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42nd Councilman Chris Banks Hosts District Reception with Council Speaker Julie Menin

Mary Alice Miller
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42nd Councilman Chris Banks Hosts District Reception with Council Speaker Julie Menin

By Mary Alice Miller


For the first time in recent history, a City Council Speaker made an appearance in East New York’s 42nd Council District. Council Speaker Julie Menin trekked to The Theater at Food Bazaar in East New York. The reception was hosted by Council Deputy Leader Chris Banks.
Banks introduced Speaker Menin, stating, “Madame Speaker, I want to thank you for your leadership during these first 100 days in this council session. In this short time this council has moved meaningful legislation forward, held critical hearings, taken on real challenges especially as we work through a nearly $127 billion budget and confront the affordability crisis that is touching every corner of our city. The 42nd council district has your back and a seat at the table.”


Speaker Menin spoke of how 9/11 led her into politics when her lower Manhattan restaurant was destroyed after the second building fell. In the aftermath, she started a non profit that helped over 600 small businesses stay in the community. She was appointed to Community Board 1 and was chair for seven years after 9/11.
“Community involvement matters,” said Menin. “We successfully sued the Trump administration to get the citizenship question off the Census.”


With Banks on the Council Senior Leadership Team, Menin said “In this $127 billion budget that we are negotiating, we said a hard no to raising property taxes 9.5%. We restored $30 million in cuts to libraries and restored $30 million for cultural organizations.”
Menin continued, “Banks has a deep commitment to public housing. He said it was unacceptable not to have NYCHA residents at the administration’s hearings on housing.”


Community leaders participated in a question and answer session.
Nicole Williams, founder and CEO of Victory Music & Dance Company, asked about multi-year sustained funding for community based organizations.
Menin: “The Council restored $1.5 billion in cuts to discretionary spending for community-based organizations.”
Yolanda Moore, from East Brooklyn Congregations, represented NYCHA by asking about RADPAC.
Menin: ”Banks continues as chair of NYCHA committee. We look forward to having hearings in NYCHA. We are addressing the backlog of repairs. We are concerned about RADPAC displacement.


Banks said, “We will continue to preserve Section 9 NYCHA housing.”
Eleanor Pickney, from East New York Nehemiah Association, asked about benefits to homeowners who are left out of the discussion on affordability.
Menin: “The Council is preparing a package of legislation specifically for Black home ownership, including deed theft bills particularly seniors who are primary victims. We need to give more resources to the Dept. Of Worker and Consumer Protection. We need to be warning seniors and families about the risk of deed theft. One of our bills creates a new office focused on home ownership issues.”


Banks: “Our district is #2 citywide on tax lien issues.” Banks cited the Brown family who lost their home to a $5,000 water lien after being taken advantage of. The Council is seeking remedies to address the issue.
Pamela Lockley, President of Linden Plaza Tenants Association, asked what does naming Banks to the deputy leadership mean for us.
Menin: “He is in the room where it happens and has a major seat at the table. He is also on our budget negotiating team. He is negotiating the budget with me. That has a lot of implications for this community. It decides our priorities. Regarding legislation, we also discuss moving certain bills forward. Our Deputy Leader plays a critical role in the center of power in this City Council. We are an independent, co-equal branch of government. We have oversight hearings over the 70 city agencies to make sure the agencies are doing the right thing.”


Dr. Kabir, from Muna Social Services that has 27 food pantries across the five boroughs, asked about food insecurity with over 406,000 Brooklyn residents – 15.2% of the borough – facing food insecurity and East New York has some of the highest SNAP enrollment rates.
Menin: “We are seeing from the Trump administration cuts to SNAP, which is unacceptable. The Council, as we are negotiating the budget, we are focused on increased aid to food pantries all across our city.”
Menin launched a program in partnership with Rethink Food.
“Why do we keep bringing in catering companies from out-of-state to get the food contracts in our city? Why are these companies from Texas and Connecticut getting hundreds of millions of dollars in city contracts to provide food at schools and shelters all throughout our city?” asked Menin.


Rethink food contracts with local small businesses/restaurants. Those restaurants are then providing the food that is going to our schools and shelters. They were also key during the asylum crisis by helping to provide food.
Banks: “Campaign Against Hunger is based right here in the 42nd Council district. They are building a state-of-the-art facility in the Gateway area. We have Muna which is all across the city.”


