CITY Gotham Gazette is an online publication covering New York policy and politics as well as news on public safety, transportation, education, finance and more. https://www.gothamgazette.com/city 2023-03-31T21:20:42+00:00 Webmaster webmaster@gothamgazette.com Joomla! - Open Source Content Management As State Budget is Negotiated, A Closer Look At Mayor Adams' Albany Agenda 2023-03-31T04:00:00+00:00 2023-03-31T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11918-mayor-adams-albany-agenda-state-budget Samar Khurshid samarkhurshid@gmail.com <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/agenda-state-budget.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams &amp; Governor Hochul (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)</p> <hr /> <p>With a new state budget entering final negotiations, Mayor Eric Adams traveled to the state capital this week to pitch Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature on his administration’s fiscal and policy priorities. Funding for migrant asylum-seekers and the MTA as well as other fiscal matters remain at the top of his list as the mayor has otherwise presented a limited policy agenda in Albany amid attempts to recalibrate his relationship with legislative leaders.</p> <p>Last year, Adams’ intergovernmental and Albany operation seemed under-developed as the former state senator managed his first state budget process as mayor. Adams’ approach to state lawmakers, including the Democratic majority leaders, was the source of significant criticism, even as he developed a strong working relationship with Hochul.</p> <p>Some of his top priorities, particularly an appeal to overhaul signature state bail reforms, received a cold welcome and the mayor was faulted for limited communication with many of his fellow Democrats as he also sought an extension of mayoral control of city schools, and more. Adams came away from his delayed first trip to Albany as mayor fuming not at legislators but at the media coverage that highlighted his halting efforts pitching his agenda.</p> <p>Eventually, when the budget was approved and in the legislative session that followed, Adams did claim several victories, especially in concert with Hochul. Adams won major investments in child care, an increased Earned Income Tax Credit, expansion of the city’s speed camera program, a new ‘preservation trust’ to raise needed money for public housing improvements, and more. But he only received a two-year extension on mayoral control of city schools, rather than the four he wanted, along with a mandate to cut down on class sizes that he opposed. His push for a replacement of the now-expired 421-a affordable housing tax credit also failed. And his calls for a major revamp of bail laws were rejected in favor of moderate changes for which he could claim some credit. But overall, Adams appeared to get off on the wrong foot with many members of the Legislature, including the legislative leaders whose allyship he needs.</p> <p>This year, Adams has been focused on pushing back against a series of cuts and cost shifts proposed by Hochul that he says will cost the city billions of dollars each year. And he has taken a different approach, taking apparent steps to reconcile differences with Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, the top Democrats whose assistance is crucial to Adams’ goals.</p> <p>The mayor’s main priorities have been well-publicized. He wants more funding to help provide shelter and other services to tens of thousands of asylum -seekers, to avoid a major cost shift for the MTA that could cost the city $500 million more annually, and to beat back a variety of other Hochul proposals that could cost the city money. While the mayor is supportive of expanding charter schools, as the governor has called for, he has said that any such growth in the sector should be accompanied by state funding to help pay for the schools’ rent.</p> <p>But there are also several other issues Adams is pressing for, such as proposals in the governor’s housing agenda, and other items that have flown under the radar, including an expansion of health care to undocumented immigrants, expansion of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, changes to procurement and other regulatory matters in order to help complete infrastructure projects more efficiently, community hiring legislation, and an “income disregard” proposal for public benefits.</p> <p><strong>Asylum-Seeker Funding</strong><br />The costs of the migrant asylum-seeker crisis have ballooned and Adams has continued to make it his top priority. His administration estimates that it will cost the city about $4.2 billion in the current and next fiscal years. And those costs have put pressure on the city’s finances ahead of its own budget deadline for the July 1 start to its fiscal year.</p> <p>Hochul has proposed about $1 billion to the city, which Adams insists will not be enough, forcing the city to cut from departments and services. The city also doesn’t expect additional funding from the federal government before the current fiscal year is over, even as Congress appropriated an $800 million pot of funding in December to help cities across the country deal with an influx of migrants.</p> <p>“I've always stated that the top issue for us I think that will undermine our city the most is the migrant issue,” Adams told reporters in Albany on Monday. The challenge also has the potential to deepen starting in May as the federal government is aiming to lift Title 42, a pandemic-era immigration policy that expelled more than 2 million asylum-seekers at the border. “We have to find an additional $4.2 billion. That is going to really undermine our city. That's going to impact every service that we have,” Adams said.</p> <p><strong>MTA</strong><br />The mayor has also pushed back against a proposal in Hochul’s executive budget that would require the city to provide an additional $500 million annually in operational assistance to the MTA. That funding would cover the state’s share of the cost of the city’s paratransit program and discounted MetroCard program for students, she said.</p> <p>The mayor and his administration have argued that the actual costs would be closer to $526 million in the next fiscal year and more than $540 million every year after that, on top of the $2.4 billion that the city already puts into the MTA — not to mention all of the other ways in which city residents and businesses fund the transit authority. The mayor was met with receptive ears among Democratic lawmakers: both the Senate and Assembly rejected the governor’s MTA funding proposal in their one-house budgets.</p> <p>“[H]alf a billion dollars is just something that we cannot take on at this time,” Adams said. “And both houses heard us and in their one-house proposals, they came up with counter proposals and now it's time for the deliberation process to take place.”</p> <p><strong>Charters Schools</strong><br />The governor’s proposal to eliminate the cap on charter schools in New York City has become one of the more heated points of contention in this year’s budget negotiations. Hochul has argued that the privately-run public charter schools offer choices she wants to provide to parents while many Democratic legislators are opposed to the largely non-unionized schools.</p> <p>But both legislative chambers omitted her proposal from their one-house budgets and even Adams, a proponent of charter schools, has argued that the state must help the city with the projected $1 billion price tag associated with the measure if it were to pass. According to state law, the city must pay rent in private buildings for charter schools if no public space is provided.</p> <p><strong>Housing</strong><br />Though he has not been especially vocal about it, Adams has been generally supportive of Governor Hochul’s proposed “Housing Compact,” a broad policy agenda that aims to build 800,000 new homes across the state over the next ten years.</p> <p>“We have to build more and we have to find the pathways to build more low-income, middle-income, and market rate, all three of them, and that is what our plan is looking at,” he said at a housing-focused forum hosted by WNYC radio last week.</p> <p>Adams is pursuing his own housing plan, somewhat reliant on state action, and there are several items in the governor’s housing proposal that he has been specifically lobbying for including easing conversions of underutilized office space to housing; eliminating the floor-area ratio cap to allow denser buildings in the city; a replacement for the 421-a tax credit that encourages apartment building development with some affordable housing included and an extension of the completion deadline for existing projects to receive 421-a benefits; replacing the expired J-51 tax incentive, which helped property owners renovate housing in exchange for making it affordable and new safety standards for basement and cellar apartments.</p> <p>“We need to have a real conversation about 421-a, a real vision of it, we need to look at J-51. There are things that is taking place right now in Albany,” he said at the WNYC forum. “And I really take my hat off even to the governor, what the governor's doing about regional [housing]. We need to look at the region because this is a regional problem.”</p> <p>According to a City Hall spokesperson, the mayor is also pushing for new tenant protections in Albany. However he has not taken any public positions on major proposals – Adams has repeatedly said he supports the concept of a “good cause” eviction bill but that small property owners should not be adversely affected by it.</p> <p>Adams is also pushing the state to provide rental assistance for NYCHA residents, as the public housing authority faces a major pandemic-era rent-arrears crisis that is threatening its bottom line. Both houses of the Legislature have supported that push with additional funding allocated in their one-house budgets.</p> <p>[LISTEN: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11915-max-politics-podcast-visnauskas-hochul-new-york-housing-compact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Max Politics Podcast: Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas on Governor Hochul's 'New York Housing Compact' &amp; State Budget Negotiations</a>]</p> <p><strong>Criminal Justice</strong><br />While Adams was one of the most prominent advocates last year for creating a “dangerousness” standard that judges could use while deciding to either set bail or remand a defendant into custody pre-trial, he has been less vocal on the issue this year. He has, however, gotten behind the governor’s proposal that would eliminate the “least restrictive standard” that judges use for setting bail in cases of violent misdemeanors and repeated offenders. Adams has made serial recidivists the focus of his push, saying they are responsible for a massively disproportionate number of crimes in the city.</p> <p>Bail changes insisted upon by Hochul last year, leading to a late budget, were supposed to address the issue of bail eligibility for more serious misdemeanors and repeat offenders on alleged crimes like retail theft, but she has now argued that too many judges have either inappropriately used their discretion to allow pre-trial release without requiring bail or believed that the least restrictive standard required them to allow such release. Both Hochul and Adams appear to want judges to have and use bail more as a proxy for pre-trial remand, an apparent workaround for the dangerousness standard.</p> <p>In Albany this week, Adams shifted the focus from bail alone to broader criminal justice reform. “I am not going to allow people to focus on one terminology that's not going to be a magic bullet,” he said of bail reforms, in similar comments to what Hochul has said as she also seeks tighter bail laws and other measures. “I think that lawmakers up here are going to deliberate over exactly what's going to happen on ‘least restrictive.’ It is up to them to come to a final solution to that.”</p> <p>Adams has emphasized that the state needs to also increase funding for prosecutors and public defenders and make additional changes to the criminal discovery law to reduce the massive criminal court backlog caused by the pandemic. He is also in favor of Hochul's proposed additional investments in reentry services for those leaving the justice system.</p> <p>Hochul’s budget did propose more funding for prosecutors, particularly to help with criminal discovery compliance. But public defenders didn’t receive a comparable funding boost in her plan. While her budget would increase wages for certain types of court-appointed defense attorneys, it did not fully provide funding to implement those increases, which will cost the city an additional $18 million each year if passed as-is.</p> <p><strong>Capital Construction and Procurement Reforms</strong><br />Adams’ administration is undertaking a <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11807-nyc-capital-construction-reforms-mayor-adams" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">significant effort</a> at reforming the city’s broken capital construction process, which includes a slew of state legislation to approve alternate project delivery methods, allow the use of progressive design build, establish the Department of Design and Construction as a public authority, change procurement to increase contracting with Minority- and Women-owned Business Enterprises (M/WBEs), among other proposals.</p> <p>[Read: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11807-nyc-capital-construction-reforms-mayor-adams" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Promising Projects Faster and Cheaper, Adams Administration Pursues Capital Construction Reforms</a>]</p> <p><strong>Community Hiring Legislation</strong><br />Adams is also pushing for the state to approve community hiring legislation that would give the city the authority to mandate that companies receiving city contracts hire local community members. “Promoting community hiring will allow us to help 36,000 economically disadvantaged workers connect to good jobs every year,” he said in his State of the City speech in January.</p> <p><strong>Income Disregard</strong><br />Adams has pushed for an “income disregard” bill that would allow low-income New Yorkers who complete a state or federally recognized job training program to continue receiving state public benefits such as Medicaid, child care, or rental assistance for six months even after obtaining a job. The proposal would mitigate the “benefits cliff” that individuals face when their income increases and puts them beyond the threshold for public assistance.</p> <p><strong>Expanding Tax Credits</strong><br />Last year at Adams’ urging, the state approved an expansion of the city’s Earned Income Tax Credit for the first time in 20 years. Adams pledged $250 million annually to implement the expanded EITC while the state pitched in another $100 million of its own.</p> <p>Last week, Adams rallied with labor leaders and lawmakers to call for enhancing the EITC and the Child Tax credit even further. Currently, only New Yorkers with Social Security numbers can avail themselves of the two benefits. Adams is pushing the state to broaden that eligibility to anyone with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, which would expand the credits to hundreds of thousands of immigrant New Yorkers, including undocumented immigrants.</p> <p><strong>Extending Health Care to Undocumented Immigrants</strong><br />Governor Hochul’s budget included a proposed expansion of the state’s Essential Plan to provide health coverage to those with incomes up to 250% of the Federal Poverty Level, up from the current threshold of 200%. But immigrant advocates and lawmakers have called on the governor to go beyond that and expand eligibility to undocumented immigrants under the “Coverage for All” proposal. The proposal has even been <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/ny-state-of-politics/2022/01/06/health-insurers-want-coverage-extended-to-undocumented-immigrants-in-new-york" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">backed</a> by insurance providers.</p> <p>Mayor Adams lent his voice to that advocacy this week, in a letter to the governor, according to a <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/ny-state-of-politics/2023/03/29/mayor-adams-backs-expanding-health-insurance-to-more-undocumented-residents" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Spectrum News report</a>. “We rarely have the opportunity to improve the lives of so many New Yorkers through a single policy modification,” he wrote.</p> <p>Accessibility for undocumented immigrants would also reduce related costs on the state's Medicaid program, he argued. “Expanding EP eligibility to undocumented adults is an imperative of both moral and economic consequence," Adams said in the letter.</p> <p><strong>Medicaid Funding</strong><br />Enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (eFMAP) funding supplements localities’ spending on Medicaid, in which huge numbers of New Yorkers are enrolled. But Hochul proposed that the state would retain 100% of that funding, inviting consternation from Democrats and Republicans alike. Mayor Adams was among the critics of that proposal, which he said would cost the city about $343 million annually.</p> <p><strong>Sales Tax and Distressed Hospitals</strong><br />The governor yet again proposed extending a measure that would intercept about $150 million in sales taxes from New York City and divert it to the state’s Distressed Hospitals Fund. The fund, however, has not helped support struggling New York City Health+Hospitals facilities, and Adams has pushed for the governor to stop dipping into the city’s tax revenue for it.</p> <p>

