“Blue cities and states have much more pension fund money than red states. As the saying goes, money talks. It’s time for Comptroller Lander to put money that he manages where his mouth is. New Yorkers need him to fight for our interests at least as hard as red state politicians fight for the oil and gas corporations.”
While the Adams administration has been issuing shelter deadlines to adult immigrants for months, and to some families with kids in hotels as part of a separate initiative, Tuesday’s evictions were the first to apply to families with children under City Hall’s broader policy, which officials say is an effort to manage more than 168,500 new arrivals since 2022—69,000 of whom remain in the city’s care.
The city’s education department insists the funding system is flexible, but the comptroller and education advocates worry some schools won’t get what they need if ‘massive numbers’ of new students enroll later in the year.
There are several key differences between PACT and Hope VI, the now-defunct federal program that facilitated demolition and displacement in Brooklyn decades ago. But, despite contemporary safeguards, advocates say they’ll be keeping a close eye as plans to raze and rebuild the Fulton and Elliott-Chelsea Houses move forward.
The saga of The Windermere, though unique in many respects, is emblematic of why the city’s need for deeply affordable housing and the interests of many for-profit owners and developers will never fully align.
Nearly two years after the Gowanus rezoning’s passage, signs of change are all around: demolition projects and new builds are transforming the neighborhood. According to the Department of City Planning, roughly half of the expected 8,500 apartments along the canal are in planning or construction stages.
Of the 2,308 homeless New Yorkers present during the city’s encampment sweeps over more than eight months in 2022, only three people—about 0.1 percent—had landed in permanent housing placements as of January, according to an audit from Comptroller Brad Lander.
“If you charge someone less than what they’re supposed to be paying they might not shout about it quite as loudly,” said Comptroller Brad Lander, whose office conducted the review. “Undercharging people relative to their income, they might not complain, but then the agency might not have the money it needs.”
At a a recent hearing, members of the NYC Banking Commission heard from advocates who described redlining, predatory and discriminatory lending practices, and substantial investments in the fossil fuel industry by major banks applying to hold tens of millions of city dollars. Yet the commission promptly approved all of the nearly 30 banks that applied.
The New York City Comptroller’s Office will investigate oversight of NYCHA contractors and eviction rates at privatized developments — the first of two probes under a new initiative that lets NYCHA tenants weigh in directly on public housing audits.
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