Adi Talwar
2865 Creston Avenue in the Bronx—one of 17 affordable housing sites that will count toward both Mayor de Blasio's 300,000 units and Gov. Cuomo's 112,000 units of affordable housing.
Non-profit developers and tenants rights advocates have also been sounding the alarm on the need to create more income-restricted apartments across the five boroughs and to keep existing renters stably housed, especially in communities of color.
Proposed legislation would allow NYCHA to transfer 25,000 apartments into a publicly owned trust with the power to issue bonds and borrow money for addressing desperately-needed capital repairs. Supporters say it’s the only real shot to drum up the funds in lieu of substantive federal aid. But many public housing tenants are opposed or skeptical of the plan.
In November 2020, after months of pandemic-induced school closures and remote learning, Legal Aid and the law firm Milbank filed a lawsuit on behalf of three families with children in shelter that accused the city of violating their state constitutional right to a “sound basic education.”
As temperatures and sea levels rise, the world turns to young people to solve the greatest challenge in human history—a burden felt by youth activists from New York City to New Delhi, said panelists and audience members at the Waterfront Alliance Annual Conference in Lower Manhattan Tuesday.
The budget plan proposes moving six staffers from the Human Resources Administration to the Source of Income (SOI) discrimination unit at the Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), which had zero attorneys working on those cases after its final employee departed last month following years of employee exits and unfilled vacancies, City Limits previously reported.
More than 700 people staying on trains or at end-of-line stations accepted placement in a temporary shelter in the first two months of Adams’ so-called “Subway Safety Plan,” according to Homeless Services Commissioner Gary Jenkins. But he would not say how many stick around.
The 17th council district in The Bronx saw 8,550 new affordable units built since 2014, while district 23 in Queens saw just 17. Those dramatic production disparities are fueling New York City’s affordable housing crunch, experts say.
The number of available apartments for low- and middle- income New Yorkers reached a 30-year low in 2021, according to the results of a vacancy survey used to determine whether rent stabilization laws will remain in place in the five boroughs.
Tenant attorneys, advocates and policymakers say the delays that Nichols has encountered demonstrate the flaws of the city’s code enforcement program, and the limits of a housing court system that can move at a glacial pace when it comes to holding owners accountable for unsafe conditions.
Brooklyn Councilmember Chi Ossé wants to commit 1 percent of New York City’s budget to the arts sector, which shed more than 208,000 jobs during the early months of the pandemic.