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/agenda-state-budget.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams &amp; Governor Hochul (photo: Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)</p> <hr /> <p>With a new state budget entering final negotiations, Mayor Eric Adams traveled to the state capital this week to pitch Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature on his administration’s fiscal and policy priorities. Funding for migrant asylum-seekers and the MTA as well as other fiscal matters remain at the top of his list as the mayor has otherwise presented a limited policy agenda in Albany amid attempts to recalibrate his relationship with legislative leaders.</p> <p>Last year, Adams’ intergovernmental and Albany operation seemed under-developed as the former state senator managed his first state budget process as mayor. Adams’ approach to state lawmakers, including the Democratic majority leaders, was the source of significant criticism, even as he developed a strong working relationship with Hochul.</p> <p>Some of his top priorities, particularly an appeal to overhaul signature state bail reforms, received a cold welcome and the mayor was faulted for limited communication with many of his fellow Democrats as he also sought an extension of mayoral control of city schools, and more. Adams came away from his delayed first trip to Albany as mayor fuming not at legislators but at the media coverage that highlighted his halting efforts pitching his agenda.</p> <p>Eventually, when the budget was approved and in the legislative session that followed, Adams did claim several victories, especially in concert with Hochul. Adams won major investments in child care, an increased Earned Income Tax Credit, expansion of the city’s speed camera program, a new ‘preservation trust’ to raise needed money for public housing improvements, and more. But he only received a two-year extension on mayoral control of city schools, rather than the four he wanted, along with a mandate to cut down on class sizes that he opposed. His push for a replacement of the now-expired 421-a affordable housing tax credit also failed. And his calls for a major revamp of bail laws were rejected in favor of moderate changes for which he could claim some credit. But overall, Adams appeared to get off on the wrong foot with many members of the Legislature, including the legislative leaders whose allyship he needs.</p> <p>This year, Adams has been focused on pushing back against a series of cuts and cost shifts proposed by Hochul that he says will cost the city billions of dollars each year. And he has taken a different approach, taking apparent steps to reconcile differences with Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, the top Democrats whose assistance is crucial to Adams’ goals.</p> <p>The mayor’s main priorities have been well-publicized. He wants more funding to help provide shelter and other services to tens of thousands of asylum -seekers, to avoid a major cost shift for the MTA that could cost the city $500 million more annually, and to beat back a variety of other Hochul proposals that could cost the city money. While the mayor is supportive of expanding charter schools, as the governor has called for, he has said that any such growth in the sector should be accompanied by state funding to help pay for the schools’ rent.</p> <p>But there are also several other issues Adams is pressing for, such as proposals in the governor’s housing agenda, and other items that have flown under the radar, including an expansion of health care to undocumented immigrants, expansion of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, changes to procurement and other regulatory matters in order to help complete infrastructure projects more efficiently, community hiring legislation, and an “income disregard” proposal for public benefits.</p> <p><strong>Asylum-Seeker Funding</strong><br />The costs of the migrant asylum-seeker crisis have ballooned and Adams has continued to make it his top priority. His administration estimates that it will cost the city about $4.2 billion in the current and next fiscal years. And those costs have put pressure on the city’s finances ahead of its own budget deadline for the July 1 start to its fiscal year.</p> <p>Hochul has proposed about $1 billion to the city, which Adams insists will not be enough, forcing the city to cut from departments and services. The city also doesn’t expect additional funding from the federal government before the current fiscal year is over, even as Congress appropriated an $800 million pot of funding in December to help cities across the country deal with an influx of migrants.</p> <p>“I've always stated that the top issue for us I think that will undermine our city the most is the migrant issue,” Adams told reporters in Albany on Monday. The challenge also has the potential to deepen starting in May as the federal government is aiming to lift Title 42, a pandemic-era immigration policy that expelled more than 2 million asylum-seekers at the border. “We have to find an additional $4.2 billion. That is going to really undermine our city. That's going to impact every service that we have,” Adams said.</p> <p><strong>MTA</strong><br />The mayor has also pushed back against a proposal in Hochul’s executive budget that would require the city to provide an additional $500 million annually in operational assistance to the MTA. That funding would cover the state’s share of the cost of the city’s paratransit program and discounted MetroCard program for students, she said.</p> <p>The mayor and his administration have argued that the actual costs would be closer to $526 million in the next fiscal year and more than $540 million every year after that, on top of the $2.4 billion that the city already puts into the MTA — not to mention all of the other ways in which city residents and businesses fund the transit authority. The mayor was met with receptive ears among Democratic lawmakers: both the Senate and Assembly rejected the governor’s MTA funding proposal in their one-house budgets.</p> <p>“[H]alf a billion dollars is just something that we cannot take on at this time,” Adams said. “And both houses heard us and in their one-house proposals, they came up with counter proposals and now it's time for the deliberation process to take place.”</p> <p><strong>Charters Schools</strong><br />The governor’s proposal to eliminate the cap on charter schools in New York City has become one of the more heated points of contention in this year’s budget negotiations. Hochul has argued that the privately-run public charter schools offer choices she wants to provide to parents while many Democratic legislators are opposed to the largely non-unionized schools.</p> <p>But both legislative chambers omitted her proposal from their one-house budgets and even Adams, a proponent of charter schools, has argued that the state must help the city with the projected $1 billion price tag associated with the measure if it were to pass. According to state law, the city must pay rent in private buildings for charter schools if no public space is provided.</p> <p><strong>Housing</strong><br />Though he has not been especially vocal about it, Adams has been generally supportive of Governor Hochul’s proposed “Housing Compact,” a broad policy agenda that aims to build 800,000 new homes across the state over the next ten years.</p> <p>“We have to build more and we have to find the pathways to build more low-income, middle-income, and market rate, all three of them, and that is what our plan is looking at,” he said at a housing-focused forum hosted by WNYC radio last week.</p> <p>Adams is pursuing his own housing plan, somewhat reliant on state action, and there are several items in the governor’s housing proposal that he has been specifically lobbying for including easing conversions of underutilized office space to housing; eliminating the floor-area ratio cap to allow denser buildings in the city; a replacement for the 421-a tax credit that encourages apartment building development with some affordable housing included and an extension of the completion deadline for existing projects to receive 421-a benefits; replacing the expired J-51 tax incentive, which helped property owners renovate housing in exchange for making it affordable and new safety standards for basement and cellar apartments.</p> <p>“We need to have a real conversation about 421-a, a real vision of it, we need to look at J-51. There are things that is taking place right now in Albany,” he said at the WNYC forum. “And I really take my hat off even to the governor, what the governor's doing about regional [housing]. We need to look at the region because this is a regional problem.”</p> <p>According to a City Hall spokesperson, the mayor is also pushing for new tenant protections in Albany. However he has not taken any public positions on major proposals – Adams has repeatedly said he supports the concept of a “good cause” eviction bill but that small property owners should not be adversely affected by it.</p> <p>Adams is also pushing the state to provide rental assistance for NYCHA residents, as the public housing authority faces a major pandemic-era rent-arrears crisis that is threatening its bottom line. Both houses of the Legislature have supported that push with additional funding allocated in their one-house budgets.</p> <p>[LISTEN: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11915-max-politics-podcast-visnauskas-hochul-new-york-housing-compact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Max Politics Podcast: Commissioner RuthAnne Visnauskas on Governor Hochul's 'New York Housing Compact' &amp; State Budget Negotiations</a>]</p> <p><strong>Criminal Justice</strong><br />While Adams was one of the most prominent advocates last year for creating a “dangerousness” standard that judges could use while deciding to either set bail or remand a defendant into custody pre-trial, he has been less vocal on the issue this year. He has, however, gotten behind the governor’s proposal that would eliminate the “least restrictive standard” that judges use for setting bail in cases of violent misdemeanors and repeated offenders. Adams has made serial recidivists the focus of his push, saying they are responsible for a massively disproportionate number of crimes in the city.</p> <p>Bail changes insisted upon by Hochul last year, leading to a late budget, were supposed to address the issue of bail eligibility for more serious misdemeanors and repeat offenders on alleged crimes like retail theft, but she has now argued that too many judges have either inappropriately used their discretion to allow pre-trial release without requiring bail or believed that the least restrictive standard required them to allow such release. Both Hochul and Adams appear to want judges to have and use bail more as a proxy for pre-trial remand, an apparent workaround for the dangerousness standard.</p> <p>In Albany this week, Adams shifted the focus from bail alone to broader criminal justice reform. “I am not going to allow people to focus on one terminology that's not going to be a magic bullet,” he said of bail reforms, in similar comments to what Hochul has said as she also seeks tighter bail laws and other measures. “I think that lawmakers up here are going to deliberate over exactly what's going to happen on ‘least restrictive.’ It is up to them to come to a final solution to that.”</p> <p>Adams has emphasized that the state needs to also increase funding for prosecutors and public defenders and make additional changes to the criminal discovery law to reduce the massive criminal court backlog caused by the pandemic. He is also in favor of Hochul's proposed additional investments in reentry services for those leaving the justice system.</p> <p>Hochul’s budget did propose more funding for prosecutors, particularly to help with criminal discovery compliance. But public defenders didn’t receive a comparable funding boost in her plan. While her budget would increase wages for certain types of court-appointed defense attorneys, it did not fully provide funding to implement those increases, which will cost the city an additional $18 million each year if passed as-is.</p> <p><strong>Capital Construction and Procurement Reforms</strong><br />Adams’ administration is undertaking a <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11807-nyc-capital-construction-reforms-mayor-adams" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">significant effort</a> at reforming the city’s broken capital construction process, which includes a slew of state legislation to approve alternate project delivery methods, allow the use of progressive design build, establish the Department of Design and Construction as a public authority, change procurement to increase contracting with Minority- and Women-owned Business Enterprises (M/WBEs), among other proposals.</p> <p>[Read: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11807-nyc-capital-construction-reforms-mayor-adams" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Promising Projects Faster and Cheaper, Adams Administration Pursues Capital Construction Reforms</a>]</p> <p><strong>Community Hiring Legislation</strong><br />Adams is also pushing for the state to approve community hiring legislation that would give the city the authority to mandate that companies receiving city contracts hire local community members. “Promoting community hiring will allow us to help 36,000 economically disadvantaged workers connect to good jobs every year,” he said in his State of the City speech in January.</p> <p><strong>Income Disregard</strong><br />Adams has pushed for an “income disregard” bill that would allow low-income New Yorkers who complete a state or federally recognized job training program to continue receiving state public benefits such as Medicaid, child care, or rental assistance for six months even after obtaining a job. The proposal would mitigate the “benefits cliff” that individuals face when their income increases and puts them beyond the threshold for public assistance.</p> <p><strong>Expanding Tax Credits</strong><br />Last year at Adams’ urging, the state approved an expansion of the city’s Earned Income Tax Credit for the first time in 20 years. Adams pledged $250 million annually to implement the expanded EITC while the state pitched in another $100 million of its own.</p> <p>Last week, Adams rallied with labor leaders and lawmakers to call for enhancing the EITC and the Child Tax credit even further. Currently, only New Yorkers with Social Security numbers can avail themselves of the two benefits. Adams is pushing the state to broaden that eligibility to anyone with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, which would expand the credits to hundreds of thousands of immigrant New Yorkers, including undocumented immigrants.</p> <p><strong>Extending Health Care to Undocumented Immigrants</strong><br />Governor Hochul’s budget included a proposed expansion of the state’s Essential Plan to provide health coverage to those with incomes up to 250% of the Federal Poverty Level, up from the current threshold of 200%. But immigrant advocates and lawmakers have called on the governor to go beyond that and expand eligibility to undocumented immigrants under the “Coverage for All” proposal. The proposal has even been <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/ny-state-of-politics/2022/01/06/health-insurers-want-coverage-extended-to-undocumented-immigrants-in-new-york" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">backed</a> by insurance providers.</p> <p>Mayor Adams lent his voice to that advocacy this week, in a letter to the governor, according to a <a href="https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/ny-state-of-politics/2023/03/29/mayor-adams-backs-expanding-health-insurance-to-more-undocumented-residents" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Spectrum News report</a>. “We rarely have the opportunity to improve the lives of so many New Yorkers through a single policy modification,” he wrote.</p> <p>Accessibility for undocumented immigrants would also reduce related costs on the state's Medicaid program, he argued. “Expanding EP eligibility to undocumented adults is an imperative of both moral and economic consequence," Adams said in the letter.</p> <p><strong>Medicaid Funding</strong><br />Enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (eFMAP) funding supplements localities’ spending on Medicaid, in which huge numbers of New Yorkers are enrolled. But Hochul proposed that the state would retain 100% of that funding, inviting consternation from Democrats and Republicans alike. Mayor Adams was among the critics of that proposal, which he said would cost the city about $343 million annually.</p> <p><strong>Sales Tax and Distressed Hospitals</strong><br />The governor yet again proposed extending a measure that would intercept about $150 million in sales taxes from New York City and divert it to the state’s Distressed Hospitals Fund. The fund, however, has not helped support struggling New York City Health+Hospitals facilities, and Adams has pushed for the governor to stop dipping into the city’s tax revenue for it.</p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
City Law Department Defends Approach to Lawsuits Over NYPD Misconduct 2023-03-24T04:00:00+00:00 2023-03-24T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11898-nyc-law-department-nypd-misconduct-lawsuits Samar Khurshid samarkhurshid@gmail.com <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/1-admin-ongoing-public.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Corporation Counsel Sylvia Hinds-Radix (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)</p> <hr /> <p> </p> <p>With the NYPD costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars every year in lawsuit settlements over misconduct claims, City Council members on Wednesday questioned the city’s Law Department about its approach to defending the police department and whether the city could benefit from being less combative when taken to court for police misconduct.</p> <p>A Legal Aid Society <a href="https://legalaidnyc.org/news/nypd-misconduct-suits-cost-taxpayers-over-121-million-2022/#:~:text=The%20Legal%20Aid%20Society%20released,by%20The%20New%20York%20Times.">analysis</a> released in February found that the city paid $121 million in 2022 to settle lawsuits over allegations of NYPD misconduct, the highest amount in five years and $34 million more than in 2021. Among the payouts were high-profile cases that made up significant amounts of the settlements, including a $13 million settlement paid to Muhammad Aziz, who was wrongfully convicted in the assassination of Malcolm X and spent more than 20 years in prison. Seven other settlements ranged from $10.5 million to $13 million.</p> <p>The city has also paid millions in lawsuits stemming from the police response to Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd, which <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/ccrb/downloads/pdf/policy_pdf/issue_based/2020NYCProtestReport.pdf">prompted</a> hundreds of complaints against the NYPD, and led to 226 full investigations by the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), an oversight agency.</p> <p>At Wednesday’s City Council hearing on Mayor Eric Adams’ preliminary budget for next fiscal year, which begins July 1, Council members had tough questions about those settlements for the Law Department, which represents the city and its agencies in legal matters.</p> <p>Corporation Counsel Sylvia Hinds-Radix, who runs the Law Department as appointed by the Mayor, sought to explain why the city paid out more in settlements in the last fiscal year than in recent years. She said the pandemic in general caused an increase in the number of lawsuits filed against the city, with the department’s tort division facing 28,000 pending cases, more than 2,000 over last year and 4,000 more than two years ago. Tort claims involve lawsuits against city agencies and employees for issues arising from their official duties.</p> <p>“P​​re-pandemic, we were able with the assistance of the City Council to add resources to the tort division, which enabled us to improve case outcomes through increasing early settlements, engaging in better case preparation, and enhancing our state court trial practice. We have experienced a total erosion of those resources these past two years and will need to focus existing resources on handling the increased caseload,” she said, noting that high personnel attrition in the department has increased caseloads across the board.</p> <p>Payouts for settlements have also <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/operations/downloads/pdf/pmmr2023/law.pdf">increased overall</a>, which Hinds-Radix attributed to the court system returning to normal operations after the disruption of the pandemic. In fiscal year 2022, the city paid $794.7 million in settlements overall, compared to $576 million in fiscal year 2021, and $623 million in fiscal year 2020 (which began July 1, 2019, pre-pandemic).