A six-month cap on stays and a lack of permanent housing options have combined to drive more than 1,550 families out of domestic violence shelters and directly into the Department of Homeless Services system over the past two years, records show.
Citywide, workers at nonprofits under contract to provide support and essential services to New Yorkers at a time of unprecedented crisis say they feel overworked, overwhelmed and burnt out. As costs continue to increase around them, many have said their low wages make it difficult to justify staying in the sector, even with a recent pay bump from the city and state.
“While states like New York emphasize supporting vulnerable women and children as a priority, there has been too little focus on the need to improve the child support system to do so—especially within family courts. Instead, these courts—which handle hundreds of thousands of cases per year—have been historically neglected.”
So far this year, city marshals have executed at least 1,527 residential evictions, according to statistics maintained by the Department of Investigation (DOI). The true number of legal evictions is likely higher because DOI updates its database only after a marshal reports an eviction, which can take days or weeks.
“When I noticed very few places in my own neighborhood in Brooklyn where the community could come together to connect, despite the conventional image of an entrepreneur looking nothing like us, my husband and I decided to start our own business.”
The Stable Families Act builds off the massive pot of money that Congress sent to states and local governments to cover rent arrears for tenants who could not make payments as a result of the pandemic
“I am deeply concerned that New York City is taking the foot off the brakes at the exact wrong moment.”
“It’s known as the summer slide, or summer setback. That period of just over two months when our children are out of school, when learning diminishes—and often disproportionately impacts youth from historically disadvantaged groups. This summer is a chance to reverse that trend.”
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.
The Department of Homeless Services (DHS) is re-evaluating its guidelines for sheltering older homeless adults and people with significant health problems that make them especially vulnerable to COVID-19, who can under the current rules access private or semi-private rooms. More than 170 such residents being housed at a Radisson Hotel in lower Manhattan will need to move out by early next month.
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