Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
George Alleyne, Nelson King,
Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, July 19–25, 2019 BQ
By Eric Adams
When I bought my first
house, where I still reside
today, I felt a mix of pride
and fear. Homeownership
is a tremendous privilege
and responsibility — I had
scrimped and saved to get to
this point, but I knew that
many challenges, financial
and otherwise, still lay
ahead.
Making a house into
a home is a process that
often takes several years.
Some people undertake
ambitious floor-to-ceiling
renovations, while others
are comfortable with adding
a few personal touches but
leaving everything else
intact. But it is a labor of
love — we make a home
because we are investing
in our future. We envision
settling down, raising a
family, and growing old in
a place we call home.
Even with the effort we
put into building a home,
homeowners — particularly
in Brooklyn — are under
increasing stress today.
Some have fallen behind on
their mortgage payments,
others have lost their homes
altogether. Foreclosures
in Kings County last year
reached their highest level
since the housing bubble
burst. And on top of that,
a new epidemic of deed
fraud has hit vulnerable
homeowners in gentrifying
neighborhoods, accelerating
displacement and leaving
many homeless.
The kicker? The City may
unintentionally be playing
a role.
The Third Party Transfer
program (TPT) allows the city
to foreclose on “distressed”
properties and hand them
over to developers to fix up
and rent out at affordable
prices. The program began
in 1996, and is administered
through the Department of
Housing Preservation and
Development.
In theory, it sounds like a
good idea. Using all the tools
at our disposal to restore
properties that have fallen
into disrepair and increase
affordable housing stock are
noble goals. But the reality
is much more complicated.
Despite the city’s best
intentions, TPT seems to
be doing more harm than
good. Often, the city deems
properties “distressed” over
something as trivial as an
unpaid water bill.
In November of 2018,
after hearing from multiple
people and sitting down with
stakeholders throughout
the borough that had
firsthand experience with
the program, I wrote a
letter with Council Member
Robert Cornegy to the Mayor
outlining our concerns. We
communicated our belief
that TPT had unfortunately
become tainted by fraud,
and that homeowners were
being stripped of their equity
without the proper recourse.
We also demanded that
the City, State, and Federal
government conduct a “fullscale,
forensic audit” into
By Luis Felipe López-Calva
Luis Felipe López-Calva
is UN Assistant Secretary-
General and UNDP Regional
Director for Latin America and
the Caribbean
UNITED NATIONS, July 9,
2019 (IPS) — Transparency is
a critical element of making
governance more effective. By
making information available, it
creates a foundation for greater
accountability to citizens.
In recent decades,
transparency has been on the
rise across Latin America and
the Caribbean. According to
data from the Global Right
to Information Rating, 23
countries in LAC have laws
securing citizens’ right to
information.
Colombia was the first
country in the region to pass
such a law in 1985, and Saint
Kitts and Nevis was the most
recent country to do so in
2018.
While transparency is
a necessary condition for
promoting accountability, it is
not a sufficient condition. We
can think about transparency
as a first step.
While transparency makes
information available, we
also need publicity to make
information accessible, and
accountability mechanisms to
make information actionable.
Information, per se, is
nothing without publicity and
accountability. If information
does not reach the interested
audiences, its effect is negligible.
Similarly, even if information
reaches the public, if it does
not lead to consequences, its
effect is not only negligible but
potentially harmful.
For example, we have seen,
unfortunately, many cases in
our region where people can
access detailed information
about corruption cases, but
nothing happens to those who
are responsible. This leads to
frustration and destroys trust.
We can think about this
progression from transparency
to accountability as the
“information value chain.”
Recently, one way in which the
information value chain has
been broken in Latin America
and the Caribbean is the
intentional creation and spread
of false information (what is
known as “disinformation”).
In many cases these pseudofacts
are created for political
purposes and target specific
audiences, with the intention
to induce certain outcomes (for
example, by influencing voting
behavior).
This system has been called
the “fake news” industry—a
term widely used by
politicians in recent times. It’s
important to note that false
information can also be spread
unintentionally (what is known
as “misinformation”).
The rise of disinformation
OP-EDS
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Continued on Page 12
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This city program is
making Brooklyn’s
foreclosure crisis worse
Right to information
in Latin America &
the Caribbean
Brooklyn Borough President, Eric Adams.
Borough President’s Offi ce
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