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NYCHA Still in the Woods
March 15th, 2010

Today’s announcement of a $400 million infusion to the New York City Housing Authority will get the authority off of critical condition.
nycha

Photo (cc) DaveTheRavingWave (Dave Sanders)


But it isn’t out of the woods yet.

Testifying at a budget hearing just hours after the announcement of a federal funding boost, New York City Housing Authority Chairman John Rhea said the authority still faces a more than $100 million deficit in the current fiscal year.

“While we have made huge strides in addressing our long-term infrastructure needs and moving the authority towards financial health, ultimately reducing our section 8 and public housing operating forecasted deficit from $137 million to $103 million, we still have work to do,” said Rhea.

To close that gap, of which a large part is from the over enrollment of Section 8, the authority has four options, Rhea said, including terminating families from section 8, reducing section 8 payments or getting more funding from either the federal or local governments.

The news soured a more jovial announcement this morning from the Bloomberg administration that 21 NYCHA housing developments, originally built by the city and state after World War II, would become eligible for federal funding. Since these developments were built by the city and state, they never received federal funding, and they gradually stopped receiving city and state subsidies in the 1990s. Through a partnership with Citibank, who will own a stake in the developments, these properties will receive about $400 million in public and private money — the majority of which will go to capital improvements.
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By Courtney Gross on March 15, 2010, 5:58 pm
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Bloomberg Updates Housing Plan
February 22nd, 2010

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is injecting the city’s affordable housing plan with another $1 billion, bringing the total investment to build or preserve 165,000 units of affordable housing up to $8.5 billion.

The updated plan, which was first announced by the administration in 2002, focuses more on preservation than on the creation of affordable housing.

The update was given at the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy’s new Institute for Affordable Housing Policy this morning. The mayor’s prepared remarks are in full after the jump.

For more on the history of plan, see “Affordable Housing Not Included.”

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By Courtney Gross on February 22, 2010, 12:32 pm
In category: City Hall, Community Development, Economy, Gotham City, Governing, Housing, Public Finance, nextNY | No Comments »

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A Night of Counting
January 26th, 2010

Last night thousands of volunteers scoured the city for men, women and children who call the streets home.

It happens every year since 2003, and it’s called the HOPE Street Survey — or the Homeless Outreach Population Estimate. Volunteers for the city’s Department of Homeless Services tour the five boroughs from 11 p.m. until 4 a.m. looking for people living on the streets. The count is supposed to capture an estimate of the city’s homeless population that do not use the shelter system.

Every year, according to the department, the numbers have declined, and since 2005 they have almost been cut in half — from 4,375 to 2,328.

Advocates dispute the study’s findings. Patrick Markee of the Coalition for the Homeless wrote that the survey has “an inherently flawed methodology.” The survey, he continued, fails to count the homeless that are in hard to reach locations and it doesn’t factor in inclement weather.

Last night, for instance, was unseasonably warm.

Either way, we won’t know last night’s results anytime soon. According to the press office at the Department of Homeless Services, the count can take weeks to compile.

For more, listen to this segment from Brian Lehrer this morning.

By Courtney Gross on January 26, 2010, 5:47 pm
In category: City Hall, Demographics, Gotham City, Health, Housing, nextNY | No Comments »

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Musical Chairs
January 19th, 2010

As promised, today starts the seat swapping in the Bloomberg administration.

For the next three weeks, first deputy commissioners will be assigned to another agency in the hopes of breaking down bureaucratic barriers. The idea was integral to the mayor’s inauguration address on New Year’s Day. Some assignments have been done with specific policy proposals in mind, such as the swap between Department of Consumer Affairs and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, who are tasked with focusing on foreclosure prevention.

