Light a Candle and Keep Looking Posted on December 17, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in WNYC Sixty brokers, 10 months. Shakira Crawford is looking for a home. In the third installment of our series about homelessness in New York City (click above to listen) Shakira thinks she’s finally caught a break. But yet another apartment turns out to be a ..Read More
Partner Profile: Coalition for the Homeless Posted on December 17, 2015 by Nicole Edine It is hard to find housing if you do not have a job, but there are many barriers that prevent homeless New Yorkers from finding work. The Coalition for the Homeless’ First Step program helps homeless women break out of that Catch-22 and get a good job that c ..Read More
6 Smart Ways to Think About Helping Those in Need Posted on December 15, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in Time I spend my days fighting poverty in New York City, so this time of year I get asked a lot at holiday parties what people can do to help the poor. I like the question. At the Robin Hood Foundation, we’ve spent 27 years trying to answer it. As with any complex ..Read More
The Search for the Home With Blue Curtains Posted on December 16, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in WNYC In Part One of The Long Way Home, we met Shakira Crawford, a homeless mother of three who is hoping to take advantage of a new citywide voucher program designed to lift people into permanent, independent housing. In Part Two (click above to listen), Crawford c ..Read More
City Hall Shake-Up on Homeless Posted on December 15, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in The Wall Street Journal New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered a top-to-bottom review of the city’s bureaucracy to address homelessness following the resignation Tuesday of the Department of Homeless Services commissioner. The move, which comes about three months after the depa ..Read More
Queens Housing Demand to Surge in 2016 as Brooklyn Remains Most Unaffordable Borough Posted on December 15, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in AMNewYork As New Yorkers continue the eternal struggle with high rents in Manhattan and Brooklyn, they’re increasingly setting their sights on Queens, according to a report. Demand in the borough is set to rise in 2016, according to real estate site StreetEasy, with J ..Read More
Homeless Struggling to Find Takers for Rent Voucher Program Posted on December 15, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in WABC-TV The New York City housing voucher program is designed to get homeless people off the streets, but an Eyewitness News investigation has uncovered that it not easing the problem. It allows homeless people to use vouchers to rent an apartment, much like food stam ..Read More
Homeless, but Determined to Reclaim Her American Dream Posted on December 15, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in WNYC Meet Shakira Crawford, 39, and her three kids, ages 8 to 13. She emigrated from Jamaica as a child, became a U.S. citizen in New York, and graduated from high school in the Bronx. She now works full-time at a Manhattan hotel earning $17,000 a year. She’s a s ..Read More
Cluster Housing for Homeless That are Heavily Scrutinized Get $200 Million From City Posted on December 13, 2015 by Jacquelyn Simone in Crain's New York Business Advocates for affordable housing hate it. The mayor’s own chief investigator called for it to be cut back. But so-called cluster housing for the homeless is about to get another $200 million from the de Blasio administration, which is proposing contracts tha ..Read More
