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Abandoned couch on street
Dana DiFilippo

Courts Begin To Hear Long-Stalled Eviction Cases

September 2, 2021/in header, Latest News, News /by Dana DiFilippo

Republished courtesy of New Jersey Monitor

New Jersey’s eviction moratorium for middle-income renters ended Wednesday, with courts starting to hear some of the 83,800-plus residential eviction cases landlords have filed since the start of the pandemic.

But there is no tidal wave of people losing their homes and getting booted onto the street. Yet.

Instead, the process started with settlement conferences. Courts brought landlords, tenants, and attorneys into the same room — or rather, Zoom breakout rooms, because courts are still mostly virtual — to try to come to an agreement about back rent owed. Without consensus, those cases will go before judges for trial in coming days and weeks.

So despite the moratorium lifting, the action in many courts Wednesday still centered on commercial eviction cases, which resumed in June.

Affordable housing advocates had lobbied hard for both federal and state extensions of the residential eviction moratorium, saying many people continue struggling during the ongoing pandemic.

But the federal moratorium ended last week after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the CDC exceeded its authority when it tried to extend the ban until Oct. 3. New Jersey’s eviction moratorium ended Wednesday for renters making at least 80% of their area’s median income. The state’s poorest residents will be protected through the end of the year.

Staci Berger, president and CEO of the Housing and Community Development Network of New Jersey, applauded state leaders for ensuring low-income renters will be protected until Dec. 31. But New Jersey has such a shortage of affordable housing that people of any income who get evicted have nowhere to go, she said.

“Evictions are not good for anybody, but they’re especially bad for young families and children,” she said. “What we’re going through is hopefully a once-in-forever pandemic. We should be doing everything we can do to keep everyone safely housed. If that means corporate landlords don’t make the same money they made in 2019, that’s what shared sacrifice is.”

Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash

Rolando Lavarro Jersey City
Aaron Morrill

With Little Time to Spare, Lavarro Secures a Spot on the Ballot

September 1, 2021/in header, News /by Aaron Morrill

The task facing Councilman-at-large Rolando Lavarro was daunting: amass 1,680 signed petitions to secure a place on November’s ballot in only nine days.

Today, Lavarro announced that he and a group of supporters collected that many and some, turning in 2,500 valid petitions by the filing deadline and obtaining the all-important certification from the City Clerk.

“First, let me say a big thank you to everyone who went out and got signatures for my petition. What we accomplished … what you accomplished was nothing short of a Herculean effort. There are too many people to thank by name, but please know that I am most grateful,” said Lavarro.

“Second, thank you to everyone who signed my petition. I’m truly humbled by your support and confidence in me to continue as your Council-at-Large. I also know that there are those who signed my petition and are undecided as to who they will support this November. Thank you for signing my petition. I want to hear your concerns and earn your vote” Lavarro continued.

Lavarro was first elected to the council in 2011. In 2012, he joined the slate of Mayor Steve Fulop and became City Council president. During his time as city council president, Lavarro was instrumental in enacting the mayor’s agenda.

In 2019, after a series of disagreements, Lavarro split with the mayor, ultimately prompted by an expose on Bloomberg.com concerning the mayor’s relationship with the real estate firm Dixon Advisory. He went so far as to write to U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito and urge him to look into the Bloomberg article’s “alarming” allegations regarding the mayor and Dixon. “It is my hope that your office will do an extensive investigation,” Lavarro wrote.

Mayor Fulop recently purchase a $2.4 million luxury home from Dixon in an off-market transaction.

After his split with the mayor, then-councilwoman Joyce Watterman assumed the office of council president.

In January, the Jersey City Times published a lengthy interview with Lavarro in which he addressed his past support for controversial policies such as the mayor’s decision to postpone the revaluation of Jersey City properties through a lawsuit that was ultimately thrown out by the court.

Among his legislative achievements, Lavarro lists the expansion of earned sick days, wage theft protection, “common sense” cannabis protections, prohibiting smoking in public parks, creation of the first immigrant affairs commission in the state of New Jersey, a “no knock” ordinance, and a living wage ordinance.

Lavarro will be running against a large field of candidates vying for the three at-large seats, including independents Elvin Dominici, June Jones, and Chris Gadsden and “Team Fulop” members Daniel Rivera, Joyce Watterman, and Amy DeGise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Menstrual Products
Andrea Crowley-Hughes

Fighting “Period Poverty,” Program to Provide Students with Menstrual Products

September 1, 2021/in Education, header, Latest News, News /by Andrea Crowley-Hughes

Jersey City’s President Barack Obama Community School (P.S. 34) will be one of two schools in the state to provide free menstrual products in a pilot program launched by The Flow Initiative and the National Council of Jewish Women, Essex County.

The organizations will work with Hospeco, a leading manufacturer of cleaning and protection products, to provide a vending machine that dispenses free sanitary napkins at P.S. 34.

Fittingly on Women’s Equality Day, Aug 26, the Jersey City Board of Education passed a resolution highlighting the program and showing appreciation for the Flow Initiative, a Hudson County grassroots nonprofit that works toward eradicating “period poverty,” establishing “menstrual equality” and elevating gender equality.