Here are the assignments:

Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) — DOE
Administrative Justice Coordinator (AJC) — CCPC
Business Integrity Commission (BIC) — DSNY
Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO) –CUNY
City University of New York (CUNY) — CEO
Citywide Events Coordination and Management (CECM) — NYC & Co
Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) — CHR
Commission for the United Nations Consular Corps and Protocol (UN) — MOIA
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) — CCRB
Commission on Women’s Issues (CWI) — MOCDV
Commission to Combat Police Corruption (CCPC) — AJC
Community Affairs Unit (CAU) — CECM
Criminal Justice Coordinator (CJC)– Law
Department for the Aging (DFTA) — MOPD
Department of Buildings (DOB) — NYCHA
Department of City Planning (DCP) — HDC
Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) — SCA
Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) — HPD
Department of Corrections (DOC) — DHS
Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) — EDC
Department of Design and Construction (DDC) — DCLA
Department of Education (DOE) — Parks
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) — DOF
Department of Finance (DOF) — MOO
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DoHMH) — DOC
Department of Homeless Services (DHS) — HHC
Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) — DCA
Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) — MOFTB
Department of Investigation (DOI) — MOCS
Department of Parks and Recreation (Parks) — DEP
Department of Probation (DOP) — ACS
Department of Sanitation (DSNY) — BIC
Department of Small Business Services (SBS) — HRA
Department of Transportation (DOT) — DDC
Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) — DOP
Design Commission (Design) — DOT
Economic Development Corporation (EDC) — SBS
Fire Department* (FDNY) — NYPD*
Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) — CAU
Housing Development Corporation (HDC) — LPC
Human Resources Administration (HRA) — DoHMH
Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) — DOB
Law Department (Law) — DOI
Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD) — DFTA
Mayor’s Office of Contract Services (MOCS) — CJC
Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting (MOFTB) — DoITT
Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) — UN
Mayor’s Office of Operations (MOO) — DCAS
Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs (MOVA) — CWI
Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic Violence (MOCDV) — MOVA
New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) — DCP
NYC & Company (NYC & Co) — DYCD
Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) — TLC
Office of Emergency Management* (OEM) — FDNY*
Office of Labor Relations* (OLR) — OMB*
Office of Management and Budget* (OMB) — OLR*
Police Department* (NYPD) — OEM*
School Construction Authority (SCA) — Design
Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) — OATH

Those with an asterisk are participating in the second phase of the program starting February 1.

By Courtney Gross on January 19, 2010, 2:32 pm
In category: City Hall, Civil Rights, Community Development, Economy, Education, Electoral Politics, Environment, Governing, Housing, Immigrants, Land Use, Law, Measuring UP, Parks, Transportation, Waterfront, nextNY | No Comments »

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De Blasio Takes on Bloomberg on Homelessness
January 19th, 2010

homeless

Take a look at the numbers, and the mayor’s homeless policies just aren’t working.

That was the message Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and homeless advocates sent this morning at a press conference urging the administration to rethink its homeless policies five years after it committed to reduce homelessness by two-thirds. Since the mayor took office, according to Mary Brosnahan of the Coalition for the Homeless, the number of homeless New Yorkers has increased by 45 percent.

“Their original goal was gutsy and noble and I think it took a lot of commitment and focus to even put that goal out,” said de Blasio. “But they did not follow up on it with the same kind of fervor and focus as they have in some other areas. So now acknowledge that the previous strategies have not worked, and borrow from old strategies that did work and create new ones and work with the people that are some of the experts right here next to me,” the newly minted public advocate said from his 15th floor office in the municipal building.

Act one, said de Blasio, should be giving homeless families priority for Section 8 vouchers, which was the practice under the three previous administrations before Bloomberg. The practice was suspended in 2005. The administration should also stop referring homeless individuals to three-quarter houses — small residential buildings that operate as illegal boarding houses, according to the public advocate’s office.

In the council, de Blasio introduced a bill that would have banned the city from referring homeless individuals to facilities that failed to meet occupancy standards.

In a letter to Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Linda Gibbs dated January 18, de Blasio implored the administration to hold homeless services harmless in the upcoming budget negotiations by keeping open shelters slated for closure or by securing replacement facilities before their doors are locked. De Blasio also urged the administration to focus more on prevention.

This latest dispute is one of many more likely to come with de Blasio as public advocate.

By Courtney Gross on January 19, 2010, 2:03 pm
In category: City Hall, Civil Rights, Community Development, Crime & Safety, Economy, Electoral Politics, Gotham City, Housing, Public Finance, Social Services, nextNY | No Comments »

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Signature Theatre Finds a Home
December 22nd, 2009

theater

After years of struggling to get on stage somewhere near Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan, the Signature Theatre Company has found a home in Hell’s Kitchen just mere blocks from Broadway, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and members of the company announced this morning.