</p> <p>Hinds-Radix also noted that settlements for wrongful convictions drove the numbers up. “Just a few of those large settlements cause the amount of judgment and claims to increase significantly,” she said.</p> <p>Responding to a question from Council Member Sandra Ung, a Queens Democrat and chair of the governmental operation committee, Hinds-Radix also said the department takes steps to reduce the amount of settlements every year. “We look to settle cases early where we can. We also look to investigate as thoroughly as we can because by being prepared litigants, we are able to limit our liability,” she said.</p> <p>But Council members specifically expressed concerns about the NYPD, which has in recent years been the biggest drivers of the total settlements paid out every year by the city. In most cases, the city settles without admitting any wrongdoing and officers escape severe discipline.</p> <p>Council Member Lincoln Restler, a Brooklyn Democrat, pointed to a specific case to air his frustrations with the Law Department’s approach to alleged police misconduct.</p> <p>He cited a <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/nypd-karl-ashanti-special-federal-arrest">ProPublica report</a> from December about Karl Ashanti, a Law Department attorney who, while heading to work at his city office, was confronted and arrested by an NYPD officer on what turned out to be false charges of resisting arrest and allegedly shoving the officer. The department gave Ashanti the choice of resigning or being fired. Video evidence later showed that there was no shoving and, after most of the charges were dropped, Ashanti was found not guilty on one charge of harassment. He left the department, and sued the city and the officer.</p> <p>That lawsuit is ongoing and Ashanti told ProPublica that the city is “fighting tooth and nail against me.” What makes the case particularly ironic is that Ashanti was part of the city’s Special Federal Litigation Division, defending the city in federal lawsuits over the exact type of NYPD abuse that he is alleging he suffered.</p> <p>Restler echoed Ashanti’s words, taking issue with “the mentality of the Law Department to fight tooth and nail in defense of alleged police abuse and misconduct.”</p> <p>“I found it really troubling,” he said, “and I'm concerned about the approach of the Law Department over many years.”</p> <p>Hinds-Radix disagreed with the “characterization” of the ProPublica story. “The Law Department's role is to ensure that it protects the city…As attorneys, we have an ethical obligation as officers of the court to ensure that what we present to the court is not frivolous. And so to suggest that the Law Department just fights that as the article does, and does that without evaluating what is before us is something that I would have to disagree with vociferously,” she said.</p> <p>The department evaluates each claim on a case by case basis, she insisted, and litigates when the result may be beneficial to the city. “In an overwhelming majority of the cases that we do, we realize that the defense of the police department is defensible and…since we have the obligation to defend those things, we do,” she added. “And the cases that need to be settled, we evaluate them and we settle them.”</p> <p>“When there is police misconduct, there needs to be accountability,” Restler said, urging Hinds-Radix that, in such cases, “don't go to the mat defending it, but instead work to support and meet the needs of New Yorkers who have been victimized.”</p> <p>“That is clearly our intent, Council member,” she responded. “To ensure that as we go to protect the city, that we do it in an ethical manner, and we will continue to do that.”</p> <p>Council Member Gale Brewer, a Manhattan Democrat, raised similar concerns, questioning whether the department is taking a “no pay” effort – as Ashanti alleged in his case – against the type of civil rights claims involved in police misconduct cases. “I happen to be very supportive of the police department, but you have bad apples like you’ve got bad elected officials. And the question is not to have them cost the city of New York a fortune,” Brewer said.</p> <p>“That has not been our approach, just a ‘no pay’ effort,” Hinds-Radix said. “Our attorneys are well aware of the fact that we expect them to go into court and act ethically…We have the city's interest to protect and we try to do that every day.”</p> <p>At a separate budget hearing this week, an NYPD police official noted that settlement amounts have been dropping for years, which was true until they rose again in 2022. “I think it's important to note that cases are settled for a variety of reasons and they're not always indicative of wrongdoing, and that settlement amounts have been trending down for many years,” the official <a href="https://twitter.com/CabanD22/status/1638528274350366721?s=20">said</a>, according to video of the exchange posted by Council Member Tiffany Cabán. The Council member and other progressives have stressed that for the hundreds of millions of dollars in annual NYPD settlements and overtime spending, the city could fund many of the social services that they argue would better create public safety than more aggressive policing.</p> <p>“$121 million is nearly four times what the mayor is proposing we cut from libraries next year, for example, which the Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens Library Systems say would severely impact their ability to provide critical services, resources and programs to patrons or to stay open for their regular hours,” Cabán said in response.</p> <p>Criminal justice reform advocates have been broadly critical of the NYPD’s continued lack of accountability and that the NYPD commissioner continues to weaken disciplinary measures even as taxpayers are eventually on the hook for police abuse of power.</p> <p>“Rampant NYPD misconduct continues to cost New Yorkers tens of millions of dollars each year, and Commissioner Keechant Sewell’s entrenched resistance to meaningful accountability means many of the officers involved in these lawsuits likely received a mere slap on the wrist, if any discipline at all,” said Maggie Hadley, a legal fellow with the Criminal Defense Practice’s Special Litigation Unit at The Legal Aid Society, in a statement when their analysis of settlements was released. “Officers who commit egregious or persistent acts of misconduct should not wear a badge or carry a gun, and the Department’s continued refusal to hold problematic officers accountable only perpetuates the culture of impunity that thrives at precincts throughout New York City.”</p> <p>As Hadley indicated, Commissioner Sewell, like her predecessors, has consistently pushed back against outside oversight of police misconduct by the CCRB. The <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/12/14/police-commissioner-to-change-disciplinary-guidelines-after-manifestly-unfair-penalties/">New York Post reported</a> in December that Sewell intended to change the NYPD’s disciplinary matrix – which establishes standards for police disciplinary procedures – after she found that many disciplinary recommendations made by the CCRB and internal police judges were “manifestly unfair to the officers under review.”</p> <p>The CCRB informed the City Council <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/16/nyregion/nypd-discipline-recommendations.html">this month</a> that Sewell went against its disciplinary recommendations in 425 cases, accounting for more than half of cases in which the oversight body recommended some form of discipline for police officers. In fact, she has punished officers at a far lower rate than the two commissioners before her.</p> <p>Mayor Eric Adams has also <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11731-mayor-eric-adams-nypd-watchlist-promise" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">failed to follow through on a campaign promise</a> to publish a watch list of NYPD officers that the department is monitoring for violent behavior and other serious misconduct.</p> <p>[Read: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11731-mayor-eric-adams-nypd-watchlist-promise" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nearly A Year In, No Sign of Adams' Promised NYPD Watchlist</a>]</p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/1-admin-ongoing-public.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Corporation Counsel Sylvia Hinds-Radix (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)</p> <hr /> <p> </p> <p>With the NYPD costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars every year in lawsuit settlements over misconduct claims, City Council members on Wednesday questioned the city’s Law Department about its approach to defending the police department and whether the city could benefit from being less combative when taken to court for police misconduct.</p> <p>A Legal Aid Society <a href="https://legalaidnyc.org/news/nypd-misconduct-suits-cost-taxpayers-over-121-million-2022/#:~:text=The%20Legal%20Aid%20Society%20released,by%20The%20New%20York%20Times.">analysis</a> released in February found that the city paid $121 million in 2022 to settle lawsuits over allegations of NYPD misconduct, the highest amount in five years and $34 million more than in 2021. Among the payouts were high-profile cases that made up significant amounts of the settlements, including a $13 million settlement paid to Muhammad Aziz, who was wrongfully convicted in the assassination of Malcolm X and spent more than 20 years in prison. Seven other settlements ranged from $10.5 million to $13 million.</p> <p>The city has also paid millions in lawsuits stemming from the police response to Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd, which <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/ccrb/downloads/pdf/policy_pdf/issue_based/2020NYCProtestReport.pdf">prompted</a> hundreds of complaints against the NYPD, and led to 226 full investigations by the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB), an oversight agency.</p> <p>At Wednesday’s City Council hearing on Mayor Eric Adams’ preliminary budget for next fiscal year, which begins July 1, Council members had tough questions about those settlements for the Law Department, which represents the city and its agencies in legal matters.</p> <p>Corporation Counsel Sylvia Hinds-Radix, who runs the Law Department as appointed by the Mayor, sought to explain why the city paid out more in settlements in the last fiscal year than in recent years. She said the pandemic in general caused an increase in the number of lawsuits filed against the city, with the department’s tort division facing 28,000 pending cases, more than 2,000 over last year and 4,000 more than two years ago. Tort claims involve lawsuits against city agencies and employees for issues arising from their official duties.</p> <p>“P​​re-pandemic, we were able with the assistance of the City Council to add resources to the tort division, which enabled us to improve case outcomes through increasing early settlements, engaging in better case preparation, and enhancing our state court trial practice. We have experienced a total erosion of those resources these past two years and will need to focus existing resources on handling the increased caseload,” she said, noting that high personnel attrition in the department has increased caseloads across the board.</p> <p>Payouts for settlements have also <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/operations/downloads/pdf/pmmr2023/law.pdf">increased overall</a>, which Hinds-Radix attributed to the court system returning to normal operations after the disruption of the pandemic. In fiscal year 2022, the city paid $794.7 million in settlements overall, compared to $576 million in fiscal year 2021, and $623 million in fiscal year 2020 (which began July 1, 2019, pre-pandemic).</p> <p>Hinds-Radix also noted that settlements for wrongful convictions drove the numbers up. “Just a few of those large settlements cause the amount of judgment and claims to increase significantly,” she said.</p> <p>Responding to a question from Council Member Sandra Ung, a Queens Democrat and chair of the governmental operation committee, Hinds-Radix also said the department takes steps to reduce the amount of settlements every year. “We look to settle cases early where we can. We also look to investigate as thoroughly as we can because by being prepared litigants, we are able to limit our liability,” she said.</p> <p>But Council members specifically expressed concerns about the NYPD, which has in recent years been the biggest drivers of the total settlements paid out every year by the city. In most cases, the city settles without admitting any wrongdoing and officers escape severe discipline.</p> <p>Council Member Lincoln Restler, a Brooklyn Democrat, pointed to a specific case to air his frustrations with the Law Department’s approach to alleged police misconduct.</p> <p>He cited a <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/nypd-karl-ashanti-special-federal-arrest">ProPublica report</a> from December about Karl Ashanti, a Law Department attorney who, while heading to work at his city office, was confronted and arrested by an NYPD officer on what turned out to be false charges of resisting arrest and allegedly shoving the officer. The department gave Ashanti the choice of resigning or being fired. Video evidence later showed that there was no shoving and, after most of the charges were dropped, Ashanti was found not guilty on one charge of harassment. He left the department, and sued the city and the officer.</p> <p>That lawsuit is ongoing and Ashanti told ProPublica that the city is “fighting tooth and nail against me.” What makes the case particularly ironic is that Ashanti was part of the city’s Special Federal Litigation Division, defending the city in federal lawsuits over the exact type of NYPD abuse that he is alleging he suffered.</p> <p>Restler echoed Ashanti’s words, taking issue with “the mentality of the Law Department to fight tooth and nail in defense of alleged police abuse and misconduct.”</p> <p>“I found it really troubling,” he said, “and I'm concerned about the approach of the Law Department over many years.”</p> <p>Hinds-Radix disagreed with the “characterization” of the ProPublica story. “The Law Department's role is to ensure that it protects the city…As attorneys, we have an ethical obligation as officers of the court to ensure that what we present to the court is not frivolous. And so to suggest that the Law Department just fights that as the article does, and does that without evaluating what is before us is something that I would have to disagree with vociferously,” she said.</p> <p>The department evaluates each claim on a case by case basis, she insisted, and litigates when the result may be beneficial to the city. “In an overwhelming majority of the cases that we do, we realize that the defense of the police department is defensible and…since we have the obligation to defend those things, we do,” she added. “And the cases that need to be settled, we evaluate them and we settle them.”</p> <p>“When there is police misconduct, there needs to be accountability,” Restler said, urging Hinds-Radix that, in such cases, “don't go to the mat defending it, but instead work to support and meet the needs of New Yorkers who have been victimized.”</p> <p>“That is clearly our intent, Council member,” she responded. “To ensure that as we go to protect the city, that we do it in an ethical manner, and we will continue to do that.”</p> <p>Council Member Gale Brewer, a Manhattan Democrat, raised similar concerns, questioning whether the department is taking a “no pay” effort – as Ashanti alleged in his case – against the type of civil rights claims involved in police misconduct cases. “I happen to be very supportive of the police department, but you have bad apples like you’ve got bad elected officials. And the question is not to have them cost the city of New York a fortune,” Brewer said.</p> <p>“That has not been our approach, just a ‘no pay’ effort,” Hinds-Radix said. “Our attorneys are well aware of the fact that we expect them to go into court and act ethically…We have the city's interest to protect and we try to do that every day.”</p> <p>At a separate budget hearing this week, an NYPD police official noted that settlement amounts have been dropping for years, which was true until they rose again in 2022. “I think it's important to note that cases are settled for a variety of reasons and they're not always indicative of wrongdoing, and that settlement amounts have been trending down for many years,” the official <a href="https://twitter.com/CabanD22/status/1638528274350366721?s=20">said</a>, according to video of the exchange posted by Council Member Tiffany Cabán. The Council member and other progressives have stressed that for the hundreds of millions of dollars in annual NYPD settlements and overtime spending, the city could fund many of the social services that they argue would better create public safety than more aggressive policing.</p> <p>“$121 million is nearly four times what the mayor is proposing we cut from libraries next year, for example, which the Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens Library Systems say would severely impact their ability to provide critical services, resources and programs to patrons or to stay open for their regular hours,” Cabán said in response.</p> <p>Criminal justice reform advocates have been broadly critical of the NYPD’s continued lack of accountability and that the NYPD commissioner continues to weaken disciplinary measures even as taxpayers are eventually on the hook for police abuse of power.</p> <p>“Rampant NYPD misconduct continues to cost New Yorkers tens of millions of dollars each year, and Commissioner Keechant Sewell’s entrenched resistance to meaningful accountability means many of the officers involved in these lawsuits likely received a mere slap on the wrist, if any discipline at all,” said Maggie Hadley, a legal fellow with the Criminal Defense Practice’s Special Litigation Unit at The Legal Aid Society, in a statement when their analysis of settlements was released. “Officers who commit egregious or persistent acts of misconduct should not wear a badge or carry a gun, and the Department’s continued refusal to hold problematic officers accountable only perpetuates the culture of impunity that thrives at precincts throughout New York City.”</p> <p>As Hadley indicated, Commissioner Sewell, like her predecessors, has consistently pushed back against outside oversight of police misconduct by the CCRB. The <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/12/14/police-commissioner-to-change-disciplinary-guidelines-after-manifestly-unfair-penalties/">New York Post reported</a> in December that Sewell intended to change the NYPD’s disciplinary matrix – which establishes standards for police disciplinary procedures – after she found that many disciplinary recommendations made by the CCRB and internal police judges were “manifestly unfair to the officers under review.”</p> <p>The CCRB informed the City Council <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/16/nyregion/nypd-discipline-recommendations.html">this month</a> that Sewell went against its disciplinary recommendations in 425 cases, accounting for more than half of cases in which the oversight body recommended some form of discipline for police officers. In fact, she has punished officers at a far lower rate than the two commissioners before her.</p> <p>Mayor Eric Adams has also <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11731-mayor-eric-adams-nypd-watchlist-promise" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">failed to follow through on a campaign promise</a> to publish a watch list of NYPD officers that the department is monitoring for violent behavior and other serious misconduct.</p> <p>[Read: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11731-mayor-eric-adams-nypd-watchlist-promise" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nearly A Year In, No Sign of Adams' Promised NYPD Watchlist</a>]</p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
