Public housing advocates press Cuomo for funds
BY MARK HALLUM
Activists – and Council
Speaker Corey Johnson
– are making demands
from Albany after Governor
Andrew Cuomo left additional
funding for public housing in the
2021 fiscal year budget release
last week.
With Legal Aid Society taking
the lead, demands from Cuomo
range from $3 billion in public
housing funds, $500 million for
rental vouchers to 20,000 new
units of supportive housing for
New Yorkers across the state.
Cuomo, in his executive budget
address, simply reallocates up to
$350 million from previous budgets
meant to fund infrastructure
upgrades.
“It is extremely disappointing
that Governor Andrew Cuomo
failed to include sufficient funding
in his Executive Budget to
combat the serious housing
problems New Yorkers currently
face,” Judith Goldiner, Attorneyin
Charge of the Civil Law
Reform Unit at LAS, said. “New
Yorkers need a budget that fully
funds NYCHA, invests in rent
support vouchers such as Home
Stability Support, and prioritizes
the immediate construction of
WIKIMEDIA C NYCHA buildings. OMMONS/JIM HENDERSON
20,000 units of supportive
housings. Our clients and others
cannot wait another budget cycle.
We need these measures passed
this session.”
According to NYU’s Furman
Center, NYCHA needs upwards
of $31.8 billion, or about
$180,700 per unit, over the next
five years to replace failing building
systems. NYCHA would need
in the ballpark of $45.2 billion
over the next 20 years.
“A lot of the programs that
we have right now do not really
solve the issue, but rather maintain
it,” Clayton Roulhac-Carr,
from VOCAL-NY, said. “We
need permanent housing that is
truly affordable for people living
in the street, that means supportive
housing and a voucher
program to humanize people
instead of showing them as a
problem.”
Johnson held a press conference
last week that recommended
the city increase funding for
housing vouchers to end the current
homeless crisis and prevent
future crises in the near future.
This, he said, would be a cheaper
and more effective alternative to
creating homeless shelters.
“Our city is in the midst of a
housing crisis, and we need the
State to do its part. Our public
housing system is crumbling and
desperately needs more funding.
We also need serious investments
in rent vouchers to get people
experiencing homelessness
into permanent housing,” said
Johnson.
What new funding did Cuomo
allocate in the budget in regard to
housing vouchers and homeless
support?
On Jan. 29, the governor said
$128 million for the Homeless
Housing Assistance Program,
which creates units for those
living on the street, and an additional
$5 million for supportive
housing for veterans.
“While local governments and
the feds have the financial obligation
to make these investments, no
Governor has done more to invest
in housing and homelessness: with
an unprecedented $650 million
for NYCHA, $20 billion to build
more than 100,000 affordable
homes and 6,000 new units of
supportive housing, and this budget
doubles the investment for the
Homeless Housing and Assistance
Program to $128 million,” Caitlin
Girouard, Press Secretary for
Governor Cuomo, said. “If there
are other real proposals, we will
of course review them, but New
Yorkers can spot a politician looking
for a headline a mile away.”
This $133 million is part of
Cuomo’s five-year plan to combat
homelessness which he said
would be funded by $20 billion.
Grassroots group trains subway riders to be cop watchers
BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
As New Yorkers prepare for an
influx of 500 MTA officers in the
subways, a band of activists are
protesting the increased police presence
not with posters, but with pamphlets.
With canary yellow booklets in hand,
members of the Justice Committee took
to the subways over the weekend to teach
riders how to safely document police activity,
or cop watch.
“Anyone can cop watch,” said Yul-san
Liem, Co-Director of the Justice Committee.
Liem was one of the 31 activists that
spoke to subway riders on how they are
legally able to film police officers with their
cell phones and should film, jot down notes
or just pay attention to a police interaction
to help deter violence. “We want these
MTA officers to know that we are watching
them,” said Liem.
Last June, Governor Andrew Cuomo
announced that he would send 200 NYPD
Member of the Justice Committee educate subway riders on how the
importance of watching the police.
officers and 300 MTA police and peace
officers into the city’s subways system to
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE JUSTICE COMMITTEE
combat issues like fair evasion, assaults
and homelessness. The additional 500
unformed officers will be stationed at
stops were fair evasion is common and
where bus and subway workers have
been attacked, according to Politico.
Both Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bill
de Blasio justified the increased in order
to maintain safety in the subways despite
little evidence to show that there has been
an drastic increase in crime.
Since the announcement, advocacy
groups have argued that the increased
police presence will hinder not help the
state of the subway system. Instead, some
argue, that in order to deter crime and deal
with the homeless the state should lower
the price of subway tickets and invest more
money in tending the city’s homeless.
Some, like the Justice Committee and
Riders Alliance, argue that the plan will
further target young people of color. The
most recent public pushback was a protest
at Grand Central Station, where 500
young New Yorkers stormed the terminal
calling on free transit in place of more
police.
22 February 6, 2020 Schneps Media