FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.couriersun.com MARCH 12, 2015 • THE COURIER SUN 21 SNAPS QUEENS Sunset at the Jamaica LIRR station Photo submitted by Kat Ellington Send us your photos of Queens and you could see them online or in our paper! Submit them to us via our Facebook page, tweeting @queenscourier or by emailing [email protected]. How do you plan on spending your income “I don’t get one.” Anthony Modica BY ROSS BELSKY “I am dependent on my mom.” Denise Surgent “I will put it in the bank, but I know someway or another I will need it for an emergency.” Diane Valles “Buy an Xbox One.” Brandon Jolly “Save it, of course.” Maria Nass “I will spend it exclusively on my own pleasures.” Peter Dodd oped street talk “Go to a fancy steakhouse.” Tyrone Wilkerson “Invest it in my kids.” Mimi Melendez tax refund this year? An equal shot at justice for all New Yorkers BY NEW YORK CITY COMPTROLLER SCOTT M. STRINGER New York City is — and always has been — a place of opportunity for immigrants. We are home to over 200 spoken languages, and the people who have come here from around the world helped build this city. We have welcomed them for hundreds of years. Diversity is our greatest strength, but it must be protected and preserved. That’s why I was greatly concerned during a recent visit to the Bronx Housing Court to fi nd that most signs were posted only in English. Translation services were lacking, and Help Centers did not provide services in enough languages. This is exclusion of the worst sort – an insult to thousands of non-English-speaking New Yorkers who in many cases have come to Housing Court because they are threatened with eviction or foreclosure. Justice is hard to fi nd in a courthouse that confuses the people it’s supposed to serve, and you shouldn’t lose a battle to save your home just because you have limited English profi ciency. Unfortunately that’s what too many New Yorkers are facing, not just in the Bronx but throughout the city. Immediately after my tour, our offi ce visited Housing Courts in all fi ve boroughs to examine the state of multilingual services, and we found similar problems. In Brooklyn, the signs leading to interpreters are small and poorly marked. In Queens, signs offering interpretation services are only in English. In Manhattan, the fi rst signs you see upon entering the courthouse are in English only. In some courts, people wait hours for an interpreter. Sometimes they’re told to come back another day. As a result, hardworking New Yorkers are often pressured by landlord attorneys to cut deals in hallway negotiations — and to give up their rights — without the benefi t of an interpreter. This is absolutely unacceptable, and it must end now. Just as the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that non-Englishspeaking residents have a right to bilingual education, we have an obligation to make sure that our courts provide services in more than one language. To achieve these reforms, I’ve sent a letter to Chief Administrative Judge Gail Prudenti, calling for improved language access and offering recommendations for important changes. But we’re not stopping there. I’m joining forces with a coalition of housing rights and legal advocates, as well as with the City Council and Speaker Mark-Viverito, to push for improvements in all fi ve boroughs. Because there is no time to wait when it comes to basic civil rights. New York City is home to nearly 2 million people with limited English profi ciency — and our judicial system is failing them. For too long, our courts have been nickel and diming New Yorkers who don’t speak English. I hope you’ll join with me in fi ghting for language access rights, so we can bring greater justice to our Housing Court.
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