‘We Have Been Behind for a Really Long Time’: Borough President Vanessa Gibson’s Vision for Lifting Up the Bronx 2023-03-23T04:00:00+00:00 2023-03-23T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11874-bronx-borough-president-vanessa-gibson-agenda Abby Wilson awilson@gg.com <p> <img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/boro-pres-agenda.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)</p> <hr /> <p>Vanessa Gibson <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/10631-vanessa-gibson-bronx-borough-president-election-platform" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ran for Bronx Borough President in 2021 on a platform</a> focused on improving public housing and jumpstarting COVID-19 recovery. Now, just over one year into her term, she is advancing her agenda with a focus on public health, economic and housing development, and more. Gibson recognizes the Bronx’s many challenges, including as the borough with the highest rates of unemployment, poverty, crime, and unhealthfulness, but is also focused on its many positives and, especially, opportunities to uplift Bronxites.</p> <p>On March 1, Gibson delivered her first State of the Borough address, emphasizing the importance of access to jobs, mass transit, and affordable housing. Also high on the agenda was improving public health, especially major crises around maternal mortality and diabetes, as well as fire safety measures, increasing tourism, and more. Two days after her speech, Gibson, the first Black person and the first woman to serve as Bronx borough president, <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11863-max-politics-podcast-bronx-borough-president-vanessa-gibson" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">joined Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast</a> to discuss her priorities for the borough.</p> <p>“Some of the top priorities for our administration moving forward is really focusing on the Bronx being a borough of opportunities…boosting tourism and focusing on cultural institutions,  and really bringing tourism back to the Bronx,” Gibson said on the podcast. “Economic development is the pathway to prosperity — when you talk about jobs, good paying, stable, union jobs that really create stability for many of the families I represent.”</p> <p>There are many major proposed and ongoing infrastructure projects in the Bronx, including the Hip Hop Museum that’s being built, renovations at Orchard Beach, the construction of the Bronx Detention Site in the borough’s Mott Haven neighborhood as part of the plan to close Rikers Island, and much more.</p> <p>There’s also <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/new-york-playbook-pm/2023/02/13/a-casino-proposed-for-the-bronx-00082622" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a proposal for a Bally’s casino</a> on the 17-acre plot currently housing the Trump Organization golf course and the early ongoing exploration of what will be done with the vacant, massive Kingsbridge Armory.</p> <p>Before becoming borough president in January 2022, Gibson spent a few years in the New York State Assembly then eight years representing the 16th City Council District. During her time in the City Council, from 2014 through 2021, she chaired the public safety committee and the capital budget subcommittee.</p> <p>Perhaps her most significant policy move as a Council member was as lead co-sponsor of the Right to Counsel law, which requires free-of-charge legal representation for low-income tenants facing eviction in housing court or NYCHA proceedings. Her lead co-sponsor was then-Council Member Mark Levine, who is now also a borough president, in Manhattan. The law passed in 2017, and led to a significant decrease in eviction rates pre-pandemic, proving a success that then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Council later expanded from high-need neighborhoods to all of New York City in 2021. Recent numbers show that after the pandemic eviction moratorium expired last January, only <a href="https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/10/27/23425792/right-to-counsel-housing-court-tenant-lawyers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a small percentage of low-income New Yorkers</a> are being assigned legal representation, which has caused alarm for Gibson, Levine, and many others.</p> <p>Gibson was elected Borough President during a competitive 2021 race, and effectively won during the June Democratic primary given the Bronx is overwhelmingly Democratic in voter enrollment. The role entails distribution of discretionary funds, weighing in on many land use matters, appointments to community boards and other bodies that have influence over policy, working with City Council, the mayor, and many other elected officials. The Borough President cannot vote on legislation, but has a significant bully pulpit and can work with other entities to introduce and advocate for legislation, budget allocations, and other government action.</p> <blockquote> <p>The Gibson interview continued a series of conversations with Borough Presidents just after or pegged to their State of the Borough addresses — <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11813-max-politics-podcast-manhattan-borough-president-mark-levine-housing-plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Manhattan Borough President Levine</a>, <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11789-brooklyn-borough-president-reynoso-priorities-housing-maternal-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso</a>, and <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11721-max-politics-podcast-borough-president-donovan-richards-queens-updates" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Queens Borough President Donovan Richards</a> each joined the podcast in recent months. (A conversation with Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella is in the works.)</p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Cannabis</strong><br />During her State of the Borough address, Gibson said legalized adult use cannabis has “the potential to be an economic engine” for the Bronx. She spoke about the potential of the industry to empower new business owners and those previously incarcerated or disenfranchised due to charges related to the drug, which she noted on the podcast were majority Black and Latino.</p> <p>“I fully believe that cannabis is an industry that we must embrace,” Gibson said on the podcast. “I look at it from both an equity and justice perspective. Equity because we want to create the next emerging entrepreneurs and small business owners, but we also know, from a justice perspective, we want to right the wrongs of systemic racism and mass incarceration due to marijuana prohibition.”</p> <p>Gibson spoke about her role in opening <a href="https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/politics/2022/12/10/cannabis-dispensary-showroom-in-the-bronx-offers-glimpse-of-the-future" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Bronx Dispensary Showroom</a>, a three-day-long cannabis retail pop-up led by her office and the Bronx Community Foundation in December of last year. The showroom offered retail goods, but also professional development training and speakers, as well as resources and information provided by cannabis advocacy organizations. She explained that it can be difficult for small business owners to break into the cannabis industry due to barriers such as capital and credit requirements. A group she is a part of — along with The Community Foundation  and The Bronx Defenders — is offering complimentary legal assistance to those interested in starting legal dispensaries.</p> <p>“We really showcased what cannabis is all about,” Gibson said. “We want this industry to be emerging, but we want to make sure it's done in a legal way.”</p> <p>Of the recent <a href="https://abc7ny.com/smoke-shops-nyc-marijuana-illegal-marijunana-sales/12780878/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">increase in illegal cannabis dispensaries</a> and a subsequent law enforcement crackdown, Gibson said these shops undermine the efforts of those who are trying to enter the industry legally. She said that many smoke shops in her borough have experienced <a href="https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/1/18/23561594/robbery-unlicensed-weed-shops-nypd-sheriff" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">robberies and violence</a> in recent months as well, threatening the safety of everyone. Gibson called for increased communication among the city, the state, and law enforcement and recommended a potential increase in training for the NYPD, which she said had been slow to properly address the proliferation of illegal sellers.</p> <p>“We have to do more education, more outreach,” she said, and suggested more public service and advertisement campaigns on the implications of legalization. “I do believe that there is a big divide when it comes to generations. What I'm trying to do as a borough president is find a medium, find a balance — how can we embrace it in a legal way, crack down on the unlicensed, but also do a lot more to educate?”</p> <p>[LISTEN: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11863-max-politics-podcast-bronx-borough-president-vanessa-gibson" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Max Politics Podcast: Borough President Vanessa Gibson on the State of the Bronx</a>]</p> <p><strong>Public Safety</strong><br />One of Gibson’s priorities is the creation of an Office of Public Safety stationed at the Bronx Borough President’s office to address concerns about crime and community, coordinating different stakeholders and consistently communicating with the NYPD about areas of concern.</p> <p>“It doesn't get lost on me that at any given time, there's something that's happening in my borough,” Gibson said on the podcast, while referencing the recent broad daylight <a href="https://abc7ny.com/bronx-shooting-suspect-4-shot/12800178/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">quadruple shooting</a> on East Tremont Avenue that left three wounded and one dead as an example of the violence plaguing the borough.</p> <p>Gibson said something like the office she’s soon launching has “never been done before.” She plans to work with law enforcement, first responders, anti-gun violence advocates, clergy, members of the general public, and others to address crime and supply victims with all the resources they may need — whether that entails funeral and burial expenses, counseling, relocation services, and more. Gibson said she wants to “holistically” and comprehensively address crime and safety in the borough.</p> <p>“I cannot tell you how often my office has had to work with these families that are affected by violence — the shootings, the stabbings, the school violence,” Gibson said. “We reach out to these families and they are broken and they need a myriad of assistance…It is hard. That is a job in itself, and I've been doing that since I've been an elected official. And now as borough president, it’s magnified even more because I deal with the whole borough.”</p> <p>In response to a question about how the role of the NYPD and the Office of Public Safety will intersect, Gibson said that the office will handle elements of crime and its aftermath that law enforcement cannot always focus on due to high caseloads and other responsibilities. </p> <p>“The goal of mine is to also have the human touch — and that's one thing that I don't think the NYPD always does, because if you're a victim of a crime, and you have to work with the detective bureau, their job is to investigate,” Gibson said. “We've heard concerns from many families that there's not always that level of sympathy.”</p> <p>Gibson also said that many of her constituents have expressed that they want to see more police officers along main roads and commuter routes, adding that this year was the first in a long time when the Bronx has been given an adequate number of police officers — each of the borough’s 12 precincts received new officers. She credited Mayor Eric Adams’ continued support of and attention to the Bronx.</p> <p>“I appreciate that as representative of a borough that hasn't always been given that priority,” Gibson said of Adams, the former Brooklyn borough president. “He won the Bronx in high numbers.”</p> <p><strong>More on Development and Economic Opportunity</strong><br />Gibson cited job creation as a top priority for keeping people, especially of younger generations, in the Bronx. Though the unemployment rate has dropped drastically since the height of the pandemic, she is looking to stimulate local union jobs, as well as apprenticeship programs that will offer new jobs “right now.” Her office is placing focus on tech, including gaming, and research, which she hopes will open up new jobs in the medical field.</p> <p>“We have been behind for a really long time, and I feel like a lot of times we have to play catch up,” Gibson said on the podcast. “We not only have to play catch up, we have to double our efforts just so that we can compete at a level playing field with our other counterparts in the city of New York. Realizing that it’s the Bronx — we have to make it attractive. You have to be able to stimulate the economy using some of our existing infrastructure to bring more people to the Bronx in a real tangible way.”</p> <p>She also spoke about the borough’s many ongoing development projects, mentioning the new Universal Hip Hop Museum, which is under construction, the opening of a new space for the Bronx Children’s Museum last December, and the planned Metro North expansion, which will add four new stops to the East Bronx by 2027 and is the subject of rezoning planning that is underway at the Department of City Planning.</p> <p>She also mentioned <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11622-future-kingsbridge-armory-bronx-development" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the newly-revived effort to finally redevelop the vacant Kingsbridge Armory</a>, a planning process to transform the historical military complex that’s been vacant since 1996. Gibson said that due to current zoning laws, housing at the complex is most likely not an option, but she has formed a list of non-negotiables that she would like to see in the new facility.</p> <p>In Gibson’s view, the new facility should center the borough’s culture, boost tourism, and create jobs and support small businesses, including street vendors. She is also advocating for a recreation space for young residents, health care services, vertical farming or something similar, and workforce development training.</p> <p>“It's huge. It's the largest in the country and has the potential to do so much for the Kingsbridge neighborhood, and for the entire borough and the city,” Gibson said. “It can be a game-changer.”</p> <p>Of the potential plans for a casino in the Bronx near the current Trump Links golf course, Gibson has mixed opinions. She called conversations about the plan “worthy and important” to have, but is concerned that the Bronx’s infrastructure is not ready to support such an addition and shared concerns about creating a facility that would attract so many tourists rather than investing in the community that is already living in the neighborhood and borough. </p> <p>Gibson said she supports the expansion of the Empire City Casino in Yonkers, a move that would expand the casino’s license to a full casino, as she appreciates the many jobs it provides to Bronx residents, with the potential for more. The process is underway to award three downstate casino licenses, two of which could go to expanding the existing partial casinos in Yonkers and Queens, but there are many proposals for casinos throughout the five boroughs and in the suburbs.</p> <p>“You’re building a whole neighborhood within a neighborhood, and you're bringing in clientele,” Gibson said of a potential new casino. “I want to make this beneficial for the Bronx…I want to make sure the community is in the conversation.”</p> <p><strong>Housing</strong><br />Gibson spoke favorably of Mayor Adams’ and Governor Kathy Hochul’s housing plans, which she called “ambitious,” and said that a lot needs to be done before they can be put into full effect. She expressed concern that the shelter and temporary housing system is overwhelmed, and said she is working to make Section 8 vouchers, which help low-income families find housing, more accessible.</p> <p>She also expressed a need she sees in her borough for affordable housing options more comprehensive than middle-income housing options already available. She added that not every neighborhood has done its part in providing these affordable housing options, explaining that she believes others are providing more than their fair share.</p> <p>“Affordable housing is the prerequisite to homeownership,” Gibson said. “We don't want tenants to be lifetime tenants. We eventually want them to move towards a pathway, upward mobility of becoming homeowners.”</p> <p>Gibson mentioned an ongoing $2 billion Fordham Landing redevelopment in University Heights, which will include more than 2,000 new apartments, hundreds of them affordable units. With new housing and new or larger communities, Gibson said she has spoken with Mayor Adams about making resources like schools, grocery stores, and health care facilities automatically included in or near new housing developments. Gibson acknowledged anxiety among some that comes with the prospect of more housing development, but said there must be more housing across the borough and the city, while addressing many important concerns.</p> <p>“This is a new administration — this is a new wave of leadership and we have to be responsible,” Gibson said. “We have to be collaborative, and ultimately we can and we will support responsible development that brings jobs, that brings stability. At the end of the day, we have gotten to be a ‘City of Yes’ that welcomes residents from all communities, and we can’t have this idea that affordable housing brings criminals and crime.”</p> <p><strong>Public Health</strong><br />Promoting public health continues to be a priority for Gibson, she said. Maternal health is at top of mind for the borough  president, who cited higher childbirth death rates impacting Black communities. She said that her office is currently working on creating a Bronx Birthing Center to support new mothers throughout the pregnancy and birth processes — something she said exists in other places across the city but not in the entire Bronx — and that it will release Birthing Center Reports once the facility is up and running. The project is still in its early stages, Gibson said.</p> <p>“We want to make sure that all birthing individuals have access to care in the Bronx, and to me, it's a matter of equity and justice and fairness in the system,” Gibson said.