Banks closed the event by introducing Willie Kim, VP of Compliance for Food Bazaar.
“Food Bazaar plays an important role in this community. In the beginning stages when we met with Food Bazaar, we said when they were coming into this community they were coming on our terms. We asked them to preserve this theater dedicated to community events. We asked them to host a Culinary School for schools and local community chefs to teach people how to eat healthy. They have a hydroponic farm to cut food costs. They have union jobs here at Food Bazaar,” said Banks. “They have kept their commitment from Day 1.”


It has been almost one year since Food Bazaar launched in the former Magic Johnson Theater. Previously, that area was a literal food desert. Residents of Linden Plaza, and NYCHA’s Boulevard, Linden, and Penn-Wortman Houses has to travel a mile or more to Junius Street or Gateway to access a supermarket.


Kim stated, “Food Bazaar is humbled and privileged to host this reception. We are committed to being a good neighbor in the community for years to come. We are proud to offer this event space for the community.”

Addressing Mental Health Month as a community

Nayaba Arinde
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Addressing Mental Health Month as a community

By Nayaba Arinde
Editor-at-Large


This is Mental Health Month, and mental illness–diagnosed and otherwise can be seen on these streets, trains, and all public spaces. Sometimes it is harmless, other times it is aggressive. Always concerning.
“Mental health impacts everyone in our communities,” said the National Alliance on Mental Illness–NAMI. “Stigma grows in silence. Healing begins in the community.”


A national report determined that Black adults in the U.S. are 20% more likely to report serious psychological distress than white adults, while having to navigate obstacles, including stigma, lower insurance coverage, and fewer culturally competent providers.
Traditionally, in Black communities, mental illness was not always openly discussed.
Now, that has changed. Black mental health professionals note that dealing with daily micro and macro aggressions, and the harsh effects of casual and institutionalized racism, brings a mental weight sometimes manifesting in physical consequences and psychosis that debilitates, if not recognized and addressed.


“I see anti-social behavior and social anxiety amongst the youth increasing,” family therapist Osato Ahoton told Our Time Press. “They are on the internet so much, they seem to lose the ability or desire to communicate with their peers. When the children are showing truant behavior, I ask about their COVID experience. Some of them are still finding it hard to adjust going from virtual to real life. The 2020 pandemic era has had long-lasting effects – social anxiety was one of them. It overwhelms their ability or wish to go to school because they don’t know how to communicate or build interpersonal relationships.”
It presents mental health challenges, she said, “It shows up as depression, not wanting to engage, self-isolation, substance abuse, family conflict, and running away from home.”


The official term used, the Brooklyn-focused counselor said, is the harsh– “‘Ungovernable Youth,’ we try to talk to them, negotiate their problem solving, and get to the root of the issue. I am hopeful that the young people can be brought through this, so that they can become stable, productive, successful and self-loving.”
Encouraging individuals to call them to feel heard, cared for, and not alone, NAMI said, “This Mental Health Awareness Month share your story to help break the silence.”


Daily visible are people in mental health crisis. Protective protocols are engaged by medical professionals called to a scene of mental emergencies. They are meant to be utilized by law enforcement to avoid deadly consequences like in the tragic cases of Khiel Coppin, 18, a mentally ill teen killed in a hail of 20 police bullets, when they said they thought the hairbrush he was holding was a gun, in an incident on Bed Stuy’s Gates Avenue in November 2007; and Iman Morales, the 35-year-old emotionally disturbed person (EDP) who died in September 2008, after being Tasered by NYPD officers, and falling from a storefront ledge on Tompkins Avenue. There have been so many more since then, unfortunately.


Ruth Delores Smith, LCSW-R, a 40-year experienced licensed clinical social worker, with Comprehensive Counselling said that she advises those people observing or experiencing a mental emergency, “Don’t dial 911, it is for medical and criminal emergencies…someone might get shot. You dial 988, that’s for mental health support and knowledge. They know what to say to calm somebody down, and keep the police off of a person and have 911 back down.”
This week, the creation of the 988 crisis hotline has been hailed as saving thousands of lives.
Launched in 2022, the President Joe Biden and VP Kamala Harris administration invested over $1.5 billion in the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which provides 24/7, confidential support for mental health crises.