On the still-cement ground floor of a building under construction on 10th Avenue, stars (yes, Maggie Gyllenhaal was spotted!) officials and theater-lovers gathered to unveil the company’s new address — to be known as the Signature Center. The theater, which will have an interior designed by the architect Frank Gehry, will be just one part of the building developed by the Related Companies. The entire 59-story structure will also include a 800 new housing units, 160 of which will are for low-income families, and it comes with a $800 price tag.

The company’s space will be comprised of three distinct theaters, rehearsal studios, a cafe, bookstore and administrative offices.

Following September 11, 2001, the company planned to relocate to a Gehry-designed building in Lower Manhattan at the site of the Ground Zero reconstruction. They were slated to also share the space with the Joyce Theater. But in 2007, the company accepted an offer to relocate — with the city’s help — because the shared space proposal proved to be cost prohibitive.

The city is contributing $25 million to the theater’s construction.

Today, donning a hard hat and nearly drowned out by the sounds of construction workers hammering and drilling overhead, Bloomberg dipped his hands in cement to solidify the announcement. And then the crowd applauded (though there was no standing ovation).

“Theater makers leave only three things behind: legends, play scripts and from time to time, when the economy’s good, landlords get it, when the mayor and City Council support it, buildings,” said Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Tony Kushner, whose works will comprise the company’s 2010-11 season.

The theater is slated to open in 2012.

By Courtney Gross on December 22, 2009, 2:15 pm
In category: Arts, City Hall, Economy, Electoral Politics, Gotham City, Housing, Land Use, Public Finance, Social Services, nextNY | No Comments »

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Conventional Wisdom
November 5th, 2009

After predicting for months that Mayor Michael Bloomberg was invincible and would win by a double-digit margin, the pundits now offer their explanation for why the mayor did so much worse on Tuesday than they had anticipated. A consensus seems to have emerged: People were furious about term limits, the angry voters went to the polls in disproportionate numbers, and the mayor’s supporter were complacent.

“There are only two plausible possibilities for the depressed Bloomberg turnout: over-confidence or protest,” Joyce Purnick wrote on Huffington Post. “And it was probably both. With most polls predicting he would win by double digits, some of the mayor’s supporters must have assumed he did not need their votes. Others clearly were turned off by his over-the-top spending, especially in a bad economy, and the mayor’s self-interested push to change the term limits law.”

Undoubtedly that played a substantial role, as did a campaign that many saw as mean-spirited (very much politics as usual). But as an issue-oriented publication (and one that has examined the Bloomberg Record in a number of key areas), can we offer another explanation for at least part of the non-Bloomberg vote? Some New Yorkers may not like what the mayor has done on the issues. The commentators generally have either not addressed that or, if they have, say people like what Mayor Mike has done. The Times in its post mortem, the Observer’s Azi Paybarah pointed out, did not even mention taxes or the economy.

City council and parts of the press offer a kind of hallelujah choir for the mayor. But that does not mean all New Yorkers are singing.
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By Gail Robinson on November 5, 2009, 2:57 pm
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The Last Showdown
October 27th, 2009

The second — and final debate — between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Comptroller Bill Thompson featured a number of sharp exchanges between the two men, few flashes of affability or humor — and no lightening round. As Thompson struck a tougher stance and offered a more staccato delivery than he had in their last meeting, Bloomberg stepped up his attacks and often seemed miffed.

The substance offered little new. Thompson repeatedly slammed the mayor for driving the middle class out of the city. Bloomberg continued to attack Thompson on his record as president of the now defunct Board of Education.

Closing the Budget Gap

After ignoring the city’s finances the last time around, both candidates tonight pledged not to raise taxes and, with the city facing a $5 billion budget gap, neither offered specifics as to what they would cut.
Details on this and other issues after the jump.
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By Gail Robinson on October 27, 2009, 9:35 pm
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A Blow to Landlords
October 22nd, 2009

Residents of rent-regulated apartments got a rare piece of good news this morning as the state’s highest court ruled that Tishman Speyer and Black Rock Realty improperly raised rents on thousands of apartments in Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village.

