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Recording
Initial Strategies to Assist Tenants in Buildings Vacated by Fire: Fire Vacate Training Series (Part 1 of 2) (3-11-24)

Fires can be traumatizing for families, whose lives are uprooted by the destruction of their homes. Navigating the bureaucracy to secure tenants’ rights can be especially challenging in the aftermath of a fire. Join advocates from Legal Services NYC, The Legal Aid Society, Mobilization for Justice, and Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A as they provide tenant advocates with strategies to mitigate the disruption to their clients’ lives, to effectuate repairs, and to expedite their return home.   

This is Part 1 of a two-part Fire Vacate Training Series. In this training, we’ll outline the roles that agencies such as the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), Red Cross, Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA), and the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) play in the temporary relocation of displaced tenants, the salvaging and storage of their belongings, issuing rent reduction orders and vacate orders, violation inspection and enforcement, fire investigations, and repairs to damaged homes. Since fire often affects multiple apartments and households in a building, attendees will also learn about the powerful role that tenant organizers and associations play in rebuilding and empowering communities disrupted by fire.  

Litigation is almost always necessary to expedite repairs. Instructors will highlight the rights and duties of tenants and landlords in these situations and then provide a roadmap of best practices to successfully litigate a case, which include gathering information on apartment conditions, documenting the fire’s effect on tenants, filing petitions and motions, and the enforcement of any orders issued. Litigation Strategies will be covered in depth in Part II.

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  • CLE Credits
    Areas of Professional Practice: 3.00
  • Format
    On-Demand/Recorded - Audio/Video File
  • Practice Area(s)
    Housing
  • Price: $0
  • Materials
    Contains 4 training item(s)

About the Faculty

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    Natalie Goncharov (Speaker)

    Natalie Goncharov is originally from St. Petersburg, Russia. She has a long history of political and community organizing in New York City. Currently she works as a Senior Paralegal Advocate at the Tenant Rights Coalition with Brooklyn Legal Services, helping groups of tenants file cases against their landlords. Most recently she was an Asylum Paralegal at Immigration Equality, national leader in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and HIV-positive immigration rights. Prior to that she worked as a legal worker with the National Lawyers Guild and The Law Office of Gideon Oliver. There she participated in hundreds of Occupy Wall Street arrestee cases as well as other criminal law cases. In addition, she attended the City University of New York School of Law for two semesters. Natalie holds a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Law with a concentration in Women?s Studies from Binghamton University. At Binghamton, she was also a community organizer and worked with the Neighborhood Assemblies Project as an AmeriCorp VISTA.
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    Steven Heller (Speaker)

    Steven, he/him/his, is the Director of the Tenant Rights Coalition Unit at Manhattan Legal Services. Previously, he worked in the Tenant Rights Coalition as a Deputy Director, Supervising Attorney, and Staff Attorney, having joined Manhattan Legal Services in August 2016, and as an Adjunct Clinical Professor for the Housing Rights Clinic at New York Law School. Before starting at Manhattan Legal Services, Steven worked for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, first as a Staff Attorney in the Office of Pro Se Litigation, and then as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman. Upon graduation from law school, Steven was awarded Fordham’s James E. Tolan Fellowship in International Human Rights, through which he worked with the Organization for Refuge, Asylum, and Migration in San Francisco to advocate for the rights of LGBTQ refugees in the international refugee protection system. He earned his J.D. from Fordham Law School in May 2012, and his B.A. from Boston College.
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    Meghan Walsh (Speaker)

    Meghan (she/her) is a staff attorney in the Housing Justice Unit's Group Advocacy Project at the Legal Aid Society where she has worked for seven years. Her work focuses on affirmative, group representation in Brooklyn. She graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 2016.
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    ROCHELLE WATSON (Speaker)

    Rochelle (she, her) is a Supervising Attorney in MFJ’s Housing practice. Before joining the supervisory team, she was an MFJ Housing Staff Attorney, representing Bronx tenants in eviction, repair, and administrative proceedings. A skilled trial attorney, Ms. Watson successfully argued before the Appellate Division, First Department, that the lower court should have granted her client’s pro se Article 78 proceeding, eventually leading to the restoration of her client’s NYCHA tenancy. In preparation for assuming a leadership role, Ms. Watson attended the Shriver Center’s acclaimed Leadership for Justice week-long training that aims to equip new and emerging equal justice leaders with the skills and competencies needed to lead and advance social change agendas. Prior to joining MFJ, Ms. Watson was in private practice and handled landlord-tenant, foreclosure, and family law matters. Ms. Watson is a 2007 graduate of Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and holds an MBA in Finance and Investment from Baruch College/Zicklin School of Business.