<br /><br />Gibson is also focused on creating a Diabetes Task Force to address a disease that impacts Bronx neighborhoods disproportionately. Her office is also seeking to address lupus and fibroids, two conditions that primarily affect women of color. She mentioned the office’s HIV/AIDs Task Force and Domestic Violence Task Force as other avenues of care, but expressed concern that the Bronx remains <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/176-22/mayor-adams-nyc-will-serve-up-healthier-meals-enhanced-food-standards" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ranked as the unhealthiest</a> of New York’s 62 counties, calling it “alarming” and attributing it to systemic racism that must be addressed.</p> <p>[LISTEN to the full conversation: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11863-max-politics-podcast-bronx-borough-president-vanessa-gibson" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Max Politics Podcast: Borough President Vanessa Gibson on the State of the Bronx</a>]</p> <p></p> <p> <img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/boro-pres-agenda.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)</p> <hr /> <p>Vanessa Gibson <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/10631-vanessa-gibson-bronx-borough-president-election-platform" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ran for Bronx Borough President in 2021 on a platform</a> focused on improving public housing and jumpstarting COVID-19 recovery. Now, just over one year into her term, she is advancing her agenda with a focus on public health, economic and housing development, and more. Gibson recognizes the Bronx’s many challenges, including as the borough with the highest rates of unemployment, poverty, crime, and unhealthfulness, but is also focused on its many positives and, especially, opportunities to uplift Bronxites.</p> <p>On March 1, Gibson delivered her first State of the Borough address, emphasizing the importance of access to jobs, mass transit, and affordable housing. Also high on the agenda was improving public health, especially major crises around maternal mortality and diabetes, as well as fire safety measures, increasing tourism, and more. Two days after her speech, Gibson, the first Black person and the first woman to serve as Bronx borough president, <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11863-max-politics-podcast-bronx-borough-president-vanessa-gibson" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">joined Gotham Gazette’s Max Politics podcast</a> to discuss her priorities for the borough.</p> <p>“Some of the top priorities for our administration moving forward is really focusing on the Bronx being a borough of opportunities…boosting tourism and focusing on cultural institutions,  and really bringing tourism back to the Bronx,” Gibson said on the podcast. “Economic development is the pathway to prosperity — when you talk about jobs, good paying, stable, union jobs that really create stability for many of the families I represent.”</p> <p>There are many major proposed and ongoing infrastructure projects in the Bronx, including the Hip Hop Museum that’s being built, renovations at Orchard Beach, the construction of the Bronx Detention Site in the borough’s Mott Haven neighborhood as part of the plan to close Rikers Island, and much more.</p> <p>There’s also <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/new-york-playbook-pm/2023/02/13/a-casino-proposed-for-the-bronx-00082622" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a proposal for a Bally’s casino</a> on the 17-acre plot currently housing the Trump Organization golf course and the early ongoing exploration of what will be done with the vacant, massive Kingsbridge Armory.</p> <p>Before becoming borough president in January 2022, Gibson spent a few years in the New York State Assembly then eight years representing the 16th City Council District. During her time in the City Council, from 2014 through 2021, she chaired the public safety committee and the capital budget subcommittee.</p> <p>Perhaps her most significant policy move as a Council member was as lead co-sponsor of the Right to Counsel law, which requires free-of-charge legal representation for low-income tenants facing eviction in housing court or NYCHA proceedings. Her lead co-sponsor was then-Council Member Mark Levine, who is now also a borough president, in Manhattan. The law passed in 2017, and led to a significant decrease in eviction rates pre-pandemic, proving a success that then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and the Council later expanded from high-need neighborhoods to all of New York City in 2021. Recent numbers show that after the pandemic eviction moratorium expired last January, only <a href="https://www.thecity.nyc/2022/10/27/23425792/right-to-counsel-housing-court-tenant-lawyers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a small percentage of low-income New Yorkers</a> are being assigned legal representation, which has caused alarm for Gibson, Levine, and many others.</p> <p>Gibson was elected Borough President during a competitive 2021 race, and effectively won during the June Democratic primary given the Bronx is overwhelmingly Democratic in voter enrollment. The role entails distribution of discretionary funds, weighing in on many land use matters, appointments to community boards and other bodies that have influence over policy, working with City Council, the mayor, and many other elected officials. The Borough President cannot vote on legislation, but has a significant bully pulpit and can work with other entities to introduce and advocate for legislation, budget allocations, and other government action.</p> <blockquote> <p>The Gibson interview continued a series of conversations with Borough Presidents just after or pegged to their State of the Borough addresses — <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11813-max-politics-podcast-manhattan-borough-president-mark-levine-housing-plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Manhattan Borough President Levine</a>, <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11789-brooklyn-borough-president-reynoso-priorities-housing-maternal-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso</a>, and <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11721-max-politics-podcast-borough-president-donovan-richards-queens-updates" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Queens Borough President Donovan Richards</a> each joined the podcast in recent months. (A conversation with Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella is in the works.)</p> </blockquote> <p><strong>Cannabis</strong><br />During her State of the Borough address, Gibson said legalized adult use cannabis has “the potential to be an economic engine” for the Bronx. She spoke about the potential of the industry to empower new business owners and those previously incarcerated or disenfranchised due to charges related to the drug, which she noted on the podcast were majority Black and Latino.</p> <p>“I fully believe that cannabis is an industry that we must embrace,” Gibson said on the podcast. “I look at it from both an equity and justice perspective. Equity because we want to create the next emerging entrepreneurs and small business owners, but we also know, from a justice perspective, we want to right the wrongs of systemic racism and mass incarceration due to marijuana prohibition.”</p> <p>Gibson spoke about her role in opening <a href="https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/politics/2022/12/10/cannabis-dispensary-showroom-in-the-bronx-offers-glimpse-of-the-future" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Bronx Dispensary Showroom</a>, a three-day-long cannabis retail pop-up led by her office and the Bronx Community Foundation in December of last year. The showroom offered retail goods, but also professional development training and speakers, as well as resources and information provided by cannabis advocacy organizations. She explained that it can be difficult for small business owners to break into the cannabis industry due to barriers such as capital and credit requirements. A group she is a part of — along with The Community Foundation  and The Bronx Defenders — is offering complimentary legal assistance to those interested in starting legal dispensaries.</p> <p>“We really showcased what cannabis is all about,” Gibson said. “We want this industry to be emerging, but we want to make sure it's done in a legal way.”</p> <p>Of the recent <a href="https://abc7ny.com/smoke-shops-nyc-marijuana-illegal-marijunana-sales/12780878/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">increase in illegal cannabis dispensaries</a> and a subsequent law enforcement crackdown, Gibson said these shops undermine the efforts of those who are trying to enter the industry legally. She said that many smoke shops in her borough have experienced <a href="https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/1/18/23561594/robbery-unlicensed-weed-shops-nypd-sheriff" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">robberies and violence</a> in recent months as well, threatening the safety of everyone. Gibson called for increased communication among the city, the state, and law enforcement and recommended a potential increase in training for the NYPD, which she said had been slow to properly address the proliferation of illegal sellers.</p> <p>“We have to do more education, more outreach,” she said, and suggested more public service and advertisement campaigns on the implications of legalization. “I do believe that there is a big divide when it comes to generations. What I'm trying to do as a borough president is find a medium, find a balance — how can we embrace it in a legal way, crack down on the unlicensed, but also do a lot more to educate?”</p> <p>[LISTEN: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11863-max-politics-podcast-bronx-borough-president-vanessa-gibson" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Max Politics Podcast: Borough President Vanessa Gibson on the State of the Bronx</a>]</p> <p><strong>Public Safety</strong><br />One of Gibson’s priorities is the creation of an Office of Public Safety stationed at the Bronx Borough President’s office to address concerns about crime and community, coordinating different stakeholders and consistently communicating with the NYPD about areas of concern.</p> <p>“It doesn't get lost on me that at any given time, there's something that's happening in my borough,” Gibson said on the podcast, while referencing the recent broad daylight <a href="https://abc7ny.com/bronx-shooting-suspect-4-shot/12800178/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">quadruple shooting</a> on East Tremont Avenue that left three wounded and one dead as an example of the violence plaguing the borough.</p> <p>Gibson said something like the office she’s soon launching has “never been done before.” She plans to work with law enforcement, first responders, anti-gun violence advocates, clergy, members of the general public, and others to address crime and supply victims with all the resources they may need — whether that entails funeral and burial expenses, counseling, relocation services, and more. Gibson said she wants to “holistically” and comprehensively address crime and safety in the borough.</p> <p>“I cannot tell you how often my office has had to work with these families that are affected by violence — the shootings, the stabbings, the school violence,” Gibson said. “We reach out to these families and they are broken and they need a myriad of assistance…It is hard. That is a job in itself, and I've been doing that since I've been an elected official. And now as borough president, it’s magnified even more because I deal with the whole borough.”</p> <p>In response to a question about how the role of the NYPD and the Office of Public Safety will intersect, Gibson said that the office will handle elements of crime and its aftermath that law enforcement cannot always focus on due to high caseloads and other responsibilities. </p> <p>“The goal of mine is to also have the human touch — and that's one thing that I don't think the NYPD always does, because if you're a victim of a crime, and you have to work with the detective bureau, their job is to investigate,” Gibson said. “We've heard concerns from many families that there's not always that level of sympathy.”</p> <p>Gibson also said that many of her constituents have expressed that they want to see more police officers along main roads and commuter routes, adding that this year was the first in a long time when the Bronx has been given an adequate number of police officers — each of the borough’s 12 precincts received new officers. She credited Mayor Eric Adams’ continued support of and attention to the Bronx.</p> <p>“I appreciate that as representative of a borough that hasn't always been given that priority,” Gibson said of Adams, the former Brooklyn borough president. “He won the Bronx in high numbers.”</p> <p><strong>More on Development and Economic Opportunity</strong><br />Gibson cited job creation as a top priority for keeping people, especially of younger generations, in the Bronx. Though the unemployment rate has dropped drastically since the height of the pandemic, she is looking to stimulate local union jobs, as well as apprenticeship programs that will offer new jobs “right now.” Her office is placing focus on tech, including gaming, and research, which she hopes will open up new jobs in the medical field.</p> <p>“We have been behind for a really long time, and I feel like a lot of times we have to play catch up,” Gibson said on the podcast. “We not only have to play catch up, we have to double our efforts just so that we can compete at a level playing field with our other counterparts in the city of New York. Realizing that it’s the Bronx — we have to make it attractive. You have to be able to stimulate the economy using some of our existing infrastructure to bring more people to the Bronx in a real tangible way.”</p> <p>She also spoke about the borough’s many ongoing development projects, mentioning the new Universal Hip Hop Museum, which is under construction, the opening of a new space for the Bronx Children’s Museum last December, and the planned Metro North expansion, which will add four new stops to the East Bronx by 2027 and is the subject of rezoning planning that is underway at the Department of City Planning.</p> <p>She also mentioned <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11622-future-kingsbridge-armory-bronx-development" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the newly-revived effort to finally redevelop the vacant Kingsbridge Armory</a>, a planning process to transform the historical military complex that’s been vacant since 1996. Gibson said that due to current zoning laws, housing at the complex is most likely not an option, but she has formed a list of non-negotiables that she would like to see in the new facility.</p> <p>In Gibson’s view, the new facility should center the borough’s culture, boost tourism, and create jobs and support small businesses, including street vendors. She is also advocating for a recreation space for young residents, health care services, vertical farming or something similar, and workforce development training.</p> <p>“It's huge. It's the largest in the country and has the potential to do so much for the Kingsbridge neighborhood, and for the entire borough and the city,” Gibson said. “It can be a game-changer.”</p> <p>Of the potential plans for a casino in the Bronx near the current Trump Links golf course, Gibson has mixed opinions. She called conversations about the plan “worthy and important” to have, but is concerned that the Bronx’s infrastructure is not ready to support such an addition and shared concerns about creating a facility that would attract so many tourists rather than investing in the community that is already living in the neighborhood and borough. </p> <p>Gibson said she supports the expansion of the Empire City Casino in Yonkers, a move that would expand the casino’s license to a full casino, as she appreciates the many jobs it provides to Bronx residents, with the potential for more. The process is underway to award three downstate casino licenses, two of which could go to expanding the existing partial casinos in Yonkers and Queens, but there are many proposals for casinos throughout the five boroughs and in the suburbs.</p> <p>“You’re building a whole neighborhood within a neighborhood, and you're bringing in clientele,” Gibson said of a potential new casino. “I want to make this beneficial for the Bronx…I want to make sure the community is in the conversation.”</p> <p><strong>Housing</strong><br />Gibson spoke favorably of Mayor Adams’ and Governor Kathy Hochul’s housing plans, which she called “ambitious,” and said that a lot needs to be done before they can be put into full effect. She expressed concern that the shelter and temporary housing system is overwhelmed, and said she is working to make Section 8 vouchers, which help low-income families find housing, more accessible.</p> <p>She also expressed a need she sees in her borough for affordable housing options more comprehensive than middle-income housing options already available. She added that not every neighborhood has done its part in providing these affordable housing options, explaining that she believes others are providing more than their fair share.</p> <p>“Affordable housing is the prerequisite to homeownership,” Gibson said. “We don't want tenants to be lifetime tenants. We eventually want them to move towards a pathway, upward mobility of becoming homeowners.”</p> <p>Gibson mentioned an ongoing $2 billion Fordham Landing redevelopment in University Heights, which will include more than 2,000 new apartments, hundreds of them affordable units. With new housing and new or larger communities, Gibson said she has spoken with Mayor Adams about making resources like schools, grocery stores, and health care facilities automatically included in or near new housing developments. Gibson acknowledged anxiety among some that comes with the prospect of more housing development, but said there must be more housing across the borough and the city, while addressing many important concerns.</p> <p>“This is a new administration — this is a new wave of leadership and we have to be responsible,” Gibson said. “We have to be collaborative, and ultimately we can and we will support responsible development that brings jobs, that brings stability. At the end of the day, we have gotten to be a ‘City of Yes’ that welcomes residents from all communities, and we can’t have this idea that affordable housing brings criminals and crime.”</p> <p><strong>Public Health</strong><br />Promoting public health continues to be a priority for Gibson, she said. Maternal health is at top of mind for the borough  president, who cited higher childbirth death rates impacting Black communities. She said that her office is currently working on creating a Bronx Birthing Center to support new mothers throughout the pregnancy and birth processes — something she said exists in other places across the city but not in the entire Bronx — and that it will release Birthing Center Reports once the facility is up and running. The project is still in its early stages, Gibson said.