IJ Client Tina Barnes Goes to Washington D.C to Testify

While Charlestown’s city leaders stand by and watch as hundreds of Pleasant Ridge renters are forced out of their homes at the end of the month, Congressional leaders in Washington, D.C. are starting to ask questions about the city’s illegal redevelopment scheme.

Tina Barnes, a Charlestown City Councilwoman and a plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the city’s illegal rental inspection scheme, has been invited to testify before Congress on Thursday, March 30, 2017. Ms. Barnes will tell Congressional members of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice:

I’m appearing here today on behalf of all 350 Pleasant Ridge families. I want to convey to you their message. It is the message of retirees, including many veterans, who are living on very limited incomes. It is the message of young couples who managed to buy their first starter home. It is the message of many desperately poor people, both young and old, who will have no place to go if they lose their home. The message is simple: Do not allow city government to be used against us. Do not allow city government to use the power of eminent domain to take from the poor and give to the rich.

Watch her testimony here live on Thursday, March 30 at 9 A.M.