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Hochul announces $27 million in Hurricane
Ida relief aid for undocumented immigrants
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | OCT. 1 - OCT. 7, 2021 15
BY JULIA MORO
Queens Borough President Donovan
Richards held a town hall on Wednesday,
Sept. 22, at the Boys and Girls Club in
Astoria to address issues impacting the
residents of northwest Queens.
This was the first town hall in a series
of meetings to address regional
issues around the borough. Richards
invited the Department of Transportation
(DOT), Parks and Recreation, Federal
Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA), New York City Housing Authority
(NYCHA) and others to update
the community on projects or support
services available to them.
Brian Honan, the vice president of
the Office of Intergovernmental Relations
in NYCHA, alerted the community
to the $1.2 trillion American Jobs Plan
that would allocate $80 billion for public
housing.
Honan said this money would be instrumental
in updating their buildings.
“The bill we’re talking about now,
would for the first time in the history
of NYCHA, get us comprehensive rehabilitation,”
Honan said. “Getting inside
people’s apartments, replacing their
kitchens and bathrooms and upgrading
their apartments.”
Richards added that this bill would
also give boroughs an individual allocation
and require transparent reporting
of money spent.
“We will know how NYCHA is spending
our money, and how efficient and effective
that money is being spent,” Richards
said.
Residents were able to ask questions
for the borough president or city agency
representatives, which mainly focused
on quality-of-life issues.
One resident asked about DOT’s citywide
proposal to remove sidewalk cafe
regulations in order to continue expanded
outdoor dining.
The Queens Borough Commissioner
of DOT, Nicole Garcia, clarified that the
agency is going around to every community
board meeting to present the plan
and include the local governments in
this transition.
Another question was directed at
Garcia regarding staggered lights at the
exit of Grand Central Parkways toward
the entrance of the RFK bridge.
“When we come off the Grand Central,
there are people that are crisscrossing
at the same time,” one resident said.
“It’s so dangerous.”
A DOT representatives said they had
staggered the lights in that area to prevent
a flow of traffic crossing lanes.
The rep also said they could conduct
another study to survey the area, which
typically takes three months.
BY JULIA MORO
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced
a $27 million relief
fund for excluded workers after
Hurricane Ida took the lives of
13 people and left many properties
in Queens destroyed.
This relief comes in an effort
to reach many immigrant
families who were ineligible
for funds through the Federal
Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) unless there was a
documented child in the family.
“I realized these people are
looking to us to help them rebuild
their lives and we were
going to have to say, ‘Sorry,
you don’t qualify’? No,” Hochul
said. “We’re at war with Mother
Nature and we don’t leave
anyone on the battlefield. We
find out a way to help them regain
some sort of semblance of
their past life and tell them we
care about them, we believe in
them and we love them.”
Applications opened Sept.
27, with up to $72,000 available
for New Yorkers.
“That is powerful. That’s
how we start letting people
know they matter in the state of
New York,” Hochul said.
To get funds out the door as
quickly as possible, the state is
partnering with local nonprofits
to assist. In Queens, there
will be two sites to help people
apply for relief: MinKwon Center
for Community Action at
133-29 41st Ave. Suite 202 in
Flushing and Make the Road at
92-10 Roosevelt Ave. in Jackson
Heights.
This program drew funds
from both the city and state:
$20 million from the state’s
emergency appropriations and
$7 million from the city of New
York.
Hochul gathered with
many local representatives at
the Queens museum today to
announce the new program.
The Queens representatives
thanked Hochul for leading
with compassion, unlike past
administrations.
Congresswoman Grace
Meng said she had been to funerals
and watched her constituents
struggle to recover what
had been lost during the storm.
“The destruction that Ida
had caused here in Queens
has been devastating,” Meng
said. “The federal government,
the previous administration,
was not compassionate
and didn’t provide
the necessary help. Our government
has to be there for
everyone, regardless of their
immigration status.”
Assembly member Catalina
Cruz thanked the governor for
supporting and showing concern
for the New Yorkers who
can’t even vote for her.
“What you’re doing today is
helping change the lives of people
that can’t go to the booth,
and that is commendable,”
Cruz said.
Cruz added how disheartening
it was when she called
FEMA and heard there was no
help for many of her constituents,
almost 40% of whom are
undocumented immigrants.
Cruz invited one of her constituents
to speak about her experience
during the storm. The
woman spent 20 years working
as a house cleaner and paying
her taxes.
“The apartment is unlivable
and I had to leave,” Cruz translated
for the woman, who told
her story in Spanish. “Thank
you, governor, for doing something
for us. All these years I’ve
done my taxes. God is good.”
Queens Borough President
Donovan Richards also
thanked the governor for her
help as his borough keeps getting
hit the hardest crisis after
crisis.
“These are folks who are
just coming out of the pandemic,
trying to get their lives back
in order, and then to be suckerpunched
during this storm really
impacted communities,”
Richards said.
Hochul concluded the announcement
by saying there
is still a lot of work to do but
hopes this rights the wrongs of
the past.
“I believe we’ve changed
people’s hearts and minds
about what a community looks
like in the state of New York,”
Hochul said.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Queens Borough President Donovan
Richards speaks during the town hall.
Photo by Julia Moro
Borough president holds town hall in Astoria
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