Adi Talwar
City Limits’ series on family homelessness in New York City is supported by Citizens’ Committee for Children of New York and The Family Homelessness Coalition. City Limits is responsible for all editorial decisions.
The nine-member Rent Guidelines Board (RGB) voted Tuesday to raise rents by 3.25 percent on one-year leases and by 5 percent on two-year leases, the highest increase for rent-stabilized apartments since 2013.
Since Jan. 1, City Limits has been publishing more accurate homeless shelter census figures after a Council bill to force the city to publish a true number failed last year. The total commonly cited by city officials excludes thousands of people staying in shelters run by agencies other than the Department of Homeless Services (DHS), failing to count more than 15 percent of the actual population.
Some 1,121 babies were born into the Department of Homeless Services’ (DHS) shelter system last fiscal year, and a disproportionate number of low-income New Yorkers depend at least in part on formula to feed their infants.
“Having housing and a place to call home gives one hope and stability, which is essential, especially when you grew up in a system that gave you neither.”
The new budget directs $2.4 billion to homeless services in the coming fiscal year, invests billions more in housing over the next decade and funds an increase to rental assistance programs, but is nevertheless facing criticism from advocates who say the spending plan fails to adequately address New York City’s affordability and homelessness crises.
What exactly did state lawmakers do before starting their nearly seven-month break? Here’s a rundown.
The legislation would amend existing public health law to empower children under age 18 who are classified as “runaway or homeless youth,” or RHY, to give consent for medical, dental, health and hospital services, and comes amid a wave of legislation targeting trans kids elsewhere in the nation.
“For far too long, New York’s leaders have focused on stemming the tide of homelessness, and then struggling to meet that low bar. Mayor Eric Adams can change this with a visionary housing and homelessness plan and a budget to match.”
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.”
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.