We believe this is an urgent, one-time opportunity for the state to create a public-benefit corporation with the potential to access the full capital funding NYCHA needs to address its $40 billion backlog in infrastructural repairs and restore decent conditions to all of New York City’s public housing residents.
The choice is simple: We can spend our public money on maintaining homelessness through thousands more street sweeps, or we can spend our public money on housing and social supports.
Two years since the the beginning of the pandemic and an economic recession that disproportionately impacted low-income Black and brown residents, Governor Hochul and the State Legislature last Friday announced a budget agreement that advances important investments.
As New York City continues its recovery process, CSS housing analyst Oksana Mironova provides seven recommendations to the NYC Council Committee on Housing and Buildings.
Before the pandemic, evictions were a major contributor to instability in low-income neighborhoods of color. Over the past few years, we have found a correlation between neighborhoods with a high share of black or Latinx renters and evictions, controlling for poverty levels.
The pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing racial and class inequalities in our city. Today, nearly 220,000 renter households have been sued for eviction in housing court.
As New York City continues its recovery process, we provide the following recommendations to stabilize the lives of low-income New Yorkers.
Good Cause eviction protections strengthen not only individual tenants, but entire communities. They provide tenants with a baseline ability to plan their lives, have some housing stability, and live secure in the knowledge that they will not be arbitrarily driven from their homes.
According to our 2021 Unheard Third survey—the longest running scientific survey of low-income communities in the nation— 41 percent of low-income respondents lost employment income in their household during the pandemic, compared to 29 percent of those with moderate to higher incomes. Today, nearly 92,000 people across the state are homeless.