The tenants’ good news could spell serious problems for the building owners, though. The decision takes them “closer to defaulting on $3 billion in loans they used to purchase Manhattan’s largest apartment complex,” Bloomberg.com reported.

The property has a current market value of $1.99 billion, according to one estimate. Tishman and Black Rock bought it for $5.4 billion in 2006. That investment has come to look increasingly unwise as the housing market has collapsed, fewer tenants moved out than the owners anticipated and the partnership faced this legal challenge.
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By Gail Robinson on October 22, 2009, 10:34 am
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Counting Vacant Property
October 14th, 2009

City Councilmember Melissa Mark-Viverito has introduced a bill that would require the city take a census to count vacant property every year. The measure also calls for the city to publish information, online and in print, identifying owners of vacant property as well as when the property became vacant.

However, the legislation, Intro 1089, stops short of provisions that housing and homeless advocates have been agitating for, namely creating affordable housing apartments in so-called warehoused properties that would be guaranteed to homeless and low-income New Yorkers.

(Check out this Gotham Gazette article on warehoused property for more information on this issue.)

“I see the vacant building census legislation as an important first step to address the myriad problems that result from vacant properties,” Mark-Viverito, who represents East Harlem, Manhattan Valley and parts of Mott Haven in the Bronx, said. “The collection and publication of this data by the city will lay the groundwork for further action on this issue.”
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By Alex Kane on October 14, 2009, 9:30 pm
In category: Gotham City, Housing | 1 Comment »

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The Eminent Domain State
October 8th, 2009

“New York is perhaps the worst state in the nation when it comes to eminent domain abuse — the forcible acquisition of private property by the government for private development,” according to a new report by the conservative Institute for Justice

The study goes through a litany of examples of what they see as an unfair eminent domain process here. They point out that an area need only be considered in danger of becoming blighted in order to be condemned; describe a byzantine, opaque, and unaccountable hearing process; and focus on the short window of time for property owners to protest at inadequate proceedings.

Nicole Gelinas, at NY Fiscal Watch, adds that the threat of eminent domain can freeze business activity and actually create blight.

Although the report paints a bleak landscape of abuse in the state, it really doesn’t compare New York to other states. Another report by an arm of the Institute for Justice gave New York an ‘F’ – one of eight states to receive the grade – for failing to pass legislation reforming eminent domain.

Hopefully New York can get off that list, writes Damon Root at Reason Magazine. Next week the Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments against the use of eminent domain for the Atlantic Yards proeject. Root says this case is an opportunity for the state “to start reining in these abuses”

By Mike Muller on October 8, 2009, 6:25 pm
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Newtown Creek, Here Comes the EPA
September 24th, 2009

Six months after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency started exploring a Superfund designation for Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, they have launched a second investigation into Newtown Creek.

Today the agency announced it has nominated the creek for the controversial Superfund title, which will kick off a series of public hearings and discussion on the drawbacks and the benefits of being named a Superfund site. Already, several representatives of the area support the designation, including Reps. Anthony D. Weiner and Nydia Velázquez.

We covered the story of Newtown Creek (and other potential superfund sites) here.

In a prepared statement, Weiner said, ““I am pleased to see that while the oil companies lag in their cleanup responsibilities and put the health and safety of Newtown Creek’s residents at further risk, the EPA has decide to take action and hold these companies responsible for their negligence. Newton Creek is the single most polluted waterway in New York City, a legacy left by more than a century of heavy industrial activity.”

Just approximately 5 miles north of the Gowanus, Newtown Creek is the site of the country’s largest coastal oil spill, dating back to the 1950s when the site was the home of a refinery operation by Standard Oil — Exxon Mobil’s predecessor. Still, oil companies line its shores and putrid stenches typically overpower the adjacent neighborhood of Greenpoint.

When a site is designated as a superfund, the federal government officially takes over the cleanup of the area. They hunt down the responsible parties (in this case most likely oil companies) and make them pay for the entire cleanup. Most often, this means years of lawsuits.
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By Courtney Gross on September 24, 2009, 11:09 am
In category: City Hall, Environment, Gotham City, Health, Housing, Parks, Waterfront, nextNY | 1 Comment »

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Taking 'Triangle' to Court
September 10th, 2009

The proposed Brooklyn housing project that had emerged as a major issue in the 34th district’s City Council race is now going to court.