The Journal of the American Medical Association said that suicides in the age range of 15- to 23-year-olds were 11% lower than previously expected, between July 2022 and December 2024.
An Associated Press article by Devi Shastri, continued that, “Nearly 4,400 fewer U.S. teens and young adults died by suicide than projected in the first two-and-a-half years of the 988 mental health crisis hotline, a sign the program is working even as it faces long-term funding challenges.”


Being a resource-driven helpline, with crisis counselors, and integrated network, 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline said, “We understand that life’s challenges can sometimes be difficult. Whether you’re facing mental health struggles, emotional distress, alcohol or drug use concerns, or just need someone to talk to, our caring counselors are here for you. You are not alone…during difficult moments anytime, day or night.”


Ms. Smith, Criminal and Social Justice professor at Adelphi University and Monroe College, told Our Time Press, “People are just beginning to understand what depression and anxiety is. People have mental health ailments because of what is going on in the world. Gas just went up again. Am I going to have enough money?…It can be based on what’s going on day day to day everyday. When you don’t know when the next pay day is coming and you can’t pay your rent, your anxiety goes up, and you’re depressed. A lot of mental illness develops because of environmental and circumstantial stuff. It doesn’t have to be internal. It can be brought on by stressors just being in the community.’


The solution?
Ms. Smith suggested it is to “Learn how to take care of ourselves and remove the stigma associated with seeking mental health treatment.”
Six years after the Covid pandemic the lockdown angst was compounded because people of “Were never able to resolve their existing issues.” Ms. Smith analysed, “People were shut in and couldn’t go anywhere for help.”
Plus, she said, with the City’s collective experience, “We never recovered from 911, every celebration, every year we are re-traumatised…I would argue that all of us have a little crazy in us, it’s how you learn to manage it, the different coping skills and strategies.”
The solution, Ms. Smith stated is a “Better understanding and knowing that mental illness is part of life, and that it is real but manageable.”


Bronx-based psychotherapist Ms. Smith, also associated with VIP Community Services added, “I hate to say it, but some people will brag about their mental health…saying they have PTSD and trauma, because they want their entitlement, their SSI and stuff. In some communities they see their mental health as a source of income.”
Increase meaningful services


“Just because you have mental illness doesn’t mean you can’t work. We have people with intellectual disabilities, and they have a job, even with day programs. I think we have to learn to be supportive, but be realistic. We have to make sure they get their medication, and educate people about medication. Some people don’t like to take their medication because they don’t want to talk to their clinician about the side effects. They need to be educated about psychotropic medication. There are side effects.”
In this tenuous climate, Ms. Smith suggested that everyday people simply, “Don’t be afraid of mental illness. You’re not afraid of someone with diabetes, or hypertension


don’t be afraid of someone with mental illness, if you know you can provide them with the appropriate level of care.”
Anyone seeking help can call 988, or contact the NAMI HelpLine 800-950-6264

Brooklyn Org and National Grid Foundation Launch $700,000 Community Energy Initiative

Fern Gillespie
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Brooklyn Org and National Grid Foundation Launch $700,000 Community Energy Initiative

Fern Gillespie
A major Brooklyn energy collaboration has been created partnering National Grid Foundation, Brooklyn Org and Brooklyn nonprofits that prepares residents for careers in the growing energy sector and supports residents with home heating and efficiency upgrades.


It’s the Brooklyn Energy Initiative, a $700,000 boroughwide effort focused on expanding opportunities in energy careers and consumer energy services launched by Brooklyn Org and National Grid Foundation. Brooklyn Org will lead the 24-month initiative which has awarded selected nonprofits $400,000 for energy workforce training through Future of Energy Workforce and $300,000 for home heating and efficiency upgrades through Future of Homes.


“This investment in energy and the future of energy workforce is hugely important. These nonprofits receiving grants will be focusing on jobs, clean energy, construction, building operations, and green infrastructure,” said Dr. Jocelynne Rainey, President and CEO of Brooklyn Org, told Our Time Press. “By investing in trusted nonprofits, we think about making sure that people who have the highest energy burden, which are often people who come from communities that are more marginalized, that they will be able to get emergency heating assistance from nonprofits, energy efficiency education, retrofits to make their houses more energy efficient and also having community-based conversations around energy and education.”


The Future of Energy Workforce, which is distributed to eight nonprofits, will be used to prepare young adults and early-career workers for STEM and energy-related careers. Grantees will provide technical training, green-skills development, job-readiness programming, and direct exposure to energy systems through Energy Hub Site Visits coordinated with the National Grid Foundation.


