For Tenants Facing Eviction, New York May Guarantee a Lawyer Posted on September 26, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in The New York Times Outside Housing Court in the Bronx, the line invariably winds down the block, snaking past the vendors at tables hawking cellphone plans and by a man selling moving boxes. Inside, tenants clutching folders of documents, or lugging toddlers on their hips, stagg ..Read More
A Right to a Lawyer to Save Your Home Posted on September 23, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in The New York Times There are few legal fights more lopsided than landlords suing to evict their lower-income tenants. In New York City’s housing court, it’s usually a team of lawyers representing the landlord going against a tenant, unrepresented and alone. The claims for ev ..Read More
Homeless Population Nears 60,000 People Despite City Efforts on Crisis Posted on September 22, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in DNAinfo The city has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into dealing with the homelessness crisis, but despite some successes is still struggling with the volume of people entering the system, according to figures released in the Mayor’s Management Report. T ..Read More
New York Builds Housing to Cut Healthcare Costs Posted on September 22, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in WNYC Barabara Scamordella spent about 15 years living on and off the streets of New York City and Nassau County. This past January, she got lucky: she moved into a new supportive housing development called Boston Road, after the street where it’s located in the B ..Read More
The Fight for Supportive Housing Isn’t Over Yet Posted on September 21, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in New York Slant The prolonged release of the $2 billion Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed in his State of the State address to build supportive and affordable housing finally has an end in sight. Cuomo’s announcement last week that he has signed a proposed memorandum of understand ..Read More
NYC’s Homeless Shelter Population Reaches Record High Posted on September 21, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in The Village Voice New York City’s homeless shelter population broke its all-time record this past weekend, and has continued to rise this week, as 59,734 people spent Monday night in a shelter. That figure includes 23,576 children, as over 140 new families checked into shelte ..Read More
City Blames Lack of Affordable Housing for Record Number of Homeless New Yorkers Posted on September 20, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in New York Daily News The number of New Yorkers living in homeless shelters reached an all-time high over the weekend, a sad milestone that officials blame on a lack of affordable housing and support services for the poor. A whopping 59,698 people — roughly the population of upst ..Read More
As Shelter Population Surges, Housing for Disabled Comes Up Short Posted on September 16, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in The New York Times Alison Phillips’s feet dragged beneath her as she used forearm crutches to make her way down a ramp, leaving the Brooklyn homeless shelter where she and her 3-year-old daughter live. The ramp is one of the few accommodations the shelter provides to people li ..Read More
Cuomo Moves Toward Firming Up $2 Billion Housing Plan Posted on September 15, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in City Limits After months of prodding by housing advocates, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced on Wednesday that he had ordered the signing of an agreement on how to spend a $2 billion downpayment on his five-year, $20 billion initiative to create 100,000 units of affordable hous ..Read More
