“Fear aside, will our city recognize health care as a human right? If these sick people can’t be placed in a hospital campus, then where else can they go?”
City on the Edge: Climate Change and New York
Sewer Backups Nearly Doubled in NYC Last Year Due to Climate Change
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The city’s aging infrastructure combined with more intense rainfall is resulting in more backups, which took on average more than 15 hours to resolve during the last fiscal year that ended in June.
Affordable Housing
More People Snagged Units in NYC Housing Lotteries Last Year, But Wait Times Grew
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The city’s affordable housing lotteries are notoriously competitive, but new data shows some progress: in the most recent fiscal year that ended in June, 6,173 applicants were approved for a unit through the lottery system, up nearly 24 percent from the fiscal year prior. But the approval process took longer for applicants than the year before, and the odds remain tough.
housing
City Planning Approves Innovation QNS Rezoning, Sending Plan to a Council Vote
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Innovation QNS has emerged as the latest flashpoint in a debate over housing production, with supporters saying the plan will provide much-needed units for New Yorkers of all income levels, while opponents say it includes too few income-restricted units for low- and middle-income residents.
Mapping the Future
NYC Housing Calendar, Sept. 22-29
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City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events, public hearings and upcoming affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.
Housing and Homelessness
The NYPD Now Decides What Homeless Encampments Get Swept
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The new, formalized procedure essentially codifies what has become a de facto sweeps policy under Mayor Eric Adams, and replaces a 2020 directive that removed the NYPD from most street homeless outreach and clean-ups in the wake of an uprising for police accountability and reform spurred by the murder of George Floyd.
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: America’s Public Housing, As Told By Those Who Live There
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“The story of public housing has been engulfed by stereotypes and misconceptions. Facts have been distorted. Nuance has been lost. Residents’ real-life accounts have been reduced to tropes of exceptionalism or tragedy—or forgotten altogether.”
A Family Affair: Parents, Children and NYC's Homelessness Crisis
VIDEO: Homeless Families Are Waiting Longer in NYC Shelters. Here Are Their Stories
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Dirty bath water and a slew of apartment rejections test the faith of three single moms trying to get out of the city’s homeless shelter system. After 14 months, Johanna Garcia finally found an apartment for her and her children—but the journey wasn’t easy, and the average length of stay in shelter for families like hers is only getting longer, new data shows.
Politics & Government
What Would NYC Look Like Without Right to Shelter? Bleak, Say the People Who’ve Needed It
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The city’s ‘right to shelter’ provides a basic safety net not seen anywhere else in the country, allowing anyone who wants a shelter bed to get one (at least temporarily). But that right appears to be under siege as the city struggles to meet shelter demand amid a surge in homelessness.
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: NYC’s Aging Water Infrastructure Needs a Climate-Change Upgrade
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“Water main breaks have caused outages across my community and contamination from old pipes have left homes with rust colored water for days…The people of New York City deserve functioning infrastructure and real investments are the only way to get us there.”
Housing and Homelessness
Arsenic Alarm Still A Drain on Riis Residents’ Routines and Resources
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For tenants who have spoken with City Limits in recent days, the impact of the tainted tap warning still lingers, invading their routines and spurring them to spend money on water they used to confidently get for free from the faucet.
