Housing and Homelessness
New York City Housing Calendar, July 20-27
Jeanmarie Evelly |
City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events, public hearings and upcoming affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.
Health and Environment
Green Design Could Prevent Ida-Style Flooding in 40K Queens Basements: Report
Daniel Parra and David Brand |
Just three acres in Central Queens are designed to handle stormwater runoff, but to more effectively prevent flooding, the area would need about 120 acres of green infrastructure, the report found.
Housing and Homelessness
Pressed for Shelter Space, NYC Turns to Notorious Landlords with Ties to Mayor’s Chief of Staff
David Brand |
Brothers Stuart and Jay Podolsky—long known for profiting off of poorly-maintained housing, and who are recent clients of Adams’ Chief of Staff Frank Carone—are leasing at least three of their hotels to the city for use as shelters for homeless families.
City Hall
Opinion: Mayor Adams, Please Ask NYC to Mask Up
Kate Cunningham |
“I am deeply concerned that New York City is taking the foot off the brakes at the exact wrong moment.”
City on the Edge: Climate Change and New York
NYC Council Approves ‘Resilient Edgemere’ Rezoning Plan
Liz Donovan and David Brand |
The land use plan, part of a broader initiative known as Resilient Edgemere, encompasses the area bound by Beach 35th Street and Beach 50th Street and will change zoning rules to increase density in some areas, limit development in others and raise the shoreline along Jamaica Bay.
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: Rejecting the Notion of a ‘Feminist’ Jail for Harlem
Samah Mcgona Sisay |
“Do New York City’s leaders intend to build a new jail every time an old one fails, as it always will? In a city which boasts some of the world’s leading creative, political, and courageous minds, can we not recognize policing and imprisonment as policy failures?”
Government
After Slow Start, NYC Issues Thousands of Federal Housing Vouchers
David Brand |
The city has distributed 91 percent of the roughly 7,800 new emergency housing vouchers (EHVs) they received last May—a dramatic increase since March, when they had issued less than a third of the total. Now comes the hard part: helping recipients use the subsidies to actually lease an apartment.
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: Gov. Hochul, Hold Amazon Accountable this Prime Day
Maritza Silva-Farrell |
“As Amazon gets richer, workers are waiting for protections they needed yesterday, and the state has an important role to play. Gov. Hochul can demonstrate her leadership and prove that she will fight for working people. The first step is signing the Warehouse Worker Protection Act.”
housing
‘It’s Like a Slum’: Supportive Housing Tenants Cope with Violation-Filled Homes. Provider Blames Underfunding
David Brand |
Postgraduate Center for Mental Health has $130 million in two cash reserves and steady funding from the state, but conditions inside the apartments it rents for low-income tenants continue to deteriorate. The organization says it is forced to rent substandard units because state contracts are too low to cover better housing.
CITY VIEWS: OPINIONS and ANALYSIS
Opinion: Banning Solitary Confinement in NYC Jails is Long Overdue
Nancy Holt and Vaishali Talwar |
“Scientific research very clearly demonstrates that solitary confinement is torture. It also shows that it is counterproductive in achieving its goals because it often increases an inmate’s violent behavior.”