</p> <p>“We want to make sure that all birthing individuals have access to care in the Bronx, and to me, it's a matter of equity and justice and fairness in the system,” Gibson said.<br /><br />Gibson is also focused on creating a Diabetes Task Force to address a disease that impacts Bronx neighborhoods disproportionately. Her office is also seeking to address lupus and fibroids, two conditions that primarily affect women of color. She mentioned the office’s HIV/AIDs Task Force and Domestic Violence Task Force as other avenues of care, but expressed concern that the Bronx remains <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/176-22/mayor-adams-nyc-will-serve-up-healthier-meals-enhanced-food-standards" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ranked as the unhealthiest</a> of New York’s 62 counties, calling it “alarming” and attributing it to systemic racism that must be addressed.</p> <p>[LISTEN to the full conversation: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11863-max-politics-podcast-bronx-borough-president-vanessa-gibson" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Max Politics Podcast: Borough President Vanessa Gibson on the State of the Bronx</a>]</p> <p></p> City Council Members Question Mayor Adams' Decision to Create New Office for Asylum-Seeker Operations 2023-03-21T04:00:00+00:00 2023-03-21T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11868-city-council-immigrant-affairs-asylum-seekers-budget Samar Khurshid samarkhurshid@gmail.com <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/1-city-more-funding.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>MOIA Commissioner Castro, center-left, with Mayor Adams &amp; others (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)</p> <hr /> <p>Earlier this month, Mayor Eric Adams announced the creation of a new office to handle the influx of tens of thousands of migrant asylum-seekers in the city. But, at a City Council budget hearing focused on immigration services that same day, March 7, administration officials offered barebones details about the new office’s structure and budget, and how it would interact with an existing mayoral office that is already dedicated to immigrant affairs and has been coordinating services for newly-arrived migrants.</p> <p>New York City is home to more than 3 million immigrants, including about 600,000 undocumented immigrants as of April 2022. For the last year, the city has been dealing with the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants who have crossed the southern border seeking asylum in the United States. According to estimates from the Adams administration, more than 50,000 asylum-seekers have come to the city in the last year, 30,000 of whom are still in the city’s care in shelters and emergency relief centers.</p> <p>After months of ever-shifting approaches and pleas for more help from other levels of government, this month Mayor Adams announced a comprehensive response to the migrant crisis. It includes creating the new Office of Asylum Seeker Operations (OASO) and releasing a <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/press-releases/2023/asylum-seeker-blueprint.pdf">blueprint</a> with plans to provide long- and short-term housing, resettlement services, legal representation, workforce training, and more.</p> <p>As Adams put it, the new office is an attempt to organize the city’s various efforts at dealing with the migrant crisis. “We're shifting from the response of dealing with that emergency influx to a very organized way,” he told reporters after the announcement.</p> <p>The mayor did not provide details about who would head up the new office or where the city would set up a new 24/7 arrival center for migrants as a part of the plan; it also was not clear why a new office was needed.</p> <p>“We're going to open a location, we're going to let everyone know where the location is, and we are going to make a determination of the structured way to make sure the resources that people want to bring is done in an orderly fashion,” he said. “I don't do things in a disorganized way. We will make sure all those who want to assist the asylum-seekers get an opportunity to do so.”</p> <p>However, the city already has an office dedicated to immigrants, the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), which advises the mayor on policies related to immigrants, provides a myriad of services to the city’s immigrant population from legal assistance to language services, and coordinates with other mayoral offices and city agencies on immigrant services. Over the past year, MOIA has been working closely with the city’s emergency management office and others to provide services to the asylum-seekers who have arrived, along with other ongoing programming.</p> <p>At a City Council budget hearing after the mayor’s announcement, Council members questioned the rationale behind creating a new office with responsibilities that are already overseen in some fashion by MOIA.</p> <p>Council members have already been critical of the mayor for his comments in recent months where he has presented, in their opinion, a false dichotomy between providing services and shelter for migrants at the cost of services for New Yorkers who have been living in the city. He has repeatedly used that reasoning when justifying cuts to city agencies in his proposed $102.7 billion preliminary budget for the 2024 fiscal year and while making threats of further cuts.</p> <p>The city does have a major price tag to contend with. The administration estimates that the migrant crisis will cost about $4.2 billion over the current and next fiscal years. Mayor Adams has called it a “national crisis” and urged the federal and state governments to provide greater assistance to the city. So far, the city has only secured about $8 million from FEMA and is awaiting its share of an $800 million pot of funding appropriated by Congress in December to aid cities that have seen migrants arrive in large numbers. City budget officials have said, though, they don’t expect any of those funds to be delivered before the end of the current fiscal year, June 30.</p> <p>Governor Kathy Hochul did propose $1 billion in aid to the city in her executive budget, which is being negotiated in Albany and is due by April 1. She also proposed a framework where costs would be borne equally by the federal, state, and city governments.</p> <p>“It is disappointing that the proposed preliminary budget leaves significant gaps in the city's ability to meet the needs of our immigrant community,” said Council Member Shahana Hanif, a Brooklyn Democrat, co-chair of the Council’s Progressive Caucus, and chair of the Council’s Committee on Immigration, at the hearing.</p> <p>“This committee rejects the austerity framework that pits new arrivals against longtime residents,” she added. “We call on the administration to restore and increase funding to services that allow our newest New Yorkers to thrive.”</p> <p>However the more glaring omission that the Council members noted at the hearing was the lack of details about the new Office of Asylum Seeker Operations.</p> <p>Under questioning from Council members, MOIA Commissioner Manuel Castro attempted to justify the mayor’s announcement. “We don't have details about where it will be housed,” he said of the new office. “I think that's an ongoing conversation. But it is an office that's meant to centralize the work even further.”</p> <p>When Hanif asked about the structure or budget of the office, Castro had no readily available information to offer. “I think this office will help alleviate some of the pressure on all of us, but we'll certainly share information as we learn more,” he said.</p> <p>A spokesperson for the mayor had no additional information to share about the new office as of Monday, March 20.</p> <p>Council Member Gale Brewer, a Manhattan Democrat, seemed bewildered by the mayor’s decision to create a separate office rather than expand MOIA, which is a relatively small office, with a six-person staff and a proposed budget of only $745,000 for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.</p> <p>“[T]here must be a new task force for everything right?” Brewer said. “I don't really understand. This one should have been you. I don't know if we need a new one.”</p> <p>Castro did try to assure the committee that MOIA’s role was not entirely being supplanted, since it will still be coordinating emergency immigrant legal services that the city has allocated $5 million towards.</p> <p>“We've been told that MOIA will continue to have a significant role. This is not us pulling back,” he said.</p> <p>The office is necessary, he argued, as the city still has many unknowns to contend with over the next few months as the city expects migrants to continue to arrive. President Joe Biden has also said that the national state of emergency over COVID-19 will end in May, which will also lift the Title 42 policy that has been used to expel more than 2 million migrants arriving at the border.</p> <p>“We just don't know what will happen in the coming months with Title 42 to be lifted and everything else happening,” Castro said. “It's best to be prepared…We don't want to be alarmist but we don't want to let our guard down. We want to have a plan in place.”</p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/1-city-more-funding.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>MOIA Commissioner Castro, center-left, with Mayor Adams &amp; others (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)</p> <hr /> <p>Earlier this month, Mayor Eric Adams announced the creation of a new office to handle the influx of tens of thousands of migrant asylum-seekers in the city. But, at a City Council budget hearing focused on immigration services that same day, March 7, administration officials offered barebones details about the new office’s structure and budget, and how it would interact with an existing mayoral office that is already dedicated to immigrant affairs and has been coordinating services for newly-arrived migrants.</p> <p>New York City is home to more than 3 million immigrants, including about 600,000 undocumented immigrants as of April 2022. For the last year, the city has been dealing with the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants who have crossed the southern border seeking asylum in the United States. According to estimates from the Adams administration, more than 50,000 asylum-seekers have come to the city in the last year, 30,000 of whom are still in the city’s care in shelters and emergency relief centers.</p> <p>After months of ever-shifting approaches and pleas for more help from other levels of government, this month Mayor Adams announced a comprehensive response to the migrant crisis. It includes creating the new Office of Asylum Seeker Operations (OASO) and releasing a <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/press-releases/2023/asylum-seeker-blueprint.pdf">blueprint</a> with plans to provide long- and short-term housing, resettlement services, legal representation, workforce training, and more.</p> <p>As Adams put it, the new office is an attempt to organize the city’s various efforts at dealing with the migrant crisis. “We're shifting from the response of dealing with that emergency influx to a very organized way,” he told reporters after the announcement.</p> <p>The mayor did not provide details about who would head up the new office or where the city would set up a new 24/7 arrival center for migrants as a part of the plan; it also was not clear why a new office was needed.</p> <p>“We're going to open a location, we're going to let everyone know where the location is, and we are going to make a determination of the structured way to make sure the resources that people want to bring is done in an orderly fashion,” he said. “I don't do things in a disorganized way. We will make sure all those who want to assist the asylum-seekers get an opportunity to do so.”</p> <p>However, the city already has an office dedicated to immigrants, the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), which advises the mayor on policies related to immigrants, provides a myriad of services to the city’s immigrant population from legal assistance to language services, and coordinates with other mayoral offices and city agencies on immigrant services. Over the past year, MOIA has been working closely with the city’s emergency management office and others to provide services to the asylum-seekers who have arrived, along with other ongoing programming.</p> <p>At a City Council budget hearing after the mayor’s announcement, Council members questioned the rationale behind creating a new office with responsibilities that are already overseen in some fashion by MOIA.</p> <p>Council members have already been critical of the mayor for his comments in recent months where he has presented, in their opinion, a false dichotomy between providing services and shelter for migrants at the cost of services for New Yorkers who have been living in the city. He has repeatedly used that reasoning when justifying cuts to city agencies in his proposed $102.7 billion preliminary budget for the 2024 fiscal year and while making threats of further cuts.</p> <p>The city does have a major price tag to contend with. The administration estimates that the migrant crisis will cost about $4.2 billion over the current and next fiscal years. Mayor Adams has called it a “national crisis” and urged the federal and state governments to provide greater assistance to the city. So far, the city has only secured about $8 million from FEMA and is awaiting its share of an $800 million pot of funding appropriated by Congress in December to aid cities that have seen migrants arrive in large numbers. City budget officials have said, though, they don’t expect any of those funds to be delivered before the end of the current fiscal year, June 30.</p> <p>Governor Kathy Hochul did propose $1 billion in aid to the city in her executive budget, which is being negotiated in Albany and is due by April 1. She also proposed a framework where costs would be borne equally by the federal, state, and city governments.</p> <p>“It is disappointing that the proposed preliminary budget leaves significant gaps in the city's ability to meet the needs of our immigrant community,” said Council Member Shahana Hanif, a Brooklyn Democrat, co-chair of the Council’s Progressive Caucus, and chair of the Council’s Committee on Immigration, at the hearing.</p> <p>“This committee rejects the austerity framework that pits new arrivals against longtime residents,” she added. “We call on the administration to restore and increase funding to services that allow our newest New Yorkers to thrive.”</p> <p>However the more glaring omission that the Council members noted at the hearing was the lack of details about the new Office of Asylum Seeker Operations.</p> <p>Under questioning from Council members, MOIA Commissioner Manuel Castro attempted to justify the mayor’s announcement. “We don't have details about where it will be housed,” he said of the new office. “I think that's an ongoing conversation. But it is an office that's meant to centralize the work even further.”</p> <p>When Hanif asked about the structure or budget of the office, Castro had no readily available information to offer. “I think this office will help alleviate some of the pressure on all of us, but we'll certainly share information as we learn more,” he said.</p> <p>A spokesperson for the mayor had no additional information to share about the new office as of Monday, March 20.</p> <p>Council Member Gale Brewer, a Manhattan Democrat, seemed bewildered by the mayor’s decision to create a separate office rather than expand MOIA, which is a relatively small office, with a six-person staff and a proposed budget of only $745,000 for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.</p> <p>“[T]here must be a new task force for everything right?” Brewer said. “I don't really understand. This one should have been you. I don't know if we need a new one.”</p> <p>Castro did try to assure the committee that MOIA’s role was not entirely being supplanted, since it will still be coordinating emergency immigrant legal services that the city has allocated $5 million towards.</p> <p>“We've been told that MOIA will continue to have a significant role. This is not us pulling back,” he said.</p> <p>The office is necessary, he argued, as the city still has many unknowns to contend with over the next few months as the city expects migrants to continue to arrive. President Joe Biden has also said that the national state of emergency over COVID-19 will end in May, which will also lift the Title 42 policy that has been used to expel more than 2 million migrants arriving at the border.</p> <p>“We just don't know what will happen in the coming months with Title 42 to be lifted and everything else happening,” Castro said. “It's best to be prepared…We don't want to be alarmist but we don't want to let our guard down. We want to have a plan in place.”</p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
