Matt Pacenza, Author at City Limits

CHILD CARE BUDGETS GO FROM FLUSH TO TIGHT OVERNIGHT

After months of sitting on federal cash meant for creating new child care slots, the city’s budget for these programs is about to get very tight.

01

Dec 2001

ByMatt Pacenza 31 minRead time

This Sold House, Part 2 of 2

The city’s massive–and unexamined–tax lien sales program is swelling the ranks of homeowners desperate to pay off tax debt, creating perfect targets for predatory lenders.

01

Dec 2001

In September, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development made a move to end this “flipping,” by proposing new rules withholding federal mortgage guarantees from properties that have recently…

26

TO KNOW, OR NOT TO KNOW?

A legal ruling opens the possibility that a tenant can be evicted for what he should have known was going on in his apartment.

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MOE BITTER BLUES: WELFARE CUTS FOR A SUFFERING CITY

A proposed federal recession relief package will allow the state and city to spend $110 million less on poverty measures this year.

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ByMatt Pacenza 2 minRead time

STILL PREY

High-interest lenders were responsible for nearly half of all refinanced mortgages in the city last year, according to a new study by ACORN.

19

ByMatt Pacenza 2 minRead time

BED-STUY RE-BIRTH

After four long years of waiting for their homes to be spruced up, residents of Medgar Evers Houses in Bed-Stuy have received the go-ahead to begin their ambitious plans to…

12

A TOUGH TRANSFER

Tenants of a troubled building in Harlem hope to get some relief soon as the city announces plans to transfer their home to a new owner later this month. The…

05

RECIPIENTS NOT SEEN, HEARD

With a year left until the nation’s welfare law comes up for reauthorization, New York’s welfare commissioners argued for the right to limit spending on poverty-fighting programs at the first…