know con this is just from you know uh the news um that Con Edison rate payers are can plan to spend up to $65 more per month on gas and electricity starting in 2025 so they've already started jacking up the prices on existing rate payers so the New York heat act would actually solve these problems and it would do it by doing three really important things so number one it would
end those public subsidies to gas companies so no longer would it be free for you to connect your building um to fossil fuels you would just have to pay for it just like you'd have to pay for anything else what it would essentially allow us to do is to take the savings from removing those subsidies and use it to support clean energy Alternatives so instead of you know paying buildings to connect to gas we would be able to you know pay buildings co-ops different developments um to put uh rooftop
solar projects Community geothermal projects um Community wind energy projects like a huge slew of renewable energy projects that are cleaner and safer for for health um I didn't get into it a lot but you know we H we actually put out you know numerous articles on you know us as an organization on sort of the health impacts of having a gas stove and how that can actually exacerbate symptoms of asthma and respiratory diseases because you're bring breathing in uh nitrous oxides constantly every ti
me you cook and there's actually no EPA regulation for indoor air pollution in the same way that there is for outdoor air pollution but that's an aside the third thing that this would do is it would actually cap utility costs at 6% of household income so right now where we have low income folks that are spending up to 25% of their monthly income on utilities just right I'm sorry they were discussing oh Cameron can you wrap up some questions uh uh that we need to be ask and then um I don't want t
o have us here late absolutely yeah so with cap utility costs at 6% of household income to ensure that energy is able to remain affordable for low-income folks um um and so you know that cap on NJ bills would help over 1 m one million households across the state um so similarly to the the uh good cause eviction Bill New York heat we're as close as we've ever been to the finish line and so you know the thing that we would want to encourage you to do you know both as you know uh public servants bu
t also as you know just citizens of the state um is to call your elected officials call the governor encourage them to ensure that we pass um this New York heat act and you know so that we can win both of these in 2024 so I think that's all I had um so I'm happy to take excellent um do you have uh and you may have already done so uh drop some information in the chat uh particularly as it concerns the bills and uh legislative action that will uh that could possibly impact the passing of these bil
ls as I know it's got they've gotten good response uh I know there's some reluctance on the part of some legislators but uh for the most part um well how would you uh rate the response from uh legislators in our area yeah so I think I think the most of the legislators in our area are supportive of both of these bills so you know they're co-sponsors of of both of these bills with you know one who I I won't mention cuz we're not going to not going to air them out and I think they're they're retiri
ng um but I think that you know um what we need from legislators at this point and one of the things that I would emphasize folks to do if they decide to call when I just put the link to where you can sort of um just click a link and it signs you up for an auto dialer that'll connect you directly to your legislator's office um is to encourage them to speak to the the leader of the assembly um and the leader of the Senate to Aaron jury Stewart cousins and to Carl Hasty and to tell them that this
is something that they are hearing from their constituents about that they need um to to fight for in the budget negotiations um so it's it's more than just them saying you know hey we support this we need them to like you know communicate that to um the the legislative leaders who are the folks that are doing the negotiation at this point and the voting or will should be taking place like April 4 that's just yeah so this is this has been ongoing so negotiations have been sort of essentially you
know what what happens is that the you know the assembly comes out with like a set of bills that it wants to pass as part of the budget the Senate comes out with a set of bills that it wants to pass as part of the budget and the governor comes out with you know her priorities and then hok Stuart cousins and Hasty essentially just get into a room and argue about it for for weeks at a time um so you know there's not there hasn't been any voting that's that's taken place just yet on these bills um
but you know the budget um packages that each of these you know offices have released have sort of you know have been you know have there's been some common ground on some of on some of this legislation but I think what you know what we can do from our perspective as as constituents is say that hey this is a priority for us this is critical to our health this is critical to affordability and us being able to stay in our homes and to us having cleaner air and less polluted communities so this is
something that is absolutely essential for us as residents of this city and this state now we have Pauline has her hand up with a question Pauline I hope she's still there I don't think that's a legacy hand oh unless maybe that was me okay maybe I I move yeah I think I had the accidentally touched the uh cursor uh any questions uh for Cameron and it's interesting that you mentioned the um um cost of living like 80 I saw figure $887,000 to live uh for the average family to live in New York City
how portability has uh really gone up but there was another news article and I think Monica brought it to our no maybe it was Edwin something like 90 it would cost uh a minimum of 98,000 for a person and family to live comfortably in New York City it's outrageous and then but to really live comfortably 134,000 so I mean this is just uh ridiculous no absolutely and you know there's there's a wider sort of suite and I didn't have the time to get into it that of legislation that you know we're also
