How Blacks the Poor and the Middle Class are Being Push Out of
Brooklyn Because of Albany's Tax Breaks for Luxury Developers
City puts up homeless families for $600 per night atTimes Square hotels (NYDN) The city has paid more than $600 a night to house dozens of homeless families in Times Square hotels — almost twice the cost of a night in the cushy confines of the Waldorf Astoria. As Mayor de Blasio struggles to stem the rising tide of homelessness, his team has increasingly relied on commercial hotels to keep people off the streets. The price of housing homeless families in commercial hotels is now averaging a total of $400,000 per night citywide, according to a report by city Controller Scott Stringer. The report is expected to be released Wednesday. milies in commercial hotels averages a total of $400,000 a night. A weeknight in a luxury guest room at the Waldorf would be a bargain by comparison at $394 a night. Even the $385-a-night, one-bedroom suite there is cheaper. Homeless Services said the city had to pay the $629 rate because the UN General Assembly was in session. The city booked rooms for 15 families there for two nights. Usually, the going rate at that hotel is $319 a night, and Homeless Services said the city has worked out a deal for a discount this coming January and February of $189 a night. They declined to identify the hotel to preserve the privacy of the families placed there. Since November 2015, the city has booked 425,000 hotel rooms at a cost of more than $72.9 million, Stringer found. “These costs are absolutely alarming,” Stringer said, calling on de Blasio to come up with a plan to end the use of commercial hotels. The average hotel unit costs $6,600 per month or almost $79,000 a year. By comparison, cluster-site apartments average around $2,740, while temporary apartments known as Tier II cost about $3,540 per month. Stringer noted that commercial hotel rooms don’t have built-in kitchens or services such as day care, “making them inappropriate for families to live in long-term.” As of Monday night, 60,384 people were staying in various city-run shelters, cluster sites and hotels courtesy of Homeless Services. That includes 23,000 children. The controller’s report comes as de Blasio has taken fire for placing families in decrepit cluster-site apartments, including a unit where two infants died in the Bronx last week when a radiator blasted steam into their bedroom. De Blasio has also run into resistance as he’s tried to place homeless families in hotels in some neighborhoods.
Homeless Shelter Goes From $30 to $112.28 A Square Foot No Art of the Deal
de Blasio Spins Freak Accident As Bronx DA Launches An Investigation of the Homeless Cluster Site Landlord With Thousands of Violations and Who Receives Thousand in Fed $$ to House the Poor
Mayor de Blasio Calls Steam-Burn Deaths of Toddlers a ‘Freak Accident’ (NYT) As the inquiry continued into the deaths of Ibanez Ambrose, 2, and Scylee Vayoh Ambrose, 1, in temporary homeless housing in the Bronx, the mayor cited a “series of painful coincidences.” *
Why is the City Using Landlords on Worse Landlord Lists to House the Homeless Why So Many Homeless?
Bronx building owner where faulty radiator killed two girls is one of city's worst landlords (NYDN) The city has been placing dozens of homeless families in apartments owned by the worst landlords in New York, Public Advocate Letitia James charged Thursday. At least five landlords who made her “100 Worst Landlords” list have been taking in families sent by the city Department of Homeless Services in the past three years. That includes Moshe Piller, owner of the building on Hunts Point Ave. in the Bronx where two kids died Wednesday after a radiator turned their bedroom into a spitting steam bath. On Thursday, officials said they had not checked the “worst landlord” list before placing families in these buildings through nonprofits they hire to handle the cluster site program. But James said besides Piller, four other cluster site landlords have been on her “worst” list since 2014. The four tallied 2,396 code violations this year alone, records show. But James said besides Piller, four other cluster site landlords have been on her “worst” list since 2014. The four tallied 2,396 code violations this year alone, records show.
