Non-profit developers and tenants rights advocates have also been sounding the alarm on the need to create more income-restricted apartments across the five boroughs and to keep existing renters stably housed, especially in communities of color.
“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.”
City Limits asked readers and members of the city’s education community to fill out a survey about the policy, which is set to expire at the end of June. We heard from nearly 90 respondents, including dozens of current and former parents, educators and advocates. Here’s what we found.
ANHD’s 2022 Housing Risk Chart highlights the compounding pressures, and risks, to affordable housing in dozens of neighborhoods. Indicators of speculation, gentrification, and displacement pressure are distributed throughout the city and show the necessity of tenant and homeowner counseling and support programs that defend affordability in every neighborhood.
“Coming out of this pandemic, addressing our affordable housing and homeless crisis is something that the mayor should be meeting with some urgency and a major expansion of resources,” said Rachel Fee, executive director of New York Housing Conference.
The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) has the backing of organizations that preserve affordable housing, but has encountered criticism from the real estate industry and skepticism from city housing officials.
The site opened to people moving off the streets and subways on March 28, amid significant backlash to ongoing homeless sweeps and calls by advocates and some elected officials for the city to use hotel rooms as low-barrier, private spaces for people bedding down outdoors.
A housing complex in Melrose has emerged as a new home for dozens of tenants displaced by January’s deadly Bronx fire. At least 29 households have so far signed leases at the building, and another 44 are expected to soon. Among the new residents: Mark Smith, who says he lost all his possessions in the Twin Parks blaze.
Ten months after the Biden Administration supplied New York City with a trove of new Section 8 vouchers to house homeless residents, just over 5 percent have actually been used to lease an apartment, federal data shows.
New York City agencies tasked with cracking down on source of income (SOI) discrimination against renters are being forced to do more with less after hiring freezes, resignations and budget cuts whittled down their already overburdened enforcement units.
City Limits uses investigative journalism through the prism of New York City to identify urban problems, examine their causes, explore solutions, and equip communities to take action.
Founded in 1976 in the midst of New York’s fiscal crisis, City Limits exists to inform democracy and equip citizens to create a more just city. The organization is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by foundation support, ad sponsorship and donations from readers.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
Support local, investigative journalism that has informed and empowered New Yorkers for 45 years.
