24 THE QUEENS COURIER • JANUARY 2, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Van Bramer secures two endorsements for Queens Borough President
BY MAX PARROTT
mparrott@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Two former left wing gubernatorial
candidates — Cynthia Nixon and Zephyr
Teachout — endorsed Long Island City
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer in his
bid for Queens Borough president.
Van Bramer was a supporter of both
Nixon and Teachout in their respective
campaigns for Governor and
Attorney General in 2018. Teachout, an
electoral reform advocate and professor
at Fordham Law School, also ran
against Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the
2014 Democratic primary and against
Republican Rep. John Faso for the congressional
seat spanning the Hudson
Valley and the Catskills in 2016.
Van Bramer met Nixon, the political
activist and “Sex and the City” star, in
her advocacy work with the Alliance For
Quality Education. His connection with
Nixon goes back to organizing he did
with her wife Christine Marinoni with
the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization
in the 90s.
Teachout and Nixon respectively lost
their primary battles in 2018.
“We need real progressives like Jimmy
Van Bramer willing to fi ght back against
billion dollar corporations and put people
fi rst. We don’t need more party politicians
beholden to big real estate,” said
Teachout.
Van Bramer has touted his progressive
credentials in his campaign for the borough
wide offi ce. He has made it a point
to reject real estate money and defend his
role in fi ghting against the city and state’s
plan to provide $3 billion in subsidies for
Amazon’s HQ2 site.
“Over two decades ago Jimmy Van
Bramer was one of the organizers who
won ground-breaking campaign fi nance
reform for NYC, opening the door for
a new era of progressive politics in the
city,” said Nixon. “He himself then took
on the Queens machine to win his seat in
the City Council. Whether bringing people
together to defend immigrant communities,
fi ghting for funding for our
precious public libraries, safer streets or
the MTA, or standing up against Trump’s
hateful rhetoric and policies, Jimmy is a
champion for the people.”
De Blasio administration unveils new approach addressing street homeless
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced he
would be unveiling a new approach to
helping homeless New Yorkers who are on
the street long-term.
Th e plan includes 1,000 “safe haven”
beds and an equal number of new low-barrier
housing for the estimated 3,600 people
living on the streets and subways.
De Blasio claimed that 95 percent of
the city’s homeless are currently in shelters.
A breakdown of city Department of
Homeless Services numbers by Coalition
for the Homeless, an advocacy group,
place the total homeless population at
62,435, as of September.
Th e U. S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development placed the estimate
at 78,604, according to a Wall Street
Journal report from October.
According to a mayoral spokesman,
these numbers are based on data collected
by DHS.
“Homeless New Yorkers are just like us
— they deserve our love and compassion
and a commitment to go as far as we can to
help,” de Blasio said. “So here’s our promise:
we will help every last person experiencing
long-term homelessness off our
streets and we will do more than we ever
thought possible to bring them home.”
Coalition for the Homeless off ered their
own interpretation of the plan in statement
that only touched on the use of
NYPD to spearhead homeless outreach,
instead calling for police resources to be
levied toward housing resources.
“We are pleased to see Mayor de Blasio
moving toward providing the resources
that homeless individuals on the streets
actually need: permanent housing and
low-threshold shelters. Th is investment is
a critical step toward helping people fi nd
safe and permanent housing,” said Giselle
Routhier, policy director at Coalition for
the Homeless. “Th e increased reliance on
the NYPD to conduct outreach, however,
is counterproductive and misguided. Th e
practice of issuing summonses, surveilling
homeless individuals, and coercing
people to leave the subways with threats
of arrest are inhumane and a misuse of
police offi cers’ time.”
Th e city plans to use medical and behavior
health care on the streets through
#OutreachNYC which will be monitored
by 18,000 employees, according to
the administration, including the Street
Homelessness Joint Command Center.
Th e plan will also incorporate faithbased
organizations.
Th e new approach by the de Blasio
administration follows a November
announcement to fund the eff orts of nonprofi
ts to acquire and rehabilitate 14 residential
buildings, or 200 units, into permanent
aff ordable housing.
According to the city, the housing will
be at former cluster sites, or private housing
paid for by the DHS. Cluster sites have
come under scrutiny over the years for
poor living conditions and Mayor Bill de
Blasio has committed to phasing out their
use by 2021.
In the units, the administration said residents
will have rent-stabilized leases and
regulatory protections.
Photo by Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Offi ce
Mayor Bill de Blasio, HUD Secretary Julian Castro and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito join
scores of volunteers during the early hours of Tuesday, February 9, 2016 to kick-off the Homeless
Outreach Population Estimate (HOPE) to survey the streets of Midtown Manhattan to determine the
city’s homeless population.
Photo courtesy of the New York City Council Flickr
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