The Daily News Called the Landlord the "King of Slum Lords in 2004"
City's Poor Management and Bad Housing Policies Has Led to 2 Dead Children As Hotel Use Increases despite Pledge in Feb. to Curtail Practice
Residents complained about radiators before tots’ tragic deaths (NYP) Photo: Robert Mecea; David McGlynn (NYP) 2 tots dead after radiator explodes in apartment building Two baby sisters burned to death when a faulty radiator valve turned their Bronx apartment into a boiling “steam room” Wednesday, law- enforcement sources said. Ibanez Ambrose, 2, and sister Scylee, 1, suffered horrific burns to their faces and chests at about noon in their family’s apartment at 720 Hunts Point Ave., sources and police said. “The two kids essentially got doused with scalding steam, and they were still alive at the time. By the time they reached the hospital, they were deceased,” a police source said. Neighbor Tye Moore said, “I saw the parents bringing the kids out, giving them CPR. Another neighbor called 911. “The parents’ reaction was horrible and heartbreaking.” The dad, tattoo artist Pete Ambrose, and his wife, Danielle, are from Maine and became homeless after moving to the city about a year ago, according to their Facebook pages, which included joyful photos of their daughters. The building is a so-called “cluster site’’ for the homeless, where apartments are rented by the city as needed for down-on-their luck families amid low-income tenants. Homeless Hotel Confronting Surge in Homelessness, New York City Expands Use of Hotels (NYP) Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed in February to curtail the practice, but the city’s shelter system is strained to the limit.* 2 Young Sisters Fatally Burned in Temporary Homeless Housing in the Bronx (NYT) Ibanez Ambrose, 2, and Scylee Vayoh Ambrose, 1, died in a Bronx apartment after being severely burned, apparently by steam from a radiator, the authorities said.* Bronx radiator explosion kills two baby girls in buildingused as homeless shelter (NYDN) * Facing a continued surge in the homeless population, New York City officials are aggressively expanding the costly and highly criticized practice of using hotels to plug gaps in the city’s strained shelter system as it struggles with the problem, the Times writes. * The rising homeless population in New York City shelters is also due to the policies of Steve Banks, the man picked to handle the crisis, who grants shelter to about half of those who apply, a huge leap from his predecessor in the Bloomberg administration, the Post writes. * Homeless population hits another record high under de Blasio(PoliticoNY)
Will the City Enforce the New Law Allowing Airbnb to Warehouse Affordable Rental Housing?
More Money to House the Homeless Needed
Report warns de Blasio’s homeless outreach budget short by $231M (NYP) The city’s tab to house the homeless will be much higher than projected, according to a new report. The Independent Budget Office said Thursday that the de Blasio administration is underestimating the cost of operating city homeless shelters by $231 million in fiscal 2017-2018, which starts on July 1.
de Blasio Panics: No Plan Forced to Place the Homeless in $600 Hotels
Homeless Shelter Goes From $30 to $112.28 A Square Foot No Art of the Deal
HRA chief should read ‘The Art of the Deal’ (NYP) We thought our opinion of city Human Resources Administration chief Steven Banks couldn’t sink any lower — until we read Steve Cuozzo’s Realty Check column in Tuesday’s Post, and learned that HRA is on track to pay more than $75 a square foot in its new lease at 109 E. 16th St. The building is over a century old, yet HRA rent would be on par with what Wall Street and legal firms fork out for far more modern digs. And that’s only the starting rate in the 20-year lease. What begins as $20.3 million a year, $76.83 per square foot, rises toward the end to nearly $30 million annually, $112.28 per square foot. The old lease is about $30 a square foot. Yes, the building will see nearly $14 million in renovations — but still: How can the Department of Citywide Administrative Services OK this deal? (On the other hand, DCAS did OK that Rivington Street flip. Maybe some de Blasio donor made a call?) DCAS, not Banks, negotiated the deal — but he still should be asking questions in the wake of Cuozzo’s scoop. His agency, after all, is supposed to help the poor. And the DCAS folks should crack open a book on how to negotiate — perhaps “The Art of the Deal.” Try Chapter 5, “Use your leverage”; Ch. 6, “Enhance your location”; Ch. 9, “Deliver the goods” and Ch. 10, “Contain the costs.”
de Blasio Spins Freak Accident As Bronx DA Launches An Investigation of the Homeless Cluster Site Landlord With Thousands of Violations and Who Receives Thousand in Fed $$ to House the Poor
Why is the City Using Landlords on Worse Landlord Lists to House the Homeless Why So Many Homeless?