campaigning for around sort of Universal rent stabilization which would include like a a social housing program and sort of uh housing access vouchers um I think I think uh Senator clear is spon is the co-sponsor of the social housing program um but you know I think that there's a lot of things that we need to do to get to the point where this city is Affordable to live because it's you know rapidly becoming a place that like only the very very rich can like afford to to build like a you know a
a a dignified life in um so I think there's a lot of steps that we're we need to take but I think these are some of the you know critical fundamental Baseline steps that have been taken in other contexts in states that are not very um different from our own that you know and New Jersey has not imploded since they implemented this and that was you know I think four or five years ago that they that they implemented this bill Dr ronstrom you had a a state or other I saw quickly come pass by pass t
he screen uh no I just had a question uh if these bills have like uh names and numbers you know so that we know what we refer to if we talk to our legislators and camer just answered the first one but what's this what was this heat bill called we heat yeah so that's the New York heat act and I'm just putting that in the chat right now A 4592 okay thank you so those are cause good cause eviction was the other one yeah so good cause eviction is uh the housing bill so that's s305 on the Senate side
and A45 4454 on the assembly and the New York heat is s26 a 4592 but you honestly don't need to use the bill numbers cuz everybody everybody in Al knows what these bills are so if you say good cause New York heat they know what you're talking about especially especially the you know the folks who are are um negotiating right now thank you um and yes Amanda thank you so much really really interesting St um the is it um should we call the the speaker directly or are electeds like the speaker's of
fice because it's like down to the why now if you if you have capacity feel free to call both um if you don't have capacity you know I think I would you would probably prioritize calling your own elected official um what we've heard is that the you know the the leadership is not you know as receptive to calls from folks who are not their constituents um you know but if you can emphasize to you know your specific elected to bring this up um in their conversations then that's that's one of the the
ways that we can have impact but call both if you have time call both definitely I have I have heard not with this one specifically but like in the past when they get down to the wire they're they just counting the calls and like give that tally at the end of the we had you know 50 people call no and 100 people call yes you know what I mean so for sure probably what they're doing at this point and also call the governor because I think the governor is you know everyone here is a constituent of
the governor and that is you know unfortunately hok's office is one of the the the people that we need to put pressure on to to get these these bills across the finish line so everybody has you know the absolute ability to exercise their leverage on Governor hok thank you well Cameron you're gonna have to come back more regly uh so we can know what react is doing and um be able to give provide feedback and I know some people um you know have a strong interest in uh the environmental push and so
it helps us know what's what and what we need to push on for sure so thank you for your your presentation if I could add just one last thing um and this is just an announcement um so the fellowship that I'm you know the fellowship that I have is named after cesil Corbin Mark um who some of yall might be you know familiar with um you know he passed away um a couple years ago um and there's actually going to be a street naming ceremony um uh on April 20th on Earth Day um onund I think it's 152nd S
treet um is going to be the street that's named for him um so if you just check out I can drop the the link right here um but also it's on our website if you like to join for the the the street naming ceremony coming up and will you email that to me as well uh I know you said dropped in chat but just send me an email on on that so I for distribution it be a little bit easier for me okay I can send you an email with that okay and so now um we come to uh part this will be we're just about done act
ually there are a couple of resolutions but uh in terms of our debriefing on our uh Community Public Health Forum uh we had a meeting earlier with this afternoon with the the partners of those are uh those that help us table uh and provide information at the booth provide demonstrations uh provide a great networking opportunity for others who were not aware of what the other was doing so um it was wonderful um was the common consensus it would have been uh great to have had even more people but
the turnout wasn't uh too bad we were thinking of say for the presentation Shifty but among those that signed the sheets that uh the district office had there were I signed my names that made it 99 a count of 99 but there were a number persons who did not sign so um Edwin co-chair committee was thinking that it was probably like 150 so it wasn't a bad turnout we wanted Bo and we definitely need Bo to put together our uh to present our youth Workshop but that being uh said all in all Gathering wa
s very well received we had Stellar Stellar presenters you heard Dr Habersham for example tonight she was to be one of those presenters and so there were others just like her um one of the others said wow this is like uh Nobel Prize laor presentation and research work so so that's what we had and we have in in this community and so hopefully um clil did most of the videotaping um we could have I guess um had that done right on the spot uh if I know that was uh available to us but nonetheless uh