Flow Initiative founder and executive director Eiko La Boria spoke at the meeting, thanking Jersey City Board of Education Trustee Gina Verdibello, who read the resolution and has supported the initiative for the past two years.

“For me this is a milestone because when Cynthia ​​Vazquez, my partner in this initiative, and I began this journey, assuring that students had access to period products was one of the most important things.”

The initiative addresses the needs of all students who suffer from period poverty, or a lack of access to period products, La Boria said. (The term is also used in situations where sanitary napkins and tampons are available but unaffordable for certain populations.) Since they will be provided with free products, they will not have to miss school, leave school, or feel embarrassed because they don’t have these necessities. The organization also fights to establish menstrual “equity” (which is essentially the eradication of period poverty). One example of menstrual inequity, according to the organization’s website, is the lack of government-furnished sanitary napkins and tampons in public school bathrooms.

Not all campaigns that fight period poverty mention the needs of non-binary individuals and of trans boys and men. But the Flow Initiative does, and according to Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, author of Periods Gone Public: Taking a Stand for Menstrual Equity, that’s key.

“Everyone and anyone who menstruates needs to be included in discussions and decisions about their own health,” she writes. “This includes creating safe environments in bathrooms (the sound of a pad or tampon wrapper opening could put the safety of trans men in danger), providing menstrual products in all bathrooms — men’s, women’s, and gender-neutral —ensuring health insurance companies appropriately cover trans men, and marketing menstrual products to all genders.”

The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, or GLSEN, would agree. Its research shows transgender and gender nonconforming students face more hostile school climates compared to other students.

From their survey of 100 girls in Jersey City, the Flow Initiative found that 28% missed school because they did not have access to sanitary napkins, 90% have needed a menstrual product while in school, 76% have had a menstrual accident while in school, and 86% believe that a lack of access to menstrual products affects one’s ability to focus and learn.

The Flow Initiative and National Council of Jewish Women, Essex County are working on language for a state bill, S692/A3388, which would provide free sanitary napkins to certain public schools paid for by Trenton.

Data from the two schools on the implications free sanitary napkins will have on students will be used in the organization’s efforts to support the bill.

The Flow Initiative’s goals also include developing “a period product access plan for all students by ensuring schools have period product dispensaries and  open emergency period product distribution centers throughout the city,” according to their website.

“We have to take feedback and all that we learned from these two months back to the state and continue lobbying for this bill to be passed,” LaBoria said.

 

Photo by Natracare on Unsplash

Vaccination
Nikita Biryukov

New Jersey Could Start Administering Vaccine Boosters in September

September 1, 2021/in header, Latest News, News /by Nikita Biryukov

Republished courtesy of  New Jersey Monitor

New Jersey could begin administering booster shots of the two-dose Pfizer and Modern COVID-19 vaccines on Sept. 20, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday.

The booster push will see New Jersey re-open its vaccine megasites, which closed in June and July as health officials turned more of their attention to localized vaccination efforts.

How many individuals are eligible for the third shot ultimately depends on whether the Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention decide whether boosters should be administered six or eight months after a patient receives their second dose of the vaccine.

“If it’s six months, on September 20 immediately 2.4 million people in this state will become eligible for a booster shot,” Murphy said at Monday’s virus briefing.

Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said the initial wave of booster shots should take about four months to administer.

Boosters, long viewed as a liability in the fight to convince vaccine holdouts to become immunized, have increasingly become a focal point for health officials.

Murphy’s announcement comes amid a Delta-variant-fueled resurgence of COVID-19 in the Garden State. For almost all of August, New Jersey reported more than 1,000 cases daily, a stark shift from the roughly 200 daily cases reported for much of July.

It isn’t immediately clear which of the megasites will reopen, but the governor predicted New Jersey would not face the supply issues that plagued the state in the winter and early spring.

“To be clear, we are confident we have both the supply and the distribution capacity to serve everyone,” he said.

Photo by Gustavo Fring from Pexels

Page 5 of 512345

News Briefs

Mayor Fulop, Public Safety Director James Shea, and Fire Chief Steven McGill swore in 25 Captains to the Jersey City Fire Department at a ceremony inside City Hall on July 1.

Mayor Fulop joined Public Safety Director James Shea and Fire Chief Steven McGill June 30 to announce two brand new fire companies and officially launch a newly created specialized response team, the JCFD High-rise Unit, to respond to all high-rise fires and all working fires as a Rapid Intervention Crew (RIC).  The last fire company added to the Jersey City Fire Department was in 1937.

The Hudson County Board of Commissioners has provided $195,000 for services provided to inmates through the Housing and Reintegration Program of the Hudson County Department of Family Services. The program provides services that inmates can use for housing, substance abuse treatment, clinical care, mental health, obtain medications and go to job training and job search services.

This program also provides the County Department of Housing and Community Reintegration access to 40 transitional housing beds. The program runs from June 1, 2022 through January 31, 2023.

Mayor Fulop has announced the creation of a $20 per hour Living Wage Statute for all full-time Jersey City employees. As part of the City’s 2022-2023 fiscal year budget, the Living Wage Statute will boost salaries for hundreds of current and future Jersey City residents and workers from $17 (already one of the highest minimum wage rates in the nation) to $20 per hour – which is $7 more than New Jersey’s current hourly minimum wage.

 

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