Bronx building owner where faulty radiator killed two girls is one of city's worst landlords (NYDN) The city has been placing dozens of homeless families in apartments owned by the worst landlords in New York, Public Advocate Letitia James charged Thursday. At least five landlords who made her “100 Worst Landlords” list have been taking in families sent by the city Department of Homeless Services in the past three years. That includes Moshe Piller, owner of the building on Hunts Point Ave. in the Bronx where two kids died Wednesday after a radiator turned their bedroom into a spitting steam bath. On Thursday, officials said they had not checked the “worst landlord” list before placing families in these buildings through nonprofits they hire to handle the cluster site program. But James said besides Piller, four other cluster site landlords have been on her “worst” list since 2014. The four tallied 2,396 code violations this year alone, records show. But James said besides Piller, four other cluster site landlords have been on her “worst” list since 2014. The four tallied 2,396 code violations this year alone, records show.
The Daily News Called the Landlord the "King of Slum Lords in 2004"
Get the children out of unsafe homeless shelters (NYDN Ed) Investigators combing through the evidence will have to determine whether the mayor is wrong or right, right quick. Yet to see the tragedy as mere coincidence would be to overlook city government’s role in putting the two little girls in harm’s way. Ibanez, Scylee and their parents moved into the apartment over a year ago under the auspices of the city’s Department of Homeless Services, which paid a nonprofit organization to rent five apartments in the building from Moshe Piller. “The king of the slumlords,” the Daily News dubbed Piller in 2004. None of that stopped Bushwick Economic Development Corp. from signing up Piller up to provide so-called cluster shelter housing, paid for by the Department of Homeless Services — apartments the city Department of Investigation last year found to be in widespread disrepair. De Blasio knows just how profoundly unsuitable such slums are for homeless kids: Ending cluster shelters was one of his 2013 mayoral campaign promises. (And if they’re unsuitable for homeless kids, they’re unsuitable for all kids.) But once at City Hall, he backpedaled — by default, perpetuating the slum system as the number of homeless families surged rather than risk attempting to open new homeless shelters in neighborhoods he feared would be hostile to them. In fact, de Blasio’s homeless services agency put still more shoddy apartments into service as cluster sites. Kids have paid the price. Juan Sanchez, age 4, died in May 2014 in another Bronx cluster building, with rat poison left in the hallway suspected as the cause of his demise. From tragedy, may the mayor now find a far better way forward, far faster than his three-year timeline for closing the door on cluster shelters. It may well have been a freak accident that cost two little girls their lives. A series of deliberate human decisions put them in the room where the unspeakable tragedy happened.
City's Poor Management and Bad Housing Policies Has Led to 2 Dead Children As Hotel Use Increases despite Pledge in Feb. to Curtail Practice
Will the City Enforce the New Law Allowing Airbnb to Warehouse Affordable Rental Housing?
After Cuomo signed a new law that would impose steep fines on many Airbnb hosts in New York City, it’s unclear how both the city and Airbnb will move forward to allow Airbnb to continue operating while cracking down on illegal hosts, Politico New York reports.