“I think there are different types of jobs from engineering to those who work in the field for a company like National Grid,” Dr. Robert Simmons III, Executive Director of the National Grid Foundation, told Our Time Press. He is also a veteran STEM educator. “But also highlighting for young people, is that you don’t necessarily have to have a focus on STEM, because there are a variety of ways in which you can gain employment in a STEM company. You can be an attorney, work in HR, or be like myself work on the community engagement and philanthropic side. It takes a lot of different people to run a utility as well as other STEM and tech companies. Our goal is to nurture that in young people in Brooklyn.”


At Marcy Lab, Inc, which trains low-income young adults for high-paying careers in tech through an alternative education model, the Future of Energy Workforce will be expanding opportunities tied to energy and infrastructure innovation. “Our Fellows are some of the most brilliant young technologists in this city. They’re growing up in Brooklyn neighborhoods where decisions about energy, infrastructure, and the future are made about them, not with them.

The energy sector is one of the largest, most stable, most consequential industries in the country, and it’s about to undergo a generational transformation,” Reuben Ogbonna, Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Marcy Lab School, told Our Time Press. “Our young people deserve to be the ones building that future, not just living with the consequences of it. When a Fellow walks into a six-figure technical role at a utility or an energy company, that’s not just a job. It’s a family lifted, a neighborhood that sees what’s possible, and a workforce that finally starts to look like the communities it serves.”


The additional Brooklyn Org Future of Energy Workforce grantees are: Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, which expands economic opportunity in Central Brooklyn through workforce development, financial empowerment, and community-based programming, connecting residents to careers in growing industries including energy. Green City Force Inc, which engages young adults from public housing in service and training programs focused on sustainability, clean energy, and environmental justice, preparing them for careers in the green economy.

The HOPE Program, which provides comprehensive job training, career readiness, and employment placement services for New Yorkers facing barriers to work, with growing pathways into energy and infrastructure sectors. Red Hook Initiative, which connects youth and young adults in Red Hook to education, employment, and leadership development opportunities, including pathways into emerging industries. Resilience Education Training and Innovation Center (RETIC), which delivers hands-on training in construction, environmental resilience, and green infrastructure, preparing participants for careers in climate and energy-related fields.

St Nicks Alliance Corp, which provides workforce development, housing, and community services across North Brooklyn, with programs that prepare residents for careers in construction, energy efficiency, and building operations. Welder Underground, which offers hands-on welding and fabrication training to young adults, creating pathways into skilled trades that are critical to energy infrastructure and the green economy.
There are six nonprofits awarded the Future of Homes, where residents are eligible for programs providing heating assistance, energy efficiency education or their homes and other opportunities.


At Bridge Street Development Corporation, a grantee, Central Brooklyn homeowners and renters are provided with housing stability services, hands-on guidance to access energy efficiency programs, navigate rebates, and make informed home retrofit decisions. “Bridge Street Development Corporation is proud to partner in this important initiative to ensure that Central Brooklyn residents have access to the resources, information, and support needed to manage rising energy costs.

By pairing direct support with community-based education, we are helping residents not only get relief today, but also better navigate and benefit from the evolving energy landscape.,” Gregory Anderson, President & CEO, Bridge Street Development Corporation told Our Time Press. “This funding allows us to provide direct support to residents while also expanding community-based education around energy affordability. It helps ensure that households facing high energy burdens can access available resources today, while building the knowledge needed to make informed decisions over the long term.”


The other Future of Homes grantees are: Brooklyn Level Up, Inc is a community-rooted organization in Central and South Brooklyn that builds neighborhood resilience through energy education, resource navigation, and its Powering the Block initiative, connecting residents to efficiency programs and training local “Energy Champions.” Flatbush Development Corp delivers housing counseling and community services across Flatbush, supporting homeowners and tenants with energy efficiency education, direct assistance, and connections to retrofit and utility assistance programs.

Grow Brooklyn Inc provides housing, legal, and financial support to low- and moderate-income residents, incorporating energy education and one-on-one guidance to help IMPACCT Brooklyn is a long-standing community development organization that integrates energy efficiency services into its homeownership and housing programs, helping residents reduce utility costs and navigate retrofit opportunities. Pratt Center for Community Development is a leading research and advocacy organization that helps Brooklyn homeowners access energy efficiency and electrification upgrades while advancing equitable clean energy policies through its EnergyFit initiative.


