As the de Blasio administration looks to devote more resources to fight homelessness in the subway system, Grace Rauh discussed the crisis with two advocates: Nathylin Flowers of the group VOCAL-NY, who confronted Mayor de Blasio during his morning workout at his gym last year, and Giselle Routhier of the Coalition for the Homeless.
Month: August 2019
She Confronted de Blasio at the YMCA on Homelessness. She’s Still Without a Home Herself.
It’s been nearly a year since she confronted Mayor Bill de Blasio about the homelessness crisis during his morning workout at the Park Slope YMCA.
“I’m in the middle of doing my workout. Sorry, you can’t do this now,” the mayor said to her.
The woman seen in the video is Nathylin Flowers, a 73-year-old housing activist who once worked on Wall Street and in the city’s theater scene. She’s been living in homeless shelters since 2015, after she was evicted from her home in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, where she lived for 35 years.
Homeless Advocates Call on NYC to Build Thousands of Affordable Units
A coalition of advocates for the homeless gathered on the steps of City Hall Tuesday to demand Mayor Bill de Blasio commit to building thousands of new apartments to combat homelessness.
Those in attendance held up signs comparing the populations of cities such as Bristol, Conn., (population: 60,568) to the 60,849 homeless people who were reported to be living in New York City shelters earlier this summer.
Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed to address the homelessness crisis in his last mayoral campaign, but critics say his plans are falling short. Advocates want the city to build 24,000 new apartments specifically for homeless New Yorkers, and to preserve the affordability of at least 6,000 more already occupied apartments.