The Post Blames Bank's Liberal Homeless Policies to Protect the Developers for the Crisis
The Post Blames Bank's Liberal Homeless Policies to Protect the Developers for the Crisis
What’s really driving the homeless crisis (NYP) After three years of blaming his predecessors, Mayor de Blasio has finally deigned to take ownership of the homeless crisis. How nice. The mayor’s promising otherwise, of course: He told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer that his new initiatives are “taking hold” and would soon start bringing the shelter numbers coming down. But why are they still heading up? A spokesperson for the Coalition for the Homeless attributed the rise to more victims of domestic violence opting to flee those situations, more people moving off the streets and an increase in folks losing their tenancy in illegal housing. Here’s a different possible explanation: In the de Blasio era, about 50 percent of those who apply to enter shelters — that is, to be declared officially “homeless,” with a legal right to shelter — are granted it. Back when Michael Bloomberg was mayor, it was routinely around 20 percent. Which suggests that the policies of Steven Banks, the lifelong “homeless advocate” whom de Blasio put in charge of handling the crisis, are at the heart of the problem. As for de Blasio’s affordable-housing plans: No less than Lilliam Barrios-Paoli, the former deputy mayor for health and human services, told WNYC radio that the mayor won’t be able to build his way out of the crisis. Barrios-Paoli resigned last year — reportedly after being ignored by de Blasio, who even then was informally taking Banks’ guidance on homeless policy. “When you find yourself riding a dead horse, you dismount,” she said in a recent interview.
The Post Ignores the Reason for Increase Homelessness
Fighting back against de Blasio’s hopeless homeless policies (NYP) You can too fight City Hall. Indeed, folks in Maspeth have halted Mayor de Blasio’s plans to open a 115-bed homeless shelter in their quiet residential neighborhood. Then, in last week’s Democratic primary, they ousted Assemblywoman Marge Markey over her feeble response on the issue. The mayor’s folks aimed to convert a Holiday Inn Express to a homeless shelter, set to open Oct. 1. Queens lawmakers and residents sued to block the move last month — and the furor prompted the motel’s co-owner to tweet that the deal is off. City Hall insists the plan will still go forward — because it needs somewhere to put the ever-rising homeless tide. And turning hotels into shelters is a key part of its answer. But, as we’ve said before, it’s all a hopeless task as long as Human Resources Commissioner Steven Banks — who spent decades suing the city to create new rights for the homeless — leads Team de Blasio’s response. The Post recently found that the number of homeless persons sheltered at hotels had risen 50 percent since February to nearly 4,000 — and to over 60,000 in city shelters. And The New York Times reported that families are again sleeping overnight at city intake offices — something Banks fought as a Legal Aid lawyer 20 years ago. There has been a veritable explosion in the street homeless population as well as homeless families in shelters. The vacancy rate at city shelters for families with children is less than 1 percent. Team de Blasio’s desperate response includes paying to send homeless to their families outside the city and providing rental subsidies to homeless families willing to relocate out of town. But that’s not stemming the tide. Without a coherent homeless-prevention strategy, and a serious “tough love” approach to those claiming to be homeless, the need for more places to warehouse people will keep growing — and angering communities. Maspeth won’t be the last neighborhood to fight City Hall to a draw — or oust unresponsive elected officials.*
