A Right to Shelter in New York Posted on May 23, 2016 by Mary Brosnahan and Joshua Goldfein in The New York Times While it is indeed deplorable that the Obama administration has proposed cuts to funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development for emergency shelter in New York City at a time of record need, there is no possibility that these cuts will cause ne ..Read More
Today’s Read: Pushing Gov. Cuomo to Dole Out Promised $2 Billion for Affordable Housing Posted on May 23, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone With less than a month left of the State legislative session and near-record numbers of New Yorkers bedding down in shelters and on the streets, the time is now for the Governor and legislative leaders to take action on homelessness. In his State of the State ..Read More
N.Y. Attorney General Reaches Deal With 3 Real Estate Firms Charged With Illegally Denying Apartments to People on Housing Assistance Posted on May 23, 2016 by Glenn Blain in New York Daily News State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has reached deals with three major real estate firms to stop what he claimed was the illegal denial of apartments to people on public housing assistance, the Daily News has learned. In settlements to be announced Monday ..Read More
Campaign Launched Pushing Gov. Cuomo to Dole Out Promised $2 Billion for Affordable Housing Posted on May 22, 2016 by Kenneth Lovett in New York Daily News A coalition of groups is launching a campaign this week to push Gov. Cuomo to follow through on a promise to fund thousands of new supportive housing units before the legislative session ends next month. The Campaign 4 NY/NY Housing is calling on Cuomo to cut ..Read More
City’s Housing Crisis is Bigger Than Gentrification: Report Posted on May 17, 2016 by Jarrett Murphy in City Limits The financial crisis of 2008 is old news – unless you are a New Yorker whose income is below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, a typical cut-off point for the “near poor.” The median household in that group is paying 49 of its income towar ..Read More
You Might Not Be Poor, But You’re Probably Just a Little Bad Luck Away Posted on May 19, 2016 by Jessica Leber in FastCoExist Living in New York City is not easy. Rent is high, food costs more than in most other cities, and paying for child care is all but impossible. Yet the usual poverty statistics often totally miss these day-to-day hardships that many people experience. Poverty s ..Read More
No One in NYC Should Be Forced to Make These Choices Posted on May 18, 2016 by Karume James in The Huffington Post Among the many “broken windows” cases we get at The Bronx Defenders, I’ve always found arrests for turnstile jumping particularly outrageous and counterproductive. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the South Bronx is the poorest congressional district i ..Read More
City Plans Legal Action Against Seven Brooklyn, Bronx Slumlords Whose Decrepit Properties House Many Homeless New Yorkers Posted on May 18, 2016 by Nicole Schubert and Jennifer Fermino in New York Daily News The city is taking legal action against seven slumlords whose rat-infested Bronx and Brooklyn properties house dozens of homeless families, as well as hundreds of New Yorkers too poor to move into better buildings. Mayor de Blasio will announce the court actio ..Read More
City Has a Tool to Police Section 8 Discrimination Posted on May 16, 2016 by Jarrett Murphy in City Limits Often it seems like everyone loves Section 8. Some landlord lobbyists like the program because it protects the poor without reaching into the pockets of property owners. Homeless advocates yearn for more Section 8 because, unlike city-funded transitional progr ..Read More
