FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 • THE QUEENS COURIER 21
Hochul announces Ida relief aid for undocumented immigrants
BY JULIA MORO
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a $27
million relief fund for excluded workers
aft er Hurricane Ida took the lives of
13 people and left many properties in
Queens destroyed.
Th is relief comes in an eff ort 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 battlefi eld. We fi nd
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.
“Th at is powerful. Th at’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 nonprofi ts 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.
Th is 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
m u s e u m
today to
a n n o u n c e
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.
“Th e destruction that Ida had caused
here in Queens has been devastating,”
Meng said. “Th e 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 sucker-punched during this
storm really impacted communities,”
Richards said.
The borough president shared
his experience representing the
Rockaways as a council member after
Hurricane Sandy, where he said it took
nearly two months before government
officials visited his community.
“We had boots on the ground within
the first week after Ida, and that’s
based on the leadership of our governor,”
Richards said. “What differentiates
Sandy from this crisis, is that we
actually have leadership that stepped
up.”
This fund follows another excluded
workers relief program, which allocated
$2.1 billion for undocumented
immigrantsto help them recover from
the COVID-19 pandemic. Many were
ineligible to collect unemployment or
federal stimulus checks.
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.
Borough president holds town hall in Astoria
BY JULIA MORO
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
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.
Th is was the fi rst 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
Offi ce 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.
“Th e bill we’re talking about now,
would for the fi rst 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 effi cient and eff ective
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.
Th e Queens Borough Commissioner
of DOT, Nicole Garcia, clarifi ed 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.”
Representatives from DOT said they
had staggered the lights in that area to
prevent a fl ow of traffi c crossing lanes in
the short distance. DOT also said they
could conduct another study to survey the
area, which typically takes three months.
Photo by Julia Moro
Queens Borough President Donovan Richards
hosts town hall to hear from western Queens
residents.
Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Governor Kathy Hochul speaks to the media.
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