There were pleas for help from public housing tenants and testimony from property managers dealing with nonpayment. 

Several speakers raised questions about how effective the council can be, given its strictly advisory role.

A handful focused on the performance of the Housing Court.

Erie County Clerk Michael Kearns, who created the ZOMBIES Initiative to address abandoned properties languishing in foreclosure, told the advisory committee the Housing Court works too slowly.

“It seems as though there is not an expediency or timeliness to the process,” Kearns said.

Kearns believes the court is “overwhelmed” but “rigged” in support of landlords “who know the system.” He urged the panel to consider recommending policies used by former Housing Court Judge Henry Nowak, and fining or imprisoning negligent property owners. 

“[Nowak] put people in jail. These are criminal acts,” Kearns said.

Sarah Wooton, director of community research at the Partnership for the Public Good, offered a number of recommendations based on a 2020 report done by the organization, including making warranty of habitability cases — court actions against landlords for failing to provide safe, sanitary housing — easier for tenants to file. 

Among Wooton’s other solutions: a “clean hands eviction” rule — like the one used in Cleveland — that requires a landlord to have a clean record of zero code violations to be able to evict tenants. 

Tracy McCloud, 53, a resident of the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority’s Kenfield Homes development, has a case before the Housing Court that’s been stalled since October. 

“They need someone right out there [in court] saying, ‘Listen, what’s the problem? Let me help you. Let me fight for you,’ ” McCloud said. 

“It’s like fighting Goliath,” she said.

One person in attendance asked why the panel hasn’t held open meetings.

“I would like to understand why meetings … like the actual working meetings, I don’t know what they’re called, pardon me on the language … are not held in public,” said social worker Karra Barrett, 37. 

The advisory council continues to meet monthly in private. Attorney Tara Melish, its chair, has been reluctant to discuss its work with reporters. 

The panel is mandated by state law but was inactive for more than three decades before reporting by Investigative Post prompted Eighth Judicial District Administrative Judge Amy Martoche to appoint members earlier this year.

Mayor Sean Ryan was given two seats on the panel. According to his spokesperson, Ian Ott, the mayor appointed Anna Falicov, the city’s director of administrative adjudication. The other seat remains unfilled. 

During the public hearing at the downtown branch of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, Melish gave an overview of the board’s mission at the outset. In short, she said, it could produce “actionable recommendations” in an annual report but could not enforce them. It could collect data and create “working groups” but it couldn’t appoint members to the council. Only the state courts system can do so. 

“We are unpaid volunteers. We don’t have funding. We don’t have administrative support. But we do have a strong mandate,” Melish said.

John Washington, 41, is an organizer with the Buffalo chapter of the Tenants Union Federation. He believes the Housing Court is the “most dysfunctional” in the country.

“I want to understand how this body was created … and what power it has to hold judges accountable,” Washington said.

More than a few attendees questioned the panel’s composition.

“I hope it’s successful but it seems not as inclusive as it should be,” former Erie County Legislator Betty Jean Grant commented, adding that the board looked like it was “from the 1950s.”

“We don’t control who’s appointed,” panel member Joseph Trapp responded. 

The panel confirmed that only one member is a person of color: Paul Pérez of the Buffalo Urban League. 

McLeod, the BMHA resident, noted that no panel member lives in public housing. 

“You know who should be sitting up there? A couple of people from BMHA,” said McCloud. “I need to know how I can sit up there. I need to know how we can have a meeting out in the hood.” 

The advisory panel is required to submit a report to the state courts administration, the mayor, Common Council, governor and state Legislature, by Jan. 31. 

Recent reporting by Investigative Post illustrates the shortcomings of both the Housing Court and the city’s efforts to enforce its building code.

For example:

• Buff Real LLC has been prosecuted in Housing Court 13 times for uncorrected code violations in the past two years. The company, owned by Menachem Zippel, owes more than $400,000 in court-ordered fines, property taxes, and demolition and garbage fees. More than 20 of Buff Real’s 30 properties are in foreclosure. Yet it continues to do business.
• Andre Foster, whose tenants endured over 158 code violations and numerous unsanitary living conditions, including raw sewage, lead paint and rodent infestation. Foster also operated an illegal boarding house, which was the site of a fatal police shooting, and has failed to pay taxes and fines — totaling $62,542. 
• For years, a company owned by Joseph V. Parlato has rented rooms deemed “unfit for human occupancy.” One such property was the site of a fire that killed a UB student. Parlato’s company also failed to pay over a quarter of a million dollars in property taxes to the city and county, and an additional $18,000 in city garbage fees. 

Investigative Post reported in 2024 on the three-decade absence of the legally mandated advisory council and subsequent efforts last year to reinstate it.

To read the full article on Investigative Post's website, click here.