Latest news with #YolandaWilliams
CBS News
23-07-2025
- Business
- CBS News
City of Detroit wins legal protections for tenants in Real Token properties
After months of complaints, the city of Detroit wins a major legal protection for hundreds of tenants living in blighted properties owned by a cryptocurrency-based real estate platform. Yolanda Williams and her family have lived in a house on Abington Street on the city's west side for nearly 50 years. "This is the only house I've ever known. This is my neighborhood, my community," said Williams. Their home is one of hundreds that are included in a sweeping lawsuit filed by the city of Detroit against Real Token, LLC. The lawsuit targets more than 400 homes across the city, citing the company's numerous code violations and unsafe living conditions. "It's a security thing because we're scared over here because we don't know what to expect," said Williams. Detroit Corporation Council Conrad Mallett says the company uses a network of 165 different LLC groups to avoid any kind of accountability or recourse for their tenants. "These properties are in such a degraded state that there's no way that interested owners, no matter whom they farmed out the responsibility, would not know that their tenants are living in substandard housing," said Mallett. On Wednesday, city officials announced major legal protections for those residents by safely withholding their future rent payments. "They need to not pay their rent in August to Real Token; they need to put their August rent into an escrow account," said Mallett. This temporary restraining order stops Real Token from collecting rent from any of its impacted tenants until those buildings are repaired and a certificate of compliance is issued to each of them. "Not only are the tenants not to pay rent, once the rent is paid into the escrow account, no evictions can occur," said Mallett. Mallett says this move is designed to push the company to finally address the nearly $500,000 in violations as soon as possible. "The improvements have to occur, and we're not going to accept that it's going to take seven months, eight months, nine months. None of that," said Mallett. City officials say they plan on doing door-to-door canvassing to make sure each impacted tenant knows how to set up an escrow account and gets everything figured out before their rent is due.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Waco ISD Women's Empowerment Summit Focuses on ‘Becoming'
WACO, TX (FOX 44) — For several years now, Waco Independent School District (I.S.D.) has hosted the Women's Empowerment Summit, an event designed to inspire and equip young women to realize their full potential. This year's theme, 'Becoming,' encouraged attendees to embrace the process of growth, confidence, and leadership. Yolanda Williams is the Executive Director for Student Support at Waco ISD, who emphasized the importance of providing students with exposure to diverse opportunities. 'It's very important that we allow our students to be exposed to all different types of opportunities so that people can make choices and know that there are other things that they can do to challenge themselves,' she said. The summit welcomed young women from 7th to 12th grade, offering a series of seminars and workshops aimed at building skills in areas such as confidence, networking, professionalism, and etiquette. The event provided an opportunity for personal and professional growth, and each year, the summit is hosted at a different campus to offer students a chance to explore new environments. The summit was held at McLennan Community College last year, while this year it took place at Baylor University. For Shanija Smith, a junior at Waco High, this was her second year attending the summit. She shared how the experience has helped her grow both personally and professionally. 'You get to learn more about being a woman, being confident, being a business professional,' Smith said. Jocelyn Austin, a senior at Waco High, expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to attend the summit before graduation, 'The information I will use in the future, and it's very attainable just to sit down and understand everything. It was a beautiful concept, just being in the chairs and I love it,' Austin said. As the day progressed, students moved from one empowering session to the next, many of them excited about the new possibilities ahead. 'It's a great opportunity, and I hope that every other district gets to witness this just like we did today. It was a good thing. It was very helpful to the younger women, to even me, myself. I learned some stuff that I've never, ever gotten a chance to experience and to learn,' Austin added. For Yolanda Williams, seeing the students' enthusiasm and excitement year after year continues to drive her passion to make the summit better each time. 'It's a feeling that I can't even really describe. They… it's in their words. It's in their smiles. It's in their conversations. The children, they just get so excited,' Williams said. As the summit concluded, these young women walked away with not just new skills, but a renewed sense of purpose, each step closer to becoming the confident, empowered individuals they are meant to be. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