Fighting back against de Blasio’s hopeless homeless policies (NYP) You can too fight City Hall. Indeed, folks in Maspeth have halted Mayor de Blasio’s plans to open a 115-bed homeless shelter in their quiet residential neighborhood. Then, in last week’s Democratic primary, they ousted Assemblywoman Marge Markey over her feeble response on the issue. The mayor’s folks aimed to convert a Holiday Inn Express to a homeless shelter, set to open Oct. 1. Queens lawmakers and residents sued to block the move last month — and the furor prompted the motel’s co-owner to tweet that the deal is off. City Hall insists the plan will still go forward — because it needs somewhere to put the ever-rising homeless tide. And turning hotels into shelters is a key part of its answer. But, as we’ve said before, it’s all a hopeless task as long as Human Resources Commissioner Steven Banks — who spent decades suing the city to create new rights for the homeless — leads Team de Blasio’s response. The Post recently found that the number of homeless persons sheltered at hotels had risen 50 percent since February to nearly 4,000 — and to over 60,000 in city shelters. And The New York Times reported that families are again sleeping overnight at city intake offices — something Banks fought as a Legal Aid lawyer 20 years ago. There has been a veritable explosion in the street homeless population as well as homeless families in shelters. The vacancy rate at city shelters for families with children is less than 1 percent. Team de Blasio’s desperate response includes paying to send homeless to their families outside the city and providing rental subsidies to homeless families willing to relocate out of town. But that’s not stemming the tide. Without a coherent homeless-prevention strategy, and a serious “tough love” approach to those claiming to be homeless, the need for more places to warehouse people will keep growing — and angering communities. Maspeth won’t be the last neighborhood to fight City Hall to a draw — or oust unresponsive elected officials.*
Maspeth brings shelter protest to Brooklyn; de Blasio upset (WPIX)
de Blasio Blasts the Press for Claiming There is A Homeless Problem
The Media Reports on the Homeless, the Mayor 180 AdmitsIts A Problems, But Nobody Explains the Reason for the Increase
Media Tells Us That Homelessness Increases But Protecting Developers Will Not Tell Us Why
Media Tells Us That Homelessness Increases But Protecting Developers Will Not Tell Us Why
The number of people sleeping in New York City shelters has increased by 18 percent since Mayor Bill de Blasio took office and reached nearly 60,000, raising questions about the effectiveness of current policies, The Wall Street Journal reports.
de Blasio Fights A Neighborhood Over the Homeless He Created With the Help of His Developer Friends
The co-owner of a Queens Holiday Inn slated to become a homeless shelter said he wants out of the deal because community opposition is too much, but City Hall sources said the plan will go forward and the opening only delayed a few weeks, the Daily News writes.
By Supporting 421-a and Not Enforcing the Law Against Airbnb de Blasio is A Bully Against the Homeless Victims
No one home at CityHall on homeless (NYDN Ed) There’s still more devastating evidence of the vast chasm that often exists between Mayor de Blasio’s promises and his performance. Although de Blasio had vowed to be the mayor who finally found humane solutions for homelessness, results have been abysmal. There’s still more devastating evidence of the vast chasm that often exists between Mayor de Blasio’s promises and his performance. Although de Blasio had vowed to be the mayor who finally found humane solutions for homelessness, results have been abysmal. An audit, uncontested by the department, depicted management failures that trap families in squalid temporary housing at extraordinary costs. If the conclusion sounds familiar, that’s because de Blasio’s Department of Investigation found equally awful conditions back in March, prompting DHS to commit to fuzzy improvements. Additionally, Stringer found that the administration failed to ensure that families got services, paid for by taxpayers, that are supposedly designed to help them find permanent housing. Although de Blasio identified homelessness as a priority, the report makes clear that no one in City Hall exercised basic management oversight.The DHS assigned a grand total of 14 workers to the monumental task of overseeing the well-being of 12,000 families living in more than 150 apartment buildings, hotels and other quarters. Did the mayor not notice such a paltry staff deployment? Was City Hall’s management chief, Deputy Mayor Tony Shorris, on the case at all? Did it escape both men that DHS Commissioner Gilbert Taylor, let go last week, was relying on shelter operators for assurances that all was a-OK at hell-hole $3,200-a-night digs? Stringer’s auditors inspected 101 randomly chosen shelter households. They found rats, roaches or other vermin in more than half. They found children living in fire-damaged quarters. They found broken faucets and showers, and a toilet that remained kaput after repeated flagging for repair.