The Daily News reports that the Broadway Triangle Community Coalition, a group opposing the current plan to build affordable housing on a plot in Williamsburg, has filed suit alleging that the proposed homes would “disproportionately accommodate the Hasidic community’s large families.” To support their contention, coalition lawyer Martin Needleman said the buildings have to many three- and four bedroom apartments and are only eight stories high to satisfy the needs of Orthodox Jews who cannot take elevators on the Sabbath.

The city awarded no-bid contracts to develop the property to United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburgh along with the Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council.

As Gotham Gazette reported today the dispute over the project has played a big role in the current council campaign. Brooklyn Democratic party boss Vito Lopez, who founded the Ridgewood Bushwick senior council, has broken with former chief of staff, City Councilmember Diana Reyna, who opposes the project. Lopez is backing Maritza Davila, who works for the senior citizens council, in the closely fought primary. For more, see Housing Project Splits Bushwick District.

By Gail Robinson on September 10, 2009, 3:05 pm
In category: Electoral Politics, Gotham City, Housing | No Comments »

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Pols Stand With "Tent City Ten"
July 24th, 2009

Picture the Homeless and the so-called “Tent City Ten” kept beating the drum on warehoused property and affordable housing this afternoon outside a vacant lot in Harlem.

The event came just 14 hours after 10 housing activists were released from Harlem’s 28th Police Precinct after being arrested for occupying a vacant lot for over 6 hours yesterday. (To read more about that action, see “Homeless Advocates Arrested.”)

Officials and candidates on hand were Councilmember Melissa Mark Viverito, who represents Council District 8 and is seeking re-election; Norman Siegel, the long-time civil rights attorney and current candidate for public advocate; and the Rev. Billy Talen, the Green Party’s mayoral candidate.

If there was a theme for the press conference, it was “take back the land” and “power to the people” — lines that almost every speaker closed with.
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By Alex Kane on July 24, 2009, 5:12 pm
In category: Civil Rights, Gotham City, Housing | 6 Comments »

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Homeless Advocates Arrested (Update)
July 23rd, 2009

Photo by Jaisal Noor

Nine people were arrested this afternoon by the New York Police Department after occupying a vacant lot for over six hours to press their demand that the city use vacant property to house the homeless.

The protestors want the city to help turn so-called warehoused property into livable homes for low-income and homeless New Yorkers. A survey conducted in 2006 by the advocacy group Picture the Homeless found that 24,000 potential apartments could come out of warehoused property, enough to house the city’s homeless population.

This morning, blue tents were erected on a vacant lot at 115th St. between Madison and Fifth Avenues to create makeshift dwellings for the homeless, as dozens of housing advocates created an festive atmosphere with food, music, art and defiant chants.

“They say gentrify, we say occupy,” the crowd shouted.
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By Alex Kane on July 23, 2009, 5:02 pm
In category: Gotham City, Housing | 2 Comments »

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Coney Island Vote Today
July 21st, 2009

<i>From City Planning</i>

From City Planning

The city’s plan to rezone Coney Island could be voted out of committee today at 10:30 a.m.

The City Council is expected to revise the plan, which would then have to go back to the City Planning Commission. If the revisions were approved there, it could be back at the council by the end of the month for a final approval.

The area’s councilmember, Domenic Recchia, is still opposed to the plan. He is specifically against a proposal to designate some of the land (including a parcel owned by developer Joe Sitt) as parkland.

Stay tuned to Gotham Gazette for updates throughout the day.

By Courtney Gross on July 21, 2009, 8:57 am
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Promises Kept and Broken
July 14th, 2009

Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday released a report on how well he has kept, or not kept, his 2005 campaign promises. Not surprisingly he gives himself pretty good grades.

(More surprising might be why this report shows up on the official New York City government site rather than on the campaign site, since whatever the merits of the tally, it is difficult to see it as anything other than a campaign document.)

Of some 100 promises Bloomberg made in 2005, the mayor says 38 are “done” and that he has launched another 55. Only two — expanding the gun court into Manhattan and working with the state “to create a family health plus buy-in program” –are listed as “not done.”

