While migrants can receive mail at the city’s shelters, many have struggled to track down important correspondence, according to legal service providers and advocates—especially after the city restricted the length of stays for both adults and families with children.
For tenants in the first upstate city to adopt rent stabilization, benefiting from the law’s basic protections is an uphill battle.
“This will push an already vulnerable population deeper into hopelessness and despair, rather than offering the ‘tough love’ that might inspire them to pull themselves up by their nonexistent bootstraps.”
In a letter sent to City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams Thursday, the NY SANE Coalition—which represents 65 community and legal services organizations—pressed her and fellow lawmakers to pass bill Intro. 210, which would prohibit the city from putting time limits on homeless shelter stays.
“If Mayor Adams is serious about addressing the affordability crisis, he should direct his city agencies to use planning tools to slow land speculation, tax warehoused property and pied-à-terres, and subsidize housing outside of the profit-making system.”
Housing advocates in the City Council scored wins—including an additional $2 billion in capital funds for the Department of Housing, Preservation and Development (HPD) and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA)—but more is needed, they say.
City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events, public hearings and affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.
“The reality is that we have a housing crisis, but the South Bronx cannot bear the burden of affordable housing on its own,” said Councilmember Rafael Salamanca, whose district produced the greatest number of affordable units last year and over the past decade. “We need all 51 council districts to do their fair share.”
Clemons is an accomplished non-profit executive with a deep passion for effecting change in the lives of marginalized communities.
City Hall was supposed to begin reporting more details on how it removes homeless New Yorkers from public spaces, sharing data on where each sweep took place, the agencies involved, how many people were affected and the costs. But a month after the first due date, advocates and lawmakers are still waiting.
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