“The result of the latest reporting only serves to reinforce an unequal economic standing between landlords and tenants. Through its limited scope, this reporting causes unnecessary panic, potential demoralization, and ultimately a false sense of relief if the board goes with anything lower than the reported high end number.”
As the state’s budget deadline approaches, Queens democratic lawmakers are at odds over whether it should include a path for legalizing the city’s basement and cellar apartments.
“The suburbs need to do their part in providing housing. But relying on the same old market tactics that created this crisis in the first place won’t solve the problem we face.”
The new Vending Bureau at the Sanitation Department will have nearly 40 employees, up from 14 vendors inspectors in the current configuration. Vendors worry the shift could further penalize their sector, which has seen a recent uptick in city-issued violations, as City Limits reported previously.
A new data tool by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University breaks down a trove of housing-related data for each of the state’s Senate and Assembly districts. It comes just over a week before the state budget deadline, in a year dominated by debates over how elected officials should address New York’s affordable housing shortage.
The Senate and Assembly on Tuesday released their annual budget resolutions, responding to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $227 billion spending proposal unveiled last month. They rejected the bulk of Hochul’s strategy to increase housing production statewide, while entertaining eviction protections the governor has ducked.
Councilmembers are weighing a slate of bills to expand programs and resources that follow the model of social housing—deeply affordable homes built “for public good” rather than profit, what supporters say could help turn the tide in a city where increasing numbers of tenants are struggling to afford rent. But City Hall officials pushed back on some of the proposals, saying they could undermine Mayor Adams’ efforts to build new housing as quickly as possible.
As of last month, the state had doled out just over $2 million of the $27 million set aside for the relief fund, according to recent data shared with City Limits. In total, 405 of the 554 New Yorkers who applied have been approved, and 352 have actually received the aid.
City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events, public hearings and upcoming affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.
It’s been an eventful year in New York City housing. Mayor Eric Adams launched a new plan for housing production and a controversial approach to street homelessness. At the same time, the city’s homeless shelter population reached historic highs this year, fueled in part by an increase in migrants from the southern border and by soaring rent costs, including the biggest price hike for rent-stabilized apartments in nearly a decade.
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