Despite the Silver and Skelos Trials the Times and the Rest of the Media Still Covering-Up the Effects of the 421-a Program
Time to end a hugetax break for wealthy property owners (NYDN Ed) * City was shortchanged on affordable housing: report (NYP) * De Blasio admin is touting 'affordable' apartments forseveral hundred dollars more than market rate: (DNAINFO) * Landlord trying to swap renters for ‘rich, white tenants': suit (NYP) * SWEATING IT OUT: Brownsville tenants live without hot water and electricity (NYDN) * Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Gets Its Turn(NYT) * * Anti-Gentrification Fliers Plastered Throughout Stuyvesant Heights in Bed Stuy (Brownstone) * mortgage loans denied at higher rates to blacks and hispanics in NYC than to whites (DNAIFNO) * De Blasio's plan to extend tax break for developers would cost city $2.7 BILLION: report (NYDN) De Blasio and Conservative Party make unlikely team in property-tax fight (NYP) The debate over a $1 billion New York City property tax abatement program has created the strangest political bedfellows of them all — the state Conservative party and the city’s progressive mayor. Conservative Party chairman Mike Long on Thursday praised Mayor de Blasio for opposing the inclusion of “prevailing wages” for construction workers as part of a 421-a tax abatement program to spur developers to build more affordable housing.
Landlords Accused Of Trashing Apartments Arrested (WCBS) An alleged Brooklyn slumlord and his brother were arrested Thursday morning, accused of creating appalling and squalid conditions for tenants * Exemption Gives Rich People Obscene Real Estate Tax Breaks (Gothamist) * The 1% Get A New Park Avenue High Rise And Tax Cuts While Homeless Suffer From Budget Cuts Brooklyn Boom Squeezes Buyers Pushing Into Crown Heights *NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio on Developers' Tax Break: 'Mend It or End It' * New York State Politicians Are Still For Sale(Gawker)* * Developers using loophole to funnel donations to Cuomo (RealDeal) Glenwood, Extell and others contributing money to governor via LLCs, report shows * Governor Cuomo’s top real estate donor is Glenwood Management, with $800,000 contributed through 19 LLCs, according to ProPublica * "Progressive" Gentrification: One Community'sStruggle Against Affordable Housing * Developers of three new projects paid lobbyists $3M in 2014 (Real Deal) * New Yorkers spend nearly 60% of income on rent: study (NYP) * * In Mayoral Race,Attacking Real Estate Industry but Taking Its Cash (NYT) * Bill de Blasio, Friend of Real-Estate Developers? - The New Yorker * EmptiestCo-ops and Condos. In Manh, more 421-a units owned by nonprimary than primaryresidents!!!! *Bharara probing tax deals given to luxury condo building(NYP) * Pampering the rich:Luxury apartments get 421-a tax breaks and rent protection (NYDN)
NYT Has Written About the Fears of the 421-a Tax Breaks But It Will Just Not Connect the Dots to Silver Who Took Millions to Pass The Harmful Program
Both Cuomo and de Blasio While Bashing Each Other Did A 421-a Gaffe
Even de Blasio Has Called the 421-a A Give-A-Way to Developers But Is Still Trying to Move Developers Into East NY
After meeting with legislative leaders and the governor in Albany Albany won't mend it, let's end it," @BilldeBlasio says of 421-a. * .@BilldeBlasio for 1st time calling for 421a to end altogether if he doesn't get changes he wants. "End those tax breaks once and for all" * .@BilldeBlasio says $100 million condo got a tax break. "Not anymore, brothers and sisters." * State lawmakers must end tax breaks for housing developers if they won’t amend it: Bill de Blasio
Political gaffe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
de Blasio Admits Market Forces Causing Homelessness . . . Cuomo Extends War With Cuomo to Affordable Housing
One of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s signature initiatives hit an obstacle when Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration curbed a financial resource critical to building low-income housing, The Wall Street Journal reports: * The Times writes that Cuomo and de Blasio need to set their unresolvable issues aside and that Cuomo should respond to the mayor’s affordable housing plan with a similar or bigger commitment that delivers the support New Yorkers need: * One of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s signature initiatives hit an obstacle this week, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration curbed a financial resource critical to building low-income housing.
de Blasio: "The market dynamics are forcing people out faster than all of our tools can compensate.”
