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
More New Yorkers Facing Eviction are Getting Lawyers Posted on September 12, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in Next City When Garrett Wright first started at the Community Development Project of the Urban Justice Center (UJC), he was one of only two lawyers in the housing practice. It was a very busy time, back in 2008. “It was basically a lot of low-income, working-class tena ..Read More
Queens Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi Pushing to Have the Homeless Swap Shelters for Rent Subsidies Posted on September 13, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in New York Daily News The chairman of the state Assembly Social Services Committee has begun quietly pushing a plan he says would reduce reliance on homeless shelters by creating a new rent subsidy to keep people in their homes. The plan by Assemblyman Andrew Hevesi (D-Queens), dub ..Read More
Back to School Posted on September 7, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in Queens Gazette Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and Sarah Murphy, Director of Development for the Coalition for the Homeless, posed with the backpacks and other school supplies that were dropped off at Borough Hall in August by contributors donating to “Project: Back ..Read More
Under New Policy for Homeless Families, Children Can Miss Less School Posted on September 1, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in The New York Times Homeless families in New York City have long been forced into a difficult choice: In order to apply for housing, they must have their children skip school. Now, the city’s Department of Homeless Services is changing its policies to try to reduce the extraord ..Read More
More New Yorkers Facing Eviction Have Lawyers, But No Right to Counsel Yet Posted on August 30, 2016 by Jacquelyn Simone in New York Observer Mayor Bill de Blasio touted city investments in programs to provide lawyers to tenants facing eviction in housing court—but stopped short of endorsing the “right to counsel” that’s been advocated for in the City Council. “The investments we make in l ..Read More