Pretty impressive but, of course, it depends a bit on what the definition of “done” is, as Elizabeth Green makes clear in her analysis of the education promises made and kept.
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By Gail Robinson on July 14, 2009, 12:18 pm
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Cuomo Can Investigate Banks for Discriminatory Lending
July 10th, 2009

New York prosecutors have gotten permission from the US Supreme Court to investigate whether national banks discriminate against people of color when lending. Last week’s ruling does not allow state prosecutors to subpoena the banks, but can take them to court if they think they’re breaking state fair-lending laws.

The case, which spanned two presidential administrations, was brought by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who sought to pick up an investigation started by his predecessor Eliot Spitzer in 2005.

In an interview with Reuters, Spitzer said that regulators lost an opportunity to investigate lending practices that eventually brought the economy to its knees. “We didn’t quite know how much or in what form, but there was much there that was troubling,” Spitzer said. “Obviously, it’s a little late to forestall the cataclysm that emerged when the subprime debt fuse finally exploded.”

“Had Spitzer been able to investigate the banks,” Stephanie Mencimer of Mother Jones chimes in, “he might have put the brakes on some of these practices fully two years before the entire subprime industry collapsed and brought the rest of the economy down with it.”

But the Wall Street Journal editorial board thinks investigations such as this cause more problems than they will solve. “Eliot Spitzer has departed the national stage in ignominy,” they wrote the day after the ruling, “but the damage he did as an unrestrained state Attorney General lives on, notably in a dubious 5-4 victory yesterday before the Supreme Court.”

Still, Errol Louis of the Daily News points out that there was plenty of reason to investigate the banks. “Spitzer was more than justified in making inquiries in 2005, when his office discovered that more than 80 percent of all high-cost subprime loans in the New York metro area went to black and Latino borrowers. The comparable number for white borrowers was 9.4 percent.”

By Mike Muller on July 10, 2009, 4:45 pm
In category: Civil Rights, Economy, Housing, Law | No Comments »

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Filling Vacant Condos
July 8th, 2009

First revealed in her state of the city address, Council Speaker Christine Quinn and the Bloomberg administration announced this morning via press release that the city’s plan to convert stagnant or vacant condominium buildings into affordable housing is moving forward.

The administration and the council said the city would earmark $20 million for the pilot program, which could convert as many as 400 units from market rate to affordable.

The details of the plan are still hazy. Though, potentially, it could work like this:

Say a developer was unable to sell units in Crown Heights for about $500,000. To try to spur their sale, the developer could reduce that price to $400,000. The city, according to the council, could then come in and subsidize units for another $50,000 each. The housing would only be available to certain income levels, and the buyer would have to be able to qualify for a loan.

That scenario would depend on the neighborhood. Obviously, the plan could only be successful if the real estate market continued its downward trend, and developers were willing to lower their original asking price.

But to the pilot program’s advantage, condos on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn may not seem like a deal at $450,000 anymore. Even the immune Manhattan market is feeling the real estate recession woe. In the second quarter of 2009, apartment prices there fell 25 percent.

For more on abandoned luxury real estate, check out Confronting the Condo Glut.
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By Courtney Gross on July 8, 2009, 1:39 pm
In category: Economy, Housing, Public Finance, nextNY | 2 Comments »

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We Want to Know About Unemployment
June 23rd, 2009

Between April and May, the city’s unemployment rate jumped from 8 to 9 percent, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics this morning.

That amounts to more than 361,000 people within the five boroughs who are collecting unemployment insurance from the state — at a maximum of $430 a week per individual. In a city where the least expensive one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan goes for approximately $1,611, those unemployment checks may barely cover your rent.

We want to know how you do it. In our first partnership with Huffington Post New York, which launched yesterday, we are kicking off a citizen journalism project that will take an in-depth look at unemployment in New York City and state.

If you rely on unemployment insurance or have contemplated heading to the unemployment office, we want to hear from you. How are you stretching $430 or less across a week? What sacrifices are you making? What help have you received in searching for a new job? Send your responses to eyesonunemployment@gmail.com.

Gotham Gazette will be using your stories for our investigation into the state’s unemployment benefits.

By Courtney Gross on June 23, 2009, 10:30 am
In category: Albany, Economy, Gotham City, Housing, Public Finance, Social Services, nextNY | 1 Comment »

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