One of New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s signature initiatives hit an obstacle when Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration curbed a financial resource critical to building low-income housing, The Wall Street Journal reports: * The Times writes that Cuomo and de Blasio need to set their unresolvable issues aside and that Cuomo should respond to the mayor’s affordable housing plan with a similar or bigger commitment that delivers the support New Yorkers need: * One of NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio’s signature initiatives hit an obstacle this week, when Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration curbed a financial resource critical to building low-income housing.
de Blasio: "The market dynamics are forcing people out faster than all of our tools can compensate.”
Bill’s de Blasio'shomelessness crisis (NYDN ED) Bill de Blasio came into office with a single-minded solution for homelessness: shut down dirty, dangerous shelters and use the savings to secure permanent housing. After The New York Times documented the harsh life of a young girl in a fetid city-run shelter, the then-mayor elect said: “We cannot let children of this city like Dasani down.” Now America ’s champion of progressives is reckoning with breaking that vow. Meeting with the Daily News Editorial Board on Thursday, de Blasio made the extraordinary admission that he cannot keep up with the tide of people seeking housing assistance: “What we’re having a hell of a time with is. * New York City is planning to add more housing for homeless adults and children fleeing domestic violence, the latest effort by de Blasio’s administration to deal with a homelessness problem that has persisted as housing costs in the city have continued to soar. One Exception the Hotel Unions NYC Mayor de Blasio defended his administration’s four-month-old law curtailing hotel conversions into residential space amid a legal battle with the powerful Real Estate Board of New York. “We obviously think the bill was appropriate,” the mayor said. * With two key rezoning efforts in De Blasio’s affordable housing plan facing opposition from many of the city’s community boards, the Daily News’ Juan Gonzalez writes that the mayor should consider taking control of the Battery Park City Authority from the state to increase funding for affordable housing: * Construction of 55 teeny-tiny micro-apartments – an experiment approved by former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg as a potential solution to the city’s housing crisis – is nearly complete, with 60,000 people applying for one of the 14 “affordable” units.
Only 3,000 of De Blasio's 20,000 Affordable Housing UnitsAre Permanent via @Dnainfo * Just months after Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration argued that hiring union workers would undermine the mayor’s affordable housing plan, Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James announced a plan to partner with organized labor, the Observer writes: * Politico New York hasmapped the more than 3,000 affordable housing units being built in 2015 as part of New York City ’s voluntary Inclusionary Housing Program: * Four Reasons You Can’t Stop the Brooklyn Juggernaut - Commercial Real Estate * In a clash with their landlord, these apartment tenantsstarted making covert recordings. (NYT) Residents of rent-stabilized units in an East Village Manhattan ’s Pier 40 by authorizing a five-building housing development, the Daily News reports * Unions Slam de Blasio-Backed Affordable Housing WithStolen Wage Report (NYO) * Nearly half of the affordable apartment tenants in a new survey say they're spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent, a level considered “rent-burdened,” and 14 percent say more than 50 percent of their income goes to rent, the Daily News writes: * Survey shows some NYC affordable housing tenants still pay high rent * In another apparent dispute between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, the governor has threatened to cancel funding for federal tax-exempt bonds that would finance the mayor’s affordable housing plan
Airbnb Pay More Taxes But the Gentrification Damage is Done On Hoteling Not Home Sharing
Will the Council Duck the Affordable Housing Gentrification Problem?
Airbnb vows to partner with cities, pay more taxes (NYP) ALBANY — After years of defying and vexing governments from New York to Berlin, Airbnb is taking a more cooperative stance and promising to “partner with cities” and pay taxes....* New York to Berlin , Airbnb is taking a more cooperative stance and promising to “partner with cities” and pay taxes.* Tax-Subsidized Tenants Caught Renting Out Luxury Queens ApartmentsOn Airbnb (CBS)
Will the Council Duck the Affordable Housing Gentrification Problem?