we had uh videotaping by clel and then one segment videotaped by Dr Milano and we're hoping to able to compile something to put together uh with YouTu a YouTube presentation for the community so uh the information is not lost um we had uh the mamogram van there were about 21 women signed up for the mamogram and they needed at least 20 uh to actually come to the location so um those some uh didn't make it but we had uh 14 so considering the number who signed up and the number actually came we sti
ll felt pleased with that and there will be other opportunities um we had a the group of honorary chairs Dr Danielle Milano from Heritage Healthcare fil Mula from our committee um with an OBGYN expertise and traveling around the research groups uh to hear presentations other parts of the world uh we had Wendy Mallette who um mastered the with Tega charitable trust mastered the youth Workshop is can so they're preparing to present it to a dedicated youth group um and we worked with youth educatio
n libraries to uh do the portion so it will be done just didn't get done on March 16th but it will get done possibly in connection with uh dycd the Department of Youth and Community Development and um also with Deborah LaVine from uh she was one of the honorary chairs also with uh CUNY School of Public Health and um each one as well as all of those that provided tables it was just you know incredible and I also have to uh commend the the uh Forum because they really made for a very professional
um very very helpful presentable beautiful space uh for us to use and um you know that helped everything to move smoothly uh our district office with youth of Prince and uh Community Associates Madison and Hill spent the entire day you know they pick up the food so that we could have lunch and um they had they put the uh sign in sheets together GRE did all the greeting uh it really was you know made for a nice touch and it was good for us to show face as a community board and be out here to uh l
et our community know that we're getting information for them we got to reach more of them and so it also helped us build on our um list our uh networking list so uh it it was just well done in the brochure was fabulous it was done by chinia uh mangelo who is part of the West Harlem Arts Alliance that our community board board voted on and uh run by Michael Palama so we're all working together nicely as a community as a district and this gave us an opportunity to show that and to shine so there'
s still more to come from us and um you know we're going to need everybody's support uh but it's not just our work is where we also co-sponsor so we want people to turn out at the Cota Alliance Community conversations for example um and I know till and I and some others we need to show up and be available at the Cy School of Public Health event during black maternal Health Week um and then there's uh where we're we've dedicated the last two years to Mental Health on this committee so we have rig
ht in our backyard the Monte fery Park situation so there's an opportunity for us to be there and to lens a helping hand to help improve uh whatever mental hardships uh that we can help eradicate in our community and I may have uh left out one or two things um but then uh oh let's yeah maybe I left out one thing but at any rate uh you'll be hearing from us everyone uh will get a mailing I've asked uh let we ask Cameron for his information so it'll be easy for me to mail out gaana I expect her in
formation up tomorrow and some of the others that have um information that we share so that we can be supportive and reach out other areas of our Comm um I also I I hope Anita is Anita chain still on she she was on for a long time um but Anita uh pulled together link NYC promos and she may have had to get off the phone just now but uh they are they started showing running the promos of something like March 14 15th and 16th advertising our event that took place the public health Forum that took p
lace at the Forum on 125th Street and then we have our Community Partners that we're promoting like kot the biobus um Heritage healthc care um Emma B and uh Community Center uh Jackie Robinson older adult Cent as well as our senior's action committee um and I know I am missing uh some but there were about 11 uh promos Al together that Anita uh did and we thanked her in the brochure and I you know she was on this evening and uh it was her idea she wanted to really do something around mental stres
s and mental health and I just wanted it to focus on um the partners healthc Care Partners we have in the community that are tackling that issue and it will give people somewhere to go um their uh QR code can be found uh and scanned on the actual link NYC promo so I want to once again publicly thank Anita and um you for all of her hard work uh and also the hard work of those Community Partners that worked with her and make sure that this could get done and get out oh and Victor our chair is on w
ith um Columbia Community uh he Community Center for Health I believe is the actual name or Center for Community Health they're in connection with the Columbia Irving Medical Center so and I know again I've left out um some one of the others but you you know pay attention to the the Linn YC promos they're not at bus stops they're the other what's that other shelter it's where the telephone boots were at one time there's a name for those and uh so and we hope to do this again and you know Service
s committee would be part of it as well as some of our other Community Partners that uh we didn't get a chance to add add on okay so uh that's in terms of briefing and we have um two resolutions um that we' like to um one um they're not copy but I did email them look at your very last email uh it's on installation of no idling signs and truck loading commercial zones um we already had one resolution on this so basically this particular resolution um that's uh dear to Edwin and and number of peop
