Author name: Buffalo Latino Village

WEST SIDE GIRL GIVES NYC CLIMATE CHANGE TESTIMONY (A public testimony by PUSH member, Luz Velez, before the Assembly Standing Committee on Environment Conservation, May 17, 2019, New York City. The purpose of the hearing was to hear from the public on how best to address the impact of climate change on communities and the workforce.)  — By Luz Velez Good afternoon. My name is Luz Velez. Thank you for giving me a voice at this very important hearing. I am a resident of Buffalo, NY and a proud member of PUSH Buffalo, a grassroots community-based organization on the West Side of the city. I’m here today to urge all of you and your colleagues in state government to support the passage of the Climate and Community Protection Act (A3876/S2992)…  I moved to Buffalo in 1980 to pursue a degree at Buffalo State College. I graduated in 1985 with a BS in Social Work and a minor in Afro-American history. That same year, I became the full-time Senior Services Director at Hispanics United of Buffalo. In 1993, I had my son Felipe and became a single mom. Five years later I bought my first and only home, the one I live into this day, after moving 9 times from unhealthy and toxic apartments. And then in 2006 I became seriously ill and was medically retired. Throughout my entire adult life residing on the West Side I’ve lived near the Peace Bridge, an international commercial crossing for most trucks and large vehicles traveling between the U.S. and Canada. As a result, I’ve been exposed to diesel truck emissions all this time, and even those times when vehicle emission standards were much more relaxed. Over the years I started developing a lot of non-descriptive respiratory lung infections, which sometimes left me wondering if I had a permanent cold or allergies. As my health deteriorated, I received from my doctors a 6 month to one-year life expectancy diagnosis. A state of depression quickly settled in and I physically, emotionally, and spiritually lost my voice. My doctors determined the source of the infection was environmental factors due to mold and air pollution. Due to my health conditions, and accompanying financial hardship resulting from my unemployable and loss of wages, this single mom’s house fell into disarray and disrepair. I experienced a lot shame. I feared losing my home to gentrification and disinvestment, or to a failing health and safety inspection. I even feared losing my kid. My isolation led to the devastation of my health, home, and humanity. I heard over the radio about PUSH Buffalo’s Warm and Dry and roof repair program one Saturday. By Monday, I met a canvasser from PUSH who was in the neighborhood and I quickly set up an appointment for an energy audit to assess the conditions in my home. After completing some paperwork, I was placed on a waiting list for services. I’ll never forget the day the phone rang and I learned it would be a matter of weeks before contractors would enter my home to assess the problems and work with PUSH to come up with solutions that I believe would save my life and save my home. When the contractors arrived and completed their assessment, we quickly learned how serious the problems were. The roof in the back of my house had collapsed. Because of the roof damage there was black mold throughout the back of the house. It had permeated into the walls and into the HVAC system. I found out I needed a new furnace – the existing furnace hadn’t been serviced since 1972. I also needed a new hot water heater. The house had no insulation. For years I had been suffering from a cold house and high heating and electric bills from the use of portable space heaters. The bathtub on the second floor had caused extensive water damage and rot in the kitchen ceiling. And plaster was crumbling from the walls around my staircase. It was a hot mess to say the least. All these issues contributed to my respiratory problems, put my mental health at risk, and threatened my life.   PUSH Buffalo provided a holistic solution that healed both me and my home. They made me feel comfortable in choosing a contractor that looked like me, that was from my community, made me feel comfortable in my own home, and that didn’t judge me. PUSH spent a lot of time talking with me and listening. They helped me find my inner strength and regain my voice. With the repairs made I went from 4 doctors down to 2, and from 12 meds to 4. As the project was winding down, I started going to PUSH meetings and learning about environmental racism – the factors outside of my control and the systemic oppression that people of color living in low income communities often face and fear. I began to understand how I was disproportionately exposed to the pollution in my community from diesel truck emissions as well as the toxic conditions in my home that were exacerbated by my lack of quality health care options and lack of access to capital. These and other environmental factors that I was exposed to led my doctors to wonder if in fact I suffered from cancer. I’ve come to learn more recently that in Erie County, home to nearly 50,000 Latinx people like me, cancer risk from hazardous air pollutants is 38% higher for people of color compared to white people, and exposure to air polluting facilities is approximately 2.8 times greater for people of color. That isn’t right.  I’ve also heard recently that some of our so-called climate champions in New York State favor a carbon neutrality and offset solution to the climate and environmental crises that I experience first-hand in my community. Carbon neutrality? Not on my watch!  Now is not the time to be neutral on anything when our people are getting sick and dying, our communities