At the City Council, Library System Heads Argue Against Mayor's Budget Cuts 2023-03-21T04:00:00+00:00 2023-03-21T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11893-libraries-mayor-adams-budget-cuts-council Samar Khurshid samarkhurshid@gmail.com <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/lib-sys-heads.jpg" /></p> <p>Linda Johnson, Tony Marx, &amp; Dennis Walcott (l-r) (photo: @nypl)</p> <hr /> <p>The leaders of New York City’s three public library systems appealed to the New York City Council on Monday for its help in pushing back against tens of millions in possible budget cuts in Mayor Eric Adams’ $102.7 billion preliminary budget plan for the 2024 fiscal year.</p> <p>The New York, Brooklyn, and Queens Public Libraries, along with the city’s Research Libraries, together face a $20.5 million budget cut in the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, as part of a Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG) that the mayor instituted to cut city spending. The heads of the library systems also want the mayor to reallocate and baseline another $15.7 million, which was previously awarded by the Council for the current fiscal year through discretionary funds.</p> <p>In total, the library officials and their supporters say that amounts to a possible $36.2 million budget cut that would severely affect their services, on top of $13.5 million in cuts already made by the mayor in the earlier November modification to the current year’s budget.</p> <p>Overall, the mayor’s budget proposes a combined roughly $411 million for the three public library systems and the research libraries, $42 million lower than the budget adopted last June for the current fiscal year.</p> <p>On Monday morning, the heads of the library systems (New York Public Library serves Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island) were among those rallying against the cuts on the steps of City Hall before appearing at a budget hearing held by the Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations. They received a sympathetic welcome, as the Council has already declared that it will push back against any reduction in funding for libraries. Committee chair Council Member Chi Ossé, a Brooklyn Democrat, was among the Council members who joined the library presidents and others at the rally before the hearing.</p> <p>“I want to ensure that the Fiscal 2024 Preliminary Plan adequately funds the city’s library systems as they continue providing services to the neighborhoods throughout the city,” said Council Member Chi Ossé, the committee chair. “It is essential that the budget we adopt this year is transparent, accountable, and reflective of the priorities and interests of the Council and the people we represent.”</p> <p>The city’s libraries provide a broad range of services and programs including early childhood education, afterschool programming, English-language classes, free internet service, and more. During the pandemic, library branches served as vaccination and testing sites. In one particularly severe heatwave, they opened their doors as cooling centers. They help people sign up for the municipal identification program, host participatory budgeting sessions, provide job training, and teach technology to those reentering society after leaving the justice system, among other services. Most recently, they have been part of providing assistance to the tens of thousands of migrant asylum-seekers arriving in the city.</p> <p>The library leaders said they faced stark choices should they have to absorb the cuts in the mayor’s proposed budget.</p> <p>“The scale and magnitude of these cuts would impact our operations across the board – our capacity to open new branches just after we've invested huge amounts of capital in them, to keep our current hours, to maintain our collections, to offer the extensive educational and other programs,” said Tony Marx, president and CEO of New York Public Library, in his opening remarks.</p> <p>The Adams administration has attempted to refute the narrative that the budget will cut funding for libraries. The mayor and his spokespeople have argued that the PEG exercise did not discriminate between city agencies and was necessary as the city faces severe financial pressures including unresolved municipal labor contracts, increasing health care costs, diminishing federal relief aid, and, chiefly, the costs of the migrant asylum-seeker crisis.</p> <p>“This administration has made critical investments in the city’s three library systems and recognizes the vital role they play in our communities,” said Jonah Allon, a mayoral spokesperson, in a statement to Gotham Gazette last week.</p> <p>Allon said it was “inaccurate” to say library funding was being cut, however, since that allocation does not yet include state or federal funding, which will be reflected further along during the budget process. He also noted that the Council will have the opportunity to allocate discretionary funds to libraries again before the budget is adopted. “We will continue to evaluate their needs and work with them through the budget process,” he said of the libraries.</p> <p>[READ: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11878-library-systems-mayor-adams-budget-cuts">City Libraries Launch Push to Beat Back Mayor Adams' Budget Cuts</a>]</p> <p>At the hearing, Linda Johnson, president and CEO of Brooklyn Public Library, said the cuts would force BPL to cut 78 vacant positions, at a time when they need to add about 40 more employees to meet the demands of bringing new library branches online. “We're beyond cutting to the bone, we're cutting to the marrow,” she said, insisting that the system would have to brace for emergency closures since they have little wiggle room to operate with limited staff.</p> <p>Marx said NYPL would have to reduce 85 vacant positions. “A 10% cut to our baseline funding is the equivalent to 10 fewer branches in our system at a moment when we're reopening six,” Marx said.</p> <p>“All three systems, we’re extremely lean and we’re effective, really, being that lean,” said Dennis Walcott, president and CEO of Queens Public Library. “And any further cuts to the system really goes beyond effectiveness and being lean. It is counterproductive to what we'll be facing.”</p> <p>Library officials and Council Member Ossé also said that the library cuts are being proposed at a time when transphobic right-wing activists have begun targeting local libraries for hosting drag story hours, and when conservative-led states are banning books that they wrongly label as harmful to children.</p> <p>“We understand in this moment, in this national climate of a rash of book bans and protests at drag story hours, that we have to stand as an institution,” Marx said. “That is part of our civic engagement, to say we are committed to the mission of everyone having the access to the materials and the programs and the opportunities that they seek.”</p> <p>“Our very purpose of being here is to be sure that we continue to be the most democratic institution in our society and that we protect everybody's right to read what they choose,” Johnson said.</p> <p>“We are truly an open democratic institution and we cannot allow our staff, we cannot allow people who come to us as customers, to be impacted, affected by the culture wars that are taking place outside our buildings,” Walcott said.</p> <p>The library systems have also been affected by the staffing crisis across city government and have been hiring to fill vacancies. But any further cuts will mean that they will lose that hiring momentum, the library officials said.</p> <p>Ossé also stressed the point that funding for libraries is also essential to public safety. They are the type of “upstream” investments that Mayor Adams has repeatedly talked about.</p> <p>“We know that the longer that kids are staying in our libraries…and the more interesting programs that we're offering that attract teenagers, the better off they'll be,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of shiny things that are out on the streets and our objective is to keep teenagers in our branches throughout their high school career.”</p> <p>“In order to achieve the level of public safety that we want, we cannot just be investing in policing,” Marx said. “We need to be investing in how to prevent the kinds of public safety concerns that then feed the debate about policing.”</p> <p>In April, Mayor Adams will present his executive budget, taking into account the latest fiscal projections, the state budget passed in Albany, and other factors, including the City Council’s response to his preliminary budget, which it will issue after the ongoing weeks of hearings.</p> <p>On Monday the library officials also stressed the need for libraries to be included in the mayor’s ten-year capital plan and for the city to speed up library capital projects through the Department of Design and Construction, which currently “take twice as long and cost twice as much” as it should, Marx said.</p> <p>“If we don't have great, inspiring spaces that are not leaking, we can't do any of the other things that people rely on us to do,” he said.</p> <p>The proposed fiscal year 2024 Preliminary Capital Commitment Plan, which covers fiscal years 2023-2027, allocates $936.6 million for the library systems. The Ten-Year Capital Strategy for fiscal years 2024-2033, which is released every two years, includes $1.3 billion for the systems.</p> <p>“It would be great if we could be funded enough so that we could do work preventatively instead of just reacting to emergencies,” Johnson said, noting that the BPL has about $340 million in deferred maintenance needs.</p> <p>The NYPL’s capital needs, Marx said, are about $536 million, while Queens’ needs are about $165 million over ten years.</p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/lib-sys-heads.jpg" /></p> <p>Linda Johnson, Tony Marx, &amp; Dennis Walcott (l-r) (photo: @nypl)</p> <hr /> <p>The leaders of New York City’s three public library systems appealed to the New York City Council on Monday for its help in pushing back against tens of millions in possible budget cuts in Mayor Eric Adams’ $102.7 billion preliminary budget plan for the 2024 fiscal year.</p> <p>The New York, Brooklyn, and Queens Public Libraries, along with the city’s Research Libraries, together face a $20.5 million budget cut in the next fiscal year, which starts July 1, as part of a Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG) that the mayor instituted to cut city spending. The heads of the library systems also want the mayor to reallocate and baseline another $15.7 million, which was previously awarded by the Council for the current fiscal year through discretionary funds.</p> <p>In total, the library officials and their supporters say that amounts to a possible $36.2 million budget cut that would severely affect their services, on top of $13.5 million in cuts already made by the mayor in the earlier November modification to the current year’s budget.</p> <p>Overall, the mayor’s budget proposes a combined roughly $411 million for the three public library systems and the research libraries, $42 million lower than the budget adopted last June for the current fiscal year.</p> <p>On Monday morning, the heads of the library systems (New York Public Library serves Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island) were among those rallying against the cuts on the steps of City Hall before appearing at a budget hearing held by the Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations. They received a sympathetic welcome, as the Council has already declared that it will push back against any reduction in funding for libraries. Committee chair Council Member Chi Ossé, a Brooklyn Democrat, was among the Council members who joined the library presidents and others at the rally before the hearing.</p> <p>“I want to ensure that the Fiscal 2024 Preliminary Plan adequately funds the city’s library systems as they continue providing services to the neighborhoods throughout the city,” said Council Member Chi Ossé, the committee chair. “It is essential that the budget we adopt this year is transparent, accountable, and reflective of the priorities and interests of the Council and the people we represent.”</p> <p>The city’s libraries provide a broad range of services and programs including early childhood education, afterschool programming, English-language classes, free internet service, and more. During the pandemic, library branches served as vaccination and testing sites. In one particularly severe heatwave, they opened their doors as cooling centers. They help people sign up for the municipal identification program, host participatory budgeting sessions, provide job training, and teach technology to those reentering society after leaving the justice system, among other services. Most recently, they have been part of providing assistance to the tens of thousands of migrant asylum-seekers arriving in the city.</p> <p>The library leaders said they faced stark choices should they have to absorb the cuts in the mayor’s proposed budget.</p> <p>“The scale and magnitude of these cuts would impact our operations across the board – our capacity to open new branches just after we've invested huge amounts of capital in them, to keep our current hours, to maintain our collections, to offer the extensive educational and other programs,” said Tony Marx, president and CEO of New York Public Library, in his opening remarks.</p> <p>The Adams administration has attempted to refute the narrative that the budget will cut funding for libraries. The mayor and his spokespeople have argued that the PEG exercise did not discriminate between city agencies and was necessary as the city faces severe financial pressures including unresolved municipal labor contracts, increasing health care costs, diminishing federal relief aid, and, chiefly, the costs of the migrant asylum-seeker crisis.</p> <p>“This administration has made critical investments in the city’s three library systems and recognizes the vital role they play in our communities,” said Jonah Allon, a mayoral spokesperson, in a statement to Gotham Gazette last week.</p> <p>Allon said it was “inaccurate” to say library funding was being cut, however, since that allocation does not yet include state or federal funding, which will be reflected further along during the budget process. He also noted that the Council will have the opportunity to allocate discretionary funds to libraries again before the budget is adopted. “We will continue to evaluate their needs and work with them through the budget process,” he said of the libraries.</p> <p>[READ: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11878-library-systems-mayor-adams-budget-cuts">City Libraries Launch Push to Beat Back Mayor Adams' Budget Cuts</a>]</p> <p>At the hearing, Linda Johnson, president and CEO of Brooklyn Public Library, said the cuts would force BPL to cut 78 vacant positions, at a time when they need to add about 40 more employees to meet the demands of bringing new library branches online. “We're beyond cutting to the bone, we're cutting to the marrow,” she said, insisting that the system would have to brace for emergency closures since they have little wiggle room to operate with limited staff.</p> <p>Marx said NYPL would have to reduce 85 vacant positions. “A 10% cut to our baseline funding is the equivalent to 10 fewer branches in our system at a moment when we're reopening six,” Marx said.</p> <p>“All three systems, we’re extremely lean and we’re effective, really, being that lean,” said Dennis Walcott, president and CEO of Queens Public Library. “And any further cuts to the system really goes beyond effectiveness and being lean. It is counterproductive to what we'll be facing.”</p> <p>Library officials and Council Member Ossé also said that the library cuts are being proposed at a time when transphobic right-wing activists have begun targeting local libraries for hosting drag story hours, and when conservative-led states are banning books that they wrongly label as harmful to children.</p> <p>“We understand in this moment, in this national climate of a rash of book bans and protests at drag story hours, that we have to stand as an institution,” Marx said. “That is part of our civic engagement, to say we are committed to the mission of everyone having the access to the materials and the programs and the opportunities that they seek.”</p> <p>“Our very purpose of being here is to be sure that we continue to be the most democratic institution in our society and that we protect everybody's right to read what they choose,” Johnson said.</p> <p>“We are truly an open democratic institution and we cannot allow our staff, we cannot allow people who come to us as customers, to be impacted, affected by the culture wars that are taking place outside our buildings,” Walcott said.</p> <p>The library systems have also been affected by the staffing crisis across city government and have been hiring to fill vacancies. But any further cuts will mean that they will lose that hiring momentum, the library officials said.</p> <p>Ossé also stressed the point that funding for libraries is also essential to public safety. They are the type of “upstream” investments that Mayor Adams has repeatedly talked about.</p> <p>“We know that the longer that kids are staying in our libraries…and the more interesting programs that we're offering that attract teenagers, the better off they'll be,” Johnson said. “There are a lot of shiny things that are out on the streets and our objective is to keep teenagers in our branches throughout their high school career.”</p> <p>“In order to achieve the level of public safety that we want, we cannot just be investing in policing,” Marx said. “We need to be investing in how to prevent the kinds of public safety concerns that then feed the debate about policing.”</p> <p>In April, Mayor Adams will present his executive budget, taking into account the latest fiscal projections, the state budget passed in Albany, and other factors, including the City Council’s response to his preliminary budget, which it will issue after the ongoing weeks of hearings.</p> <p>On Monday the library officials also stressed the need for libraries to be included in the mayor’s ten-year capital plan and for the city to speed up library capital projects through the Department of Design and Construction, which currently “take twice as long and cost twice as much” as it should, Marx said.</p> <p>“If we don't have great, inspiring spaces that are not leaking, we can't do any of the other things that people rely on us to do,” he said.</p> <p>The proposed fiscal year 2024 Preliminary Capital Commitment Plan, which covers fiscal years 2023-2027, allocates $936.6 million for the library systems. The Ten-Year Capital Strategy for fiscal years 2024-2033, which is released every two years, includes $1.3 billion for the systems.</p> <p>“It would be great if we could be funded enough so that we could do work preventatively instead of just reacting to emergencies,” Johnson said, noting that the BPL has about $340 million in deferred maintenance needs.</p> <p>The NYPL’s capital needs, Marx said, are about $536 million, while Queens’ needs are about $165 million over ten years.</p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