le uh he's done a lot of research taking photos and there are so many trucks commercial trucks that come to our area particularly along where city colleges on Convent Avenue uh and there are a couple of other streets uh in our district and just park and many of them are idling particularly early in the morning but also anyone has seen them late at night um so very uh quickly uh just see it's when did you send me the email um no I have it right here it's uh just very uh quickly and then um uh whe
re as the residents community board 9 are exposed to elevated levels of environmental pollution due to the continuous idling of engines by commercial vehicles and trucks and truck loading zones contributing to poor air quality and adverse health effects again um basically he's asking for signage because we've already passed out this resolution but we're asking for signage be put up now um no idling sign in truckload and Commercial zones within community board nine uh do you think most of communi
ty engagement and education on the importance of reducing isand can complement the installation of signage fostering and a CommunityWide effort to improve air quality in public health whereas a partnership between the do and the NYPD and addressing this issue would exemplify a collaboration a collaborative approach to Urban Environmental Management and public health protection so basically there's an education P component adding to the no signage uh uh so that they will see no eyink so it it com
plements the resolution uh presented back in that I think it was September that we did it if not September it was uh May of last year all uh do you need more information on this um let's see we have uh three oh it l in come she didn't join in you sure online um Monica you wait in um so we have three people uh it would be a vote for this to uh get passed to the executive committee all those are in favor it will be Heather Heather um and be available to vote I believe what say you guys you want to
make a motion Mo yes I move is there a second second um okay Monica second and second all those in favor say I so all that's for I think I heard hether softly say thank you he so all those in favor so we move to executive committee um and this is pretty simple enough like the big discussion was on the eyland and so this basically just add sign a signage and an education an education component where we are and then the public uh uniform services that we already work with it just enhances our rel
ationship should and that we need them to really help support this okay so this will go for um the executive committee and the last one combating the critical threat of rechargeable battery fires to protect our community and as you know this has come directly out of um you know following uh the fire where one person died and a number were critically injured but I don't think any another person died from that time so it's um it reads whereas the safety and wellbeing of our community members are o
f Paramount importance and should be prioritized above all interests whereas there has been um noticeable increase in fires within our community mitted which have been attributed to attributed to theer storage and cing of rechargeable batteries whereas such firers have led to the displacement of numerous families inflicted injuries and tragically resulted in loss of life with all such consequences being entirely preventable uh I just want to go where's the lack of strict enforcement and clear gu
guidelines regarding the storage and use of rechargeable batteries in residential buildings has contributed to this pressing issue and where there an existant urgent need I just want to see where else oh whereas uh landlords bear critical responsibility ensuring the safety of their properties and must be held accountable for preventing the presence of hazardous rechargeable batteries within their buildings now this is stated but it just needs to be it's always been there but it just has to be i
n uh enforced whereas the rise of battery operated bikes predominantly used by gig workers has further exacerbated the risk associated with rechargeable batteries necessitating immediate attention and action whereas businesses and applications employee G workers who utilize battery operated bikes must also assume responsibility for ensuring that their workers comply with safety standards and regulations so it's all it's uh asking for enforcement on all sides uh whether you're a worker where you
employ that worker and you have them using bikes with these uh um batteries uh or whether your landlord and uh you know you can put up a sign and inforce it uh say no they're not allowed in the building but uh or and maybe there are some other bike requirements which stands on the outside of uh be it resolved that we the members of Manhattan Community board call upon the city authorities to take immediate and stronger action to address the issue of rechargeable B battery safety be it further res
olved that A specialized task force be established to formulate and enforce clear guidelines aimed at preventing the use of unsafe rechargeable batteries in residential buildings and ensuring the compliance of all stakeholders including landlords and businesses um this reminds me of the city of yes wanting to have bikes I you know have businesses above the first and second floor and I'm like how we you know how we going to manage that kind of thing B it further res out that the city develops and
Implement and inspection system to oversee and ensure compliance with safety regulations particularly among gig workers using battery operated bikes and finally we further out that this resolution be forwarded to relevant City officials Community boards and stakeholders to Galvanize action and support for these for these all those in favor or any commentsa okay F first let me say the problem is that those ebikes Chargers those batteries are not federally federally regulated they're trying to pa
ss it so that you don't have the issues that you have with the Char charging because they're not federally regulated some are up to code and some aren't until the federal government decides what standard there is for these batteries they're never going to be uniform right they're saying some some of the cheap ones that come from China aren't so good some manufacturers are finding fake products there's absolutely there's no regulation of it and Richie Torres has been trying to regulate it he cann
