16 THE QUEENS COURIER • DECEMBER 1, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com Gov. Cuomo to allocate $771 million to city’s affordable housing fund to help battle homeless crisis BY ANGELA MATUA [email protected] @AngelaMatua A recent study found that many Queens residents in several neighborhoods are rent-burdened and have inadequate emergency savings. The Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development (ANHD) released a study titled “How is Economic Opportunity Threatened in Your Neighborhood? 2016” that broke down several key factors that hinder economic development in neighborhoods across the city. One factor includes the percentage of rent burdened households. Rent-burdened is defi ned by the Department of Housing and Urban Development as spending more than 30 percent of household income on rent. The study found that 62 percent of households in Elmhurst and Corona are rent-burdened, the largest percentage of the 25 Queens neighborhoods included in the study. Jamaica and Hollis came in second with 60 percent of households considered rentburdened. Jackson Heights (60 percent), South Ozone Park and Howard Beach (58 percent) and Sunnyside “Homelessness is exploding and affordable housing is all but disappearing. New York City needs this help from the state, which will provide thousands of units of safe, clean, affordable housing and will help alleviate this crisis.” ANDREW CUOMO Governor and Woodside (57 percent) also had a high percentage of households that are considered rent burdened. According to ANHD’s fi ndings, many people also do not have inadequate emergency savings. “Without suffi cient emergency savings that cover at least three months’ worth of household expenses, families are at risk of eviction, foreclosure and damaged credit,” the study found. In Elmhurst and Corona, 64 percent of people do not have enough savings to cover at least three months of household expenses. Rockaway and Broad Channel also have a high percentage of people without adequate emergency savings, with 60 percent of people identifying with this factor. Other factors that hinder a community’s economic opportunity include internet access, with a total of 20 percent of New York City households lacking internet access. Some Queens neighborhoods, including Jackson Heights (21 percent), Flushing and Whitestone (23 percent) and Rockaway and Broad Channel (24 percent) have disproportionately less access than other neighborhoods. In the study, ANHD said, “Community groups, residents, stakeholders, offi cials and policymakers can use the information captured in this chart to see what challenges and opportunities their neighborhood economy faces.” Last month, Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks visited the Queens Borough President to update offi - cials on the state of homelessness in the borough. The number of homeless people in the New York City shelter system has now reached about 60,000 men, women and children, according to Banks. This number represents a 115 percent increase since 1994. About 8,500 homeless people occupy 3,000 units in Queens. Banks said he attributes this rise to the lack of rental assistance programs in the city between 2011 and 2014. When he took over HRA and DHS, the administration reinstated these programs and increased funding for legal assistance and rent arrears from $6.4 million to $62 million. As a result, marshal evictions in the city are down 24 percent. Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons/Paul Sableman A study found that residents several Queens neighborhoods including Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and Corona are rent-burdened. BY ANTHONY GIUDICE [email protected] @A_GiudiceReport As New York City continues to try to and fi nd a solution to the skyrocketing number of homeless people, it’s getting some much-needed support from Albany. Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state has allocated $771 million in tax-exempt bond capacity to the city, which will be used for the construction and preservation of affordable housing. These bonds are estimated to produce approximately 6,000 units of housing across New York City. “The state is investing a signifi cant amount of housing resources in New York City because they face a unique challenge,” Cuomo said. “Homelessness is exploding and affordable housing is all but disappearing. New York City needs this help from the state, which will provide thousands of units of safe, clean, affordable housing and will help alleviate this crisis.” According to Cuomo, this year’s fi nancing is one of the highest allocated to New York City in a decade, $80 million more than last year, and nearly $150 million above the average of the last 10 years. While the state is spending over $770 million to help with the city’s homelessness crisis, Mayor Bill de Blasio has spent $1.6 billion over his nearly three years at Gracie Mansion, just to see the number of homeless New Yorkers climb to historic highs. The Wall Street Journal recently released a report on the audit conducted by City Comptroller Scott Stringer, and state Senator Joseph Addabbo is calling on de Blasio to be more transparent on where the taxpayers’ money is going. “With such an extravagant price tag coming at the cost of hardworking taxpayers, we deserve more openness and honesty about how this $1.6 billion is being used. Unfortunately, this administration has been the opposite of transparent,” Addabbo said. “After pledging earlier this year to put an end to the hotel shelter policy, our mayor has instead continued to increase the number of hotels operating as homeless sites throughout the city. Each time a new location is slated to be used inappropriately for homeless individuals, we hear about it through the rumor mill instead of Mayor de Blasio taking the time to notify either the public or their elected representatives.” One hotel site that the mayor transformed into a homeless shelter is the Holiday Inn Express located on 55th Road in Maspeth, which has seen strong community opposition since being announced in August. The senator called on de Blasio to start looking at more long-term solutions to the city’s homelessness crisis, rather than storing them away in hotel rooms. “By now, Mayor de Blasio should have realized that the increasing amount of money spent on the homeless issue and the policy of using hotels as shelters does not work. Not only is an enormous amount of taxpayer dollars being spent fi ghting this issue without any transparency to the public, but the policies this administration is choosing to allocate the funds on are failing and are not resulting in long-term solutions,” Addabbo said. The state senator suggested that the city and state consider “more viable alternatives” including rental assistance to those New Yorkers in jeopardy of losing their homes. He also called for the de Blasio administration to be more forthcoming about how the city is using funding for homeless services. “It is time for Mayor de Blasio to change his ways and realize once and for all that shutting out the community and their elected offi cials is not acceptable,” Addabbo concluded. “We deserve to know how this money is being spent.” Photo via Twitter/@NYGovCuomo Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the State will allocated $771 million for affordable housing to battle city’s homeless crisis. Study: Many Queens households on the brink of homelessness
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