A recent article and postings on social media point to a default judgement for $23,948 in back rent entered for Mamaroneck Trustee Emmanuel Rawlings.
An article in The Mamaroneck Observer states, “A court document filed by the landlord shows that partial November 2021 rent and full monthly rent from December 2021 through January 2023 hadn’t been paid” on a Mamaroneck apartment in a local Washingtonville Housing Alliance building, where he is listed on the lease.
The Alliance is a non-profit provider of housing for low and medium income residents.
But Rawlings says only his mother now lives in the apartment. “…when I became a full-time employee, my annual salary pushed our combined income level just over the affordable housing threshold. As a result, due to being well employed, my financial stability actually separated me from living with my mother.”
According to his LinkedIn profile, Rawlings has worked full time as Business Manager for the STEM Alliance since 2017.
Rawlings writes, the real issue is affordable housing. “How is it that we are comfortable living in a community where the local hourly workers, such as my mother, cannot survive from paycheck to paycheck….There’s nothing shameful or embarrassing about the condition of not being able to pay one’s rent… we do not have sufficient affordable housing…and it is no surprise at all that so many people like my mom are just one crisis shy of being evicted.”
Village Trustee Lou Young, who ran on a Democratic slate with Rawlings, and who, with Young and a third Trustee, Leilani Yizar-Reid, prevailed in New York Supreme Court in an attempt to remove them from the ballot, says “this is all just politics as usual.”
The Observer is run by a former Mayor and several Democratic District leaders, including Cindy Goldstein, who penned the article. Another staffer, Sharon Torres, is challenging the Mayor in a third party run.
The Observer writes that a warrant of eviction dated July 5 still included Rawlings’ name, even though Rawlings says he is no longer a tenant there.
Stop the hypocrisy! Real people experience Many different financial turmoil! Life is about helping our communities not hurting them!
I am disappointed that the Loop would stoop so low as to attack our trustee for his elderly mothers rent status and appalled that those who wrote the article deemed this worthy of publishing. I support our trustee 100% and am ashamed that he and his family have been subjected to this hurtful rubbish. He is an upstanding citizen and trustee who works TIRELESSLY for the good of our community both as an elected official AND in his chosen career.
Honestly. Shame on you. Find matters of true import and please refrain from mudslinging. It is unbecoming of any respectable publication and simply not newsworthy.
Thank you for your comment. It was the Trustee himself that came to us with the story.
We deeply need affordable housing in the Village of Mamaroneck. In order for affordable housing to to work, laws need to be followed. That means if your summons to court, show up and explain your situation. If there is a public confidence crisis, affordable housing will work for no one.
Issue aside, it seems a bit hypocritical of the Larchmont Loop to cast stones at the Mamaroneck Observer in an article where you quote Lou Young, whose wife writes for the Larchmont Loop. She may even have written this article.
At least the Observer writes a disclaimer about conflicts. This has the appearance of the Loop being used as a political tool for an ally of Mayor to discredit his opponent.
No disclosure necessary. No local politicians on our staff.
Pleased to see Larchmont Loop call out the hypocrisy of a news outlet run by local political leaders! Hardly a neutral or unbiased news source. My heart goes out to Trustee Rawlings and his family. He seems like an excellent public servant and rising star. I hope he will not be discouraged by those attempting to smear him and members of his family experiencing hardship for their own personal political gain. It’s just a sad state of affairs all around.
If Trustee Rawlings didn’t move out until after he became a Trustee, December 2022, doesn’t that mean he lived there for a year after the rent stopped getting paid, December 2021?