City Limits’ coverage of homelessness in New York City is supported by Trinity Church Wall Street.
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Brooklyn tenants are trying to dismantle barriers around a seldom-used 1960s-era law that can prohibit landlords from collecting rent when they fail to fix dangerous building conditions for months on end. The campaign just had its first breakthrough.
City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events, public hearings and upcoming affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.
While the total won’t be clear until remaining applications for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) are processed, a majority of the $391 in aid will likely go to the housing authority and other public housing tenants, with $35 million specifically earmarked for NYCHA. Still, thousands of New Yorkers living in public or subsidized housing did not apply for ERAP but continue to struggle with mounting debt.
Albany’s inaction has made it more urgent for the council speaker to help pass a package of bills aimed at boosting the supply of homes accessible to, and controlled by, low-income New Yorkers, more than 100 groups said in a letter Tuesday. Some of the legislation has gotten a frosty reception from Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, as well as for-profit developers.
Public libraries have long been a refuge for New Yorkers experiencing homelessness, and have emerged as an important resources for asylum seekers in recent months. While Mayor Adams exempted the three library systems from his latest round of belt-tightening measures, they still face a collective $36 million in cuts under his executive budget proposal.
“The real estate industry will play a key role in implementing these new standards and must move quickly to do so. That task might seem daunting, but the affordable housing sector has demonstrated that sustainable construction is both feasible and financially viable.”
Reactions to the news were subdued in City Hall Park Thursday, where the organization VOCAL-NY had gathered to mourn not only Neely, who had been unhoused, but the at least 815 other unhoused New Yorkers who, according to city data, died in the year ending last July.
The mayor defended the move, saying the city had little choice as it struggles to keep up with a ballooning shelter population. But advocates say the change undermines the city’s social safety net and protections to ensure homeless families with children have access to safe conditions.
Welcome to City Limits’ NYC Housing Calendar, a weekly feature where we round up the latest housing and land use-related events and hearings
At a Council hearing, officials said the city has recorded 318,000 “engagements” since February 2022 between street homeless residents and police or outreach workers, including instances where the same individual was contacted multiple times. Of those, 4,600 people have agreed to go into shelter; about 1,300 people remain in those placements.
Los hogares encabezados por inmigrantes representan solo el 17 por ciento de la población de la ciudad, pero constituyen el 21 por ciento de los hogares que ganan por debajo del “costo de vida real”, utilizado como base para el informe.
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