New Yorkers Needed A Poll to Be Taken For de Blasio and Bratton to See the Homeless Mess
Mayor de Blasio’s still in denial on the city’s homeless mess (NYP ED) Mayor de Blasio declared Friday that the real mistake was that City Hall “did not explain to people well enough what we were doing to address homelessness.” This, the day after Police Commissioner Bill Bratton’s stunning statement that the administration fell down by “not validating what we all were seeing.” “For a period of time,” Bratton said, the administration wasn’t “admitting what everybody was seeing and feeling, including myself, in my neighborhood.” In truth, both men this summer downplayed what was happening in front of everyone’s eyes and — ahem — noses. When The Post’s reporting on quality-of-life woes exposed outrageous violations by vagrants this summer, the mayor declared we were “well-known for fear-mongering.” In August, he insisted, “We’ve had a reduction in street homelessness” — pointing to a one-night survey done four months before on one of the coldest evenings of the year. Bratton wasn’t a whole lot better. His reaction to Post photos of John Tucker urinating in the middle of a West Side street? “He’s an extremely emotionally disturbed individual . . . and so all the attention is actually exacerbating his condition.” Once polls showed the public was seeing just what The Post was reporting, the mayor had a spokeswoman “explain” that the rise began in the Bloomberg years.
* Despite de Blasio's moves to more than double funding for unsheltered homeless people, that might not be enough as the population appears to be growing faster than the city's efforts to address its needs, Politico NewYork reports:
Silver Took Pay to Play Money to Pass 421-a Has Pushed New Yorkers Out of Their Homes created Homeless
Testimony zeroes in on Silver’s financial disclosure forms (PoliticoNY) The government introduced into evidence audio recordings between Silver and various political reporters, including the New York Post’s Fred Dicker, Capital Tonight’s Liz Benjamin and POLITICO New York’s Jimmy Vielkind, that included nearly identical statements by Silver regarding the nature of his outside legal work and the type of clients he represented. “My clients are little people who have nothing to do with the political life,” Silver stated in one interview from 2008. The recordings seemed to contradict what Silver is alleged to have done. A number of witnesses thus far have testified about Silver’s referral arrangement with the real estate law firm Goldman & Iryami, which worked to reduce the taxes some of the biggest real estate firms in the state paid to New York City . * The Daily News writes that former Assembly Speaker SheldonSilver’s trial has shown his once-routine description of his legal work contained “not a shred of truth,” and instead he bagged referral fees by directing state funds to a doctor:* Lawyers for a man who was speaker for 20 years think it'sunfair to associate their client with Albany. (WSJ)* Jurors in Sheldon Silver's corruption trial hear 2008 interview of him ...Opinion-Newsday
Homeless What is the Cause of the Historic Increase?
105,000 HOMELESS NYC STUDENTS...(NYP) * NYC homeless population reaches historically tragic number (NYP) The number of homeless people in city shelters has exceeded 60,000 for the first time in history, official data revealed Wednesday. There are now 60,017 individuals being put up by the city — 36,463 adults and 23,554 children — according to the Department of Homeless Services’ “daily report” posted on its Web site.* 60,000-person question: At what point does Bill de Blasio reassess his failing approach tohomelessness? (NYDN Ed) Seen through the mayor’s distorting ideological lens, the fact that a record 60,017 men, women and children went to bed in city homeless shelters Tuesday night shows both that New York wouldn’t dare deprive those who seek living quarters a place in this city and furthermore prevented even greater numbers from streaming in. He implicitly rationalizes as inevitable a steady upward swell into shelters, as escalating rents and a crush of population growth sets whole swaths of low-income New York adrift, unable to afford housing. Will de Blasio similarly stay the course if and when the number of people living in homeless shelters — many merely hotel rooms without kitchens — hits 70,000? 80,000? More? Coherence and consultation would be far preferable to de Blasio’s mad scramble, which started with the wrong assumption that shelters would shrink and then resorted to hotels as a quick fix. But the goal should be to build fewer. The mayor must accept, as agonizing as it is, that families living doubled up with others will have to find, with the city’s help, solutions other than shelter.
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