“At National Grid, we must be engaged in conversations around sustainability, but we also must listen to the community perspective on sustainability. What does sustainability mean to folks in Brooklyn? At the end, (of the grants) there will be a convening with community members from Brooklyn Org and others to talk about the lessons that we learn during this process. What are the things that we need to do going forward to adjust? Also, to address such things as clean, energy and sustainability from the communities perspective.,” said Dr. Simmons. “We are going to be working with nonprofits where they’re going to be creating solutions in the community that address issues of sustainability and affordability. We are excited to see that take hold.”


There is a similar energy program in Queens sponsored by National Grid Foundation and organized by the United Way of New York City.

Learn more at brooklyn.org.

Death and Deed Theft: Violence in the Community

David Mark Greaves
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Death and Deed Theft: Violence in the Community

We Are Challenged

View From Here
David Mark Greaves


All the world now knows that the United States is being led by a delusional, pitiless, corrupt, dangerous and profoundly ignorant man. Saying he’s going to wipe out the Iranian civilization, turning the U. S. into a plague on the world.
But this administration not only threatens mass death, they cause it.

They have brought death to African people on a scale not seen since the slave trade. Because of the closing of the USAID program, researchers at The Center for Global Development UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, found that in Africa alone the estimated deaths they have already caused is 350,000–450,000, and “there will be 300,000–600,000 per year ongoing, and 8–10 million by 2030.” It’s not called genocide, but, this would make the Trump administration rank among the greatest mass murdering regimes of all time.


If as projected, Democrats regain the House of Representatives with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries becoming Speaker, and fellow Brooklynite Senator Chuck Schumer becoming Senate Leader, then among the “number one” items on the agenda must be immediate restoration and increase of the USAID program as a matter of national security and a reaffirmation of the moral core of the nation.

Our Gangster President
A “dangerous and corrupt gangster” is how our president is described in the British Parliament, but the Member is not giving the man his due. Donald Trump is the Capo dei capi, the Boss of all Bosses. He’s the guy on the inside, letting his associates take whatever billions they can, out in the open, without seeming to care about the consequences.

I don’t want to appear cynical, but could it be they know the “fix” is in? If they only commit federal crimes, they’ll walk, because Don Trump will pardon them off. Their names will be tarnished, but as the aunt of the late historian, Professor William H. Mackey, III said, “The Buckra ain’t got no shame,” so that will be of no matter to them.


It is madness that we are at this place. The Founding Fathers could not have imagined a Congress of Republican cowards, afraid of losing their jobs the country be damned. Or, even worse, in their souls applauding the idea of being permanently in power by sabotaging the midterm elections by any means necessary and allowing Trump to pull off the biggest heist of all, stealing the United States government, lock stock and barrel.


As though to help in that effort, Trump goes about arousing international anger by choosing to start a war. It is as if to invite terrorist acts on our shores, practically pleading, “Will no one save me from the American people, and their investigation of Jeffrey and then finding out about me?”


And he’s putting the country at risk with that invitation. Senator Mark Warren, Vice Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence in a speech in November of last year, his office reported that, “Warner detailed how thousands of FBI agents and senior leaders have been forced out for political reasons, including the heads of the Bureau’s counterterrorism, intelligence, cyber, and critical incident response units.

He warned that these purges, combined with the unprecedented reassignment of 25 to 45 percent of FBI agents working counterterrorism, cyber, espionage, and child exploitation cases to President Trump’s immigration roundups, have sharply reduced the Bureau’s ability to prevent attacks, disrupt foreign plots, and respond to cyber intrusions.”


If no entity takes advantage of this open opportunity and enables him to take every step necessary to remain in power, then this Administration is not above just making it up. Look at what they’re doing now, trying to get voter rolls from the States, to be purged of “ineligible” voters as determined by DHS, planning to have ICE at polling sites. We must remember that with their “Get out of jail free card,”, this Administration is capable of anything, and this is only the beginning of year two of his 4-year term.


