As of March 31, City Hall has issued approximately 1,500 notices “to make alternate arrangement” to immigrants with 30-day shelter stays and to another 1,300 with 60-day notices, which are being offered to single migrants under 23.
City Limits’ Deputy Editor Emma Whitford recently sat down with Baaba Halm, vice president and New York market leader at the housing nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners, for a conversation about voucher programs, the opportunities for stability and mobility they can bring as well as the challenges.
Mayor Eric Adams argued in new court filings that his administration has special authority as an “arm of the state”—part of a lawsuit that the Legal Aid Society filed in February over City Hall’s refusal to implement a suite of laws to expand access to city-funded rental vouchers.
As elected officials attempt to hammer out a housing deal before the state’s budget deadline at the end of the month, advocates want lawmakers to know they’re still fighting for tenant protections that aren’t watered down.
While defenders see the preservation of shelter rights in the long term, opponents are raising implementation concerns. They say the agreement enforces a recent trend of unequal treatment based on when a person arrived, and from where.
The Coalition for the Homeless reached a settlement with the City of New York Friday, adding new emergency terms to the 1981 decree that paved the way for the city’s unique right to a shelter bed.
“We can create a better environment for both the homeless and riders by setting up drop-in centers within some of the larger subway stations.”
As of the end of January, the city had purchased 20,500 plane or bus tickets to relocate immigrants in its shelter system to destinations outside the five boroughs, totaling $7.6 million, officials said Tuesday—three times the annual budget of the two main offices that handle services for the city’s immigrant communities.
While lawmakers continue to negotiate housing initiatives and tenant protections in Albany, supporters of the Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act are positioning the bill as one of the state’s best shots at passing meaningful housing legislation this year. “It’s hard to put your guard up when it’s the neighborhood church saying we want to build,” sponsor Andrew Gounardes told City Limits.
City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events, public hearings and upcoming affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.
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