ot get it through the house second uh go on so so second there are no regulations regarding ebikes in New York City there's none some there and and I just looked it up dot has no regulations there are recommendations but there's no regulations there's no way that somebody can come and inspect somebody's home or somebody's business for these ebikes there's just there's no basis for it to me it seems like we need to start something get something going so then so then you can make the recommendatio
n that the standards for which ebike batteries are made become standardized become federally Reg regulated and and let me just speak about the fire up here on St Nicholas the fire spread because somebody left the door open if the door would not have been open the SP would not have spread um and there's no way that you can go into somebody's apartment and regulate a a a a battery that's being charged or or a business and can you please not use the the um term gig worker it sounds so discriminator
y these are delivery people that stuff to our home because that's what you want delivery workers or what just call them delivery workers that's that I mean they're riding their bikes and they're delivering stuff they're not gig workers I think that's that's such a discriminatory word now uh yeah back in be chain um I think it uh even just bringing it to the FL brings more attention to it something has to something has to happen now there the thing the issue that they're trying to do is they're t
rying to regulate the stand for battery right and you can't say that the owners of the restaurants are responsible they're not people want stuff delivered to their door we got spoiled during the pandemic people don't want to go to the restaurant to get stuff so you know you can say I mean if you really want to be radical just say that none of the services can deliver within community board now but that would make that would never pass because that offends everybody I think there ways we could ad
dress it and bring some attention to something that we can't just uh if we recognize yes yes here's what we need to do we need to Rally the Federal legislators to come up with a standard that has to be done on the federal level for these ebikes the problem are the cheap ones are poorly made and they're not regulated and those are the ones that are catching on fire not the Samsung not the general it's those cheap ones and and in fact they're finding some Samsung ones with Samsung labels that aren
't Samsung I mean if you really want to talk to be informed about these ebike situations we need to have somebody from the fire department come in and address the ebikes Richie Torres is like a expert on these batteries and they know all about them and what's causing all these fires with these batteries New York City cannot regulate the quality of the batteries that are that we see that's a federal issue that and that they're trying to pass it and we can do some friendly amendments uh to this an
d then it could also be modified next week as well right it it needs to be modified we need to come up with with stand we need to push the federal government to come up with standards um you know right these people right they're working uh I have every interest in having them to work uh if I don't feel like going out to get some food I want it delivered to my door and that's the only way that it can get from here to there quickly so we have to be realistic and use some common sense and there's n
o way for somebody to go into somebody's apartment to see how they're charging the the uh batteries all those in favor working with this U you maybe uh turn language so that we can move forward um say I mean the concept we're for we know where the shortcomings are and we should move uh to try to accommodate this in a reasonable way all those in favor I okay so that's four and then um do you want to take a stab at it Monica doing I'll take I'll take a look at it I'll take a look at it okay and th
en uh we can have it back on well a few days you know and then that way we can present it before the executive committee because we're all you know we we're running up there checking on the fire who's hurt I mean we got to make a statement it's a way of make we can make a statement but the but the biggest statement we need to make is that people need to close the door when there's a fire that's why that fire spread like that right okay right and and people still don't do it thank you Monica oh A
nita came back Anita I did the uh a big spill on your uh the uh link nyc's you hear it on our oh thank you there the new batch is up today I mean I think yesterday but you can see the the next the next you know trench already okay if you send me email in terms of the oh the new batch the other was like five of them or six of them when you say the new bat yeah I think a total of seven have been shown so far because it includes the Forum and the two teenagers and then the next batch is I think fiv
e through nine so it's five it's five more for the next two weeks and then the last batch will be uh weeks three I I mean five and six weeks five and six so it's going to be a six- week campaign okay okay very good thank you so much again Anita for your thoughtfulness your concern for your community oh it was your vision Laquita you did it oh you you had the vision with mental uh you know focusing on that with this campaign so um I appreciate that and and involving Our Community Partners thank y
ou so much okay all right everyone thank you for hanging hanging in there with us thank you thank you thank you everyone sorry I AC now now you can now you can catch okay and so the meeting is now adjourning it is 8:57 oh can I have a motion to adjourn second by hether yes fantastic meeting thank you everybody yeah I hung in there I'm here wonderful meeting guys wonderful thank you alend here now or tomorrow's fine just going to give you your copy back good e e e e e e
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