We will be challenged as always by the dark forces in the American character, but they will be overcome, because in the end, that challenge has always been met. When Minority Leader Jeffries says, “Maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time,” that is the way we will meet this one.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft Host Scammed Homeowners

Editor, Our Time Press
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Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft Host Scammed Homeowners

By Mary Alice Miller


Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez hosted a community meeting at Restoration in collaboration with People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft. Two dozen distressed homeowners attended to discuss the theft of their homes.


The event was highly contentious. Homeowners who lost their homes expressed their emotions with tears and anger.
The next day Councilman Chi Osse was arrested 212 Jefferson Avenue during an attempted eviction of Carmella Charrington’s family. Charrington was arrested a few days ago while trying to protect her family home of over 60 years.


The arrest is “the result of deed theft and the ongoing displacement of Black homeowners in Bed-Stuy,” said Osse in a post on X.
At Restoration, DA Gonzalez discussed the Deed Theft Task Force and the newly formed Division of Deed Theft that investigates and prosecutes fraud related to real property, including deed fraud, mortgage fraud, and foreclosure rescue schemes, as well as fraud related to landlord-tenant relationships.


“The reason we are having this meeting is to figure out how we can best protect our communities from these types of issues,” said Gonzalez. “We are going to try to do our best to prosecute cases.”
On several occasions the People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft has brought their discontent related to their stolen deeds directly to the district attorney’s building in downtown Brooklyn.


“I never hide from this group. I see you guys. I come out. I talk to you,” said Gonzalez. I’m here to try to work with this community to make sure nobody else goes through what you went through. I am sorry it has happened to you.”
Several homeowners spoke of their experiences trying to get their stolen homes returned to them.
Ashmeen Modikhan passionately spoke about her stolen deed and how she came from Trinidad with the hope of experiencing justice and fairness under the United States legal system.


Samantha Barrows told of her experience with Countrywide.
Rea Lloyd, a victim of convicted former attorney Sanford Solny, said in her case she was told that “the judge’s lawfirm is on the case as a bank.”
Rachel Sciprian cried as she told of how police entered her home to evict her, terrorizing her young daughter. She said she is “asking for a federal investigation” because she no longer has faith in the local legal system.
Warren Johnson said he purchase his home in June 2016 and by November 2016 an unknown LLC was on his deed.
Velda Clarke James told of how she was being systematically targeted with phone taps, drones over her house, disconnection of her gas by people she believes are trying to remove her from her Schenectady Avenue home.


Evangeline Byars from the People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft told the group that part of the problem is that various governmental entities that defrauded homeowners go to for remedy operate in distinct silos, whether it is the New York Attorney General’s office, the Sheriff’s Department, the courts, or the district attorney’s office.


DA Gonzalez suggested that the city create a deed theft one stop shop similar to what was created for addressing domestic/intimate partner violence where various government services and non profits exist under one umbrella to serve victims.


“Some people have been in litigation for years. What leads to frustration is a lot of times the civil courts have ruled against them in their litigation,” said Gonzalez. “Many times the statute of limitations has run. They have lost their homes. They have been cheated. It’s not fair. How can someone accept that they had their home stolen? It is such a big loss.”
A new purchaser may buy the house lawfully, not part of the scheme to defraud.


“In some of these cases where they have been successful in going back and showing fraud, the law allows for the judge to take the house deed back from the person who scammed them,” said Gonzalez. “Where we are more successful is when the person who stole the house, transfer it to a shell company or a relative, we can get that house back if it is a proceed of fraud.”


DA Gonzalez said he looks forward to having more meetings with people who are victims of deed theft.
“We are hearing folks. We are acknowledging that this is a huge problem that impacts Black New Yorkers and people of color, but we want to prevent future victims,” said Gonzalez. “A lot of the frustration in the room today of people who lost their homes there is no solution for them because the person who did it got away with it. Of course, they are rightfully angry.”


Gonzalez added, “For me the important part of the People’s Coalition to Stop Deed Theft is to stop deed fraud so that there are not going to be future victims.”
The DA’s office gave a presentation on how to identify deed theft.
Some warning signs of deed theft:

  • You receive a property tax bill or water bill addressed to a name that you do not recognize.
    *You stop receiving tax or water bills altogether.
    *Someone appears at your house and claims to own it.
    *You are asked to sign a deed to your home and you were not planning on selling it.
    *You discover a deed or other document recorded in ACRIS against your property and you have no idea how it got there.
    ACRIS is the automated City Register information system where all property transactions are recorded online, including deeds, mortgages, and liens.
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