How the Adams Administration is Thinking About Blockchain and Cryptocurrency 2023-03-17T04:00:00+00:00 2023-03-17T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11883-city-council-mayor-adams-blockchain-cryptocurrency Nicholas Liu nliu3@gg.com <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/7-questions-blockchain.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams at a tech conference (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)</p> <hr /> <p>At a February oversight hearing held by the New York City Council Committee on Technology, the city’s Chief Technology Officer, Matthew Fraser, defended blockchain as a useful tool for stimulating the economy and enhancing government services.</p> <p>As head of the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI), Fraser is at the forefront of the Adams administration’s plans to integrate blockchain and other digital tools into municipal operations while also continuing to evaluate the cryptocurrency marketplace. At the hearing, Fraser delved into several tech projects the city is undertaking, including the development of the “MyCity” one-stop portal for city services and public benefits, but much of the discussion focused on how the administration is approaching blockchain.</p> <p>Blockchain technology strings together “blocks” of digital transaction records to create unique and private data, with a focus on security. Cryptocurrency, which relies on blockchain, is a decentralized digital currency meant to create an alternative to traditional monetary systems.</p> <p>Mayor Eric Adams, a first-term Democrat who appointed Fraser to his current role last year, has been a big booster of the tech sector broadly and both blockchain and cryptocurrency specifically. Both Adams and Fraser have been <a href="https://www.crainsnewyork.com/technology/new-york-city-searching-blockchain-experts">supportive</a> of newer technologies and digital assets like blockchain and cryptocurrency, even despite the latter’s volatility, crash, and high-profile scandals. Adams famously used his first two paychecks as mayor to buy the largely unregulated cryptocurrencies, purchasing Bitcoin and other crypto products, investments that have all lost much of their value since.</p> <p>The City Council technology committee, chaired by Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, a Brooklyn Democrat, called the oversight hearing — the first of its kind in the city — to examine how the Adams administration is considering and evaluating blockchain and cryptocurrency. Adams has previously discussed his faith in these technologies to help expand government services, grow New York’s economy, and engage new entrepreneurs, young people, and people historically disenfranchised by the traditional banking and economic gate-keepers.</p> <p>In her opening statement, Gutiérrez listed transactional freedom and accessibility, data stability and authenticity, and ability to detect fraud as positives, in some cases, of either cryptocurrency or blockchain technology, while raising concerns over energy consumption, volatility that led to incidents like the FTX crypto fund collapse, and difficulty in correcting flaws in decentralized systems.</p> <p>“We must do our due diligence to not only understand cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, but also make sure New Yorkers can properly access the necessary information to safely navigate these novel technologies,” Gutiérrez said at the hearing. “Today’s hearing aims to draw in any vision for both technologies, ensuring that as a city we are giving thoughtful consideration to this potentially transformational technology and industry, rather than refusing to exchange because the issues are complicated and not yet fully formed.”</p> <p>“In addition to the blockchain industry helping New York City’s economy recover from the lingering effects of the pandemic, blockchain technology has the potential to streamline and centralize document retention, enable real-time record consolidation, and support asset transfers, among many other applications,” Fraser said in his testimony. “New York City has proudly been a pioneer in embracing the blockchain industry, as it evaluates the potential government applications and plants a flag as a viable home for blockchain companies that can grow our economy and hire new workers.”</p> <p>Over the course of the hearing, Fraser and several City Council members discussed government use of blockchain and cryptocurrency, educating people to avoid risks, and working with state and federal actors to deal with the emerging technology responsibly and beneficially. While there were large areas of agreement over how data and tracking could be used to streamline government services, some Council members objected to the implications over privacy and the readiness of the city to support new blockchain-based initiatives.</p> <p><strong>Digital Wallet, Privacy, and Data</strong><br />One of Mayor Adams’ campaign commitments was to replace traditional city government payroll checks and direct deposit with a “cyber wallet” to pay government workers and public benefit recipients. Fraser told the committee that he expects the first wallets to be introduced by the end of the calendar year.</p> <p>The cyber wallets may be integrated into the forthcoming MyCity platform, an online hub that connects New Yorkers to city services and public benefit applications.</p> <p>Asked by Gutiérrez for details on the administration’s plan, Fraser clarified that a cyber wallet, essentially an individual account on a digital finance network, would be able to accept various sources of payments and types of currencies, including cryptocurrency. Centralizing benefits on a single digital platform, he said, would give government agencies better means to keep track of how government-provided money is being spent.</p> <p>One controversial application of digital wallet technology is the Adams administration’s proposal to track what kind of food users are buying and then use the data to incentivize healthier behavior.</p> <p>“Imagine for food benefits, if you had a digital wallet where you went out and spent a dollar on vegetables or something healthy versus sugary snacks or soda,” Fraser explained. “The city could provide incentive points, meaning, dollar-matching, dollar-for-dollar, for what you spend on healthy products.”</p> <p>City Council Member Vickie Paladino, a Queens Republican, used much of her questioning time to press Fraser on the potential ramifications for privacy. “I don’t like the idea that you’re going to monitor people’s spending habits—whether they choose to buy healthy food or a bag of potato chips,” she told Fraser, who clarified that no benefits would be cut based on a recipient’s spending habits.</p> <p>Recipients would not be required to take part in the incentives program, he added. His answers did not mollify Paladino, who continued to express deep concern over embarking on a heavily digitized, centralized project.</p> <p>“Everything sounds great in the beginning,” she said. “But five and ten years down the road, this is like something out of a science-fiction movie…I feel like as soon as we give an inch, you take a hand, and as soon as we give a hand, you take an arm, and before we know it, we don’t know how we all got here.”</p> <p>Less controversially, Fraser said that broadening the eligibility framework and tracking who is taking advantage of public services would allow agencies to spot which services an eligible person might not be taking advantage of.</p> <p>City Council Member Julie Won, a Queens Democrat, praised blockchain technology but asked whether the Adams administration had built the infrastructure to support their plans for consolidating blockchain data for operational purposes.</p> <p>Fraser sought to assure the committee that government agencies were in the process of standardizing their data collection and use practices, but Won continued to press him from the perspective of constituents seeking transparency over issues like the progress of a capital project or details of their procurement cycles.</p> <p>“Right now we have issues with CompStat, CouncilStat, Passport, which is not in real time,” Won said, referring to various city government digital programs. “And the user interface is not something that is easy for folks to use.”</p> <p>Assessing “real-time” data is something that the New York City police department (NYPD) has done for many years through its CompStat system, which is used for tracking crime and holding police officials accountable at regular internal NYPD meetings while also presenting information to the public. Mayor Adams has said he helped develop CompStat when he was in the police department and often touts its effectiveness. Fraser echoed Adams’ oft-stated plans to expand CompStat-type data aggregation and analysis (and use for government accountability) beyond the NYPD through NYCStat, a more general database for tracking city services that the administration is working to develop.</p> <p>“We are in the infancy stage, like babies dragging our faces on the floor and trying to get upright,” Fraser told Won, concerning NYCStat. “[CompStat] is the space we’re looking to get to with NYCStat. And it’s not just about one agency’s data, but about operation data across all the agencies.”</p> <p>Asked by Won if a digital wallet and other data-collecting tools would be used for punitive measures, Fraser assured the committee that they would not. He also said that OTI had no intention of sharing data with third parties, but demurred when asked if they would decline requests for data from law enforcement.</p> <p><strong>Education</strong><br />Under questioning from Council Members Gutiérrez and Won, Fraser explained the Office of Technology and Innovation’s efforts to educate the public on careful approaches to cryptocurrency.</p> <p>“We brought out a number of financial literacy courses,” he said. “I’m hopeful that as we go within the next near or so that we can make more of these courses broadly available, and we can incorporate other things into that like risks associated with these types of monies.”</p> <p>Fraser later said that OTI had partnered with the Department of Education and higher education institutions like CUNY to circulate information as early as possible and prepare the future workforce for changes in the currency landscape by introducing courses about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology into school curriculums. The DOE has introduced gaming into its curriculum this year, with hopes to add more emerging technology education in the coming year.</p> <p>In addition to formal coursework, OTI has played a prominent role in organizing relevant conferences and events, including the annual Blockchain Week, which Fraser said “brings together those that are leading innovators of blockchain and leveraging blockchain-related tech, those who are interested in learning blockchain-related tech, and also bringing civic innovation together for those that are in New York that have startups focusing on that space.” Fraser told the Council committee that thousands of people have participated in the event each year.</p> <p><strong>Implementation and Viability</strong><br />Since his appointment as Chief Technology Officer in early 2021, Fraser has been working to grow the cryptocurrency industry in New York City and lay the groundwork for integrating blockchain technology into government use, such as the sharing and validation of legal documents. Mayor Adams has talked about the city issuing, for example, birth certificates through blockchain.</p> <p>In a sign of the Adams administration’s increasing focus on cryptocurrency and blockchain, city government agencies are making several new hires with purview over emerging technology.</p> <p>The Human Resources Administration is seeking a Director of Security Operations specializing in blockchain technology, while OTI is recruiting two Policy Advisors to investigate and advance government blockchain use cases.</p> <p>“The individuals who fill these positions will work with government and external stakeholders to identify, assess, and develop strategies to implement blockchain applications in the right way,” Fraser’s office told Gotham Gazette. “It is important to note that while blockchain could have a plethora of use cases in government, our team is laser-focused on researching and determining where blockchain implementation could make more sense than traditional technology.”</p> <p>According to the job posting shared with Gotham Gazette, other key responsibilities for the OTI Policy Advisors include advising the CTO on how shifting trends might affect New York City government operations and serving as liaisons among the Adams administration, government partners, and industry on matters concerning digital assets.</p> <p>The city must work closely with the state government’s Department of Financial Services (DFS), which as chief regulator in New York is responsible for setting regulatory standards, issuing BitLicenses for cryptocurrency services, and controlling who can emerge into the digital asset field to do business in the state.</p> <p>Asked by Gutiérrez about any dialogue with state government leaders, Fraser called Governor Kathy Hochul a “big supporter of New York City” and affirmed that his office “has had a lot of conversations with the governor’s office about the speed it takes to get a BitLicense issued, and other conversations around eligibility criteria, around who can apply, and some of those conversations have resulted in changes by the DFS, including adding additional resources to that office so that they can turn out licenses quicker.”</p> <p>Part of the process involves lowering what the CTO’s office later referred to as “artificial barriers to entry.” OTI does not yet have a specific year-to-year goal for the number of licenses it would like to see issued, he said. None of the Council members present asked about the potential pitfalls of lowering barriers to entry or speeding up the issuance of BitLicenses.</p> <p>Fraser also emphasized his bottom line that maintaining New York City’s apparent position as the financial technology (fintech) capital of the world required “smart regulation, not overregulation.”</p> <p>One significant limitation, which some may call a protection, is that the federal government does not yet recognize cryptocurrency as a legitimate form of currency, which prevents the New York City government from accepting or providing payments in that form. As things stand, OTI is still looking for ways to potentially utilize third-party services like a New York City Coin for New Yorkers to pay their taxes, parking tickets, and other fees in cryptocurrency, which would then be converted into U.S. dollars for the final phase of transaction.</p> <p>But when it comes to widespread implementation of third-party cryptocurrency services like in Miami, with its controversial MiamiCoin, Fraser exercised more caution. According to OTI, New York City government has no connection to NYCCoin, which is run by the same company that created the now-defunct MiamiCoin.</p> <p>“As the fintech capital of the world, we can’t afford to make investments while we throw products out that don’t necessarily meet a maturity level that we feel comfortable with,” Fraser told Council members. “Since the start of the administration, we’ve been evaluating what’s the best way to enter the market if we enter the market…at this point, we haven’t made a tangible decision as to whether a New York City Coin would ever emerge, but we are looking for practical applications of blockchain-related technology and how we can use third-party applications to accept payments using crypto.”</p> <p>

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by Nicholas Liu, Gotham Gazette

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/7-questions-blockchain.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams at a tech conference (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)</p> <hr /> <p>At a February oversight hearing held by the New York City Council Committee on Technology, the city’s Chief Technology Officer, Matthew Fraser, defended blockchain as a useful tool for stimulating the economy and enhancing government services.</p> <p>As head of the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation (OTI), Fraser is at the forefront of the Adams administration’s plans to integrate blockchain and other digital tools into municipal operations while also continuing to evaluate the cryptocurrency marketplace. At the hearing, Fraser delved into several tech projects the city is undertaking, including the development of the “MyCity” one-stop portal for city services and public benefits, but much of the discussion focused on how the administration is approaching blockchain.</p> <p>Blockchain technology strings together “blocks” of digital transaction records to create unique and private data, with a focus on security. Cryptocurrency, which relies on blockchain, is a decentralized digital currency meant to create an alternative to traditional monetary systems.</p> <p>Mayor Eric Adams, a first-term Democrat who appointed Fraser to his current role last year, has been a big booster of the tech sector broadly and both blockchain and cryptocurrency specifically. Both Adams and Fraser have been <a href="https://www.crainsnewyork.com/technology/new-york-city-searching-blockchain-experts">supportive</a> of newer technologies and digital assets like blockchain and cryptocurrency, even despite the latter’s volatility, crash, and high-profile scandals. Adams famously used his first two paychecks as mayor to buy the largely unregulated cryptocurrencies, purchasing Bitcoin and other crypto products, investments that have all lost much of their value since.</p> <p>The City Council technology committee, chaired by Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, a Brooklyn Democrat, called the oversight hearing — the first of its kind in the city — to examine how the Adams administration is considering and evaluating blockchain and cryptocurrency. Adams has previously discussed his faith in these technologies to help expand government services, grow New York’s economy, and engage new entrepreneurs, young people, and people historically disenfranchised by the traditional banking and economic gate-keepers.</p> <p>In her opening statement, Gutiérrez listed transactional freedom and accessibility, data stability and authenticity, and ability to detect fraud as positives, in some cases, of either cryptocurrency or blockchain technology, while raising concerns over energy consumption, volatility that led to incidents like the FTX crypto fund collapse, and difficulty in correcting flaws in decentralized systems.</p> <p>“We must do our due diligence to not only understand cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, but also make sure New Yorkers can properly access the necessary information to safely navigate these novel technologies,” Gutiérrez said at the hearing. “Today’s hearing aims to draw in any vision for both technologies, ensuring that as a city we are giving thoughtful consideration to this potentially transformational technology and industry, rather than refusing to exchange because the issues are complicated and not yet fully formed.”</p> <p>“In addition to the blockchain industry helping New York City’s economy recover from the lingering effects of the pandemic, blockchain technology has the potential to streamline and centralize document retention, enable real-time record consolidation, and support asset transfers, among many other applications,” Fraser said in his testimony. “New York City has proudly been a pioneer in embracing the blockchain industry, as it evaluates the potential government applications and plants a flag as a viable home for blockchain companies that can grow our economy and hire new workers.”</p> <p>Over the course of the hearing, Fraser and several City Council members discussed government use of blockchain and cryptocurrency, educating people to avoid risks, and working with state and federal actors to deal with the emerging technology responsibly and beneficially. While there were large areas of agreement over how data and tracking could be used to streamline government services, some Council members objected to the implications over privacy and the readiness of the city to support new blockchain-based initiatives.</p> <p><strong>Digital Wallet, Privacy, and Data</strong><br />One of Mayor Adams’ campaign commitments was to replace traditional city government payroll checks and direct deposit with a “cyber wallet” to pay government workers and public benefit recipients. Fraser told the committee that he expects the first wallets to be introduced by the end of the calendar year.</p> <p>The cyber wallets may be integrated into the forthcoming MyCity platform, an online hub that connects New Yorkers to city services and public benefit applications.</p> <p>Asked by Gutiérrez for details on the administration’s plan, Fraser clarified that a cyber wallet, essentially an individual account on a digital finance network, would be able to accept various sources of payments and types of currencies, including cryptocurrency. Centralizing benefits on a single digital platform, he said, would give government agencies better means to keep track of how government-provided money is being spent.</p> <p>One controversial application of digital wallet technology is the Adams administration’s proposal to track what kind of food users are buying and then use the data to incentivize healthier behavior.</p> <p>“Imagine for food benefits, if you had a digital wallet where you went out and spent a dollar on vegetables or something healthy versus sugary snacks or soda,” Fraser explained. “The city could provide incentive points, meaning, dollar-matching, dollar-for-dollar, for what you spend on healthy products.”</p> <p>City Council Member Vickie Paladino, a Queens Republican, used much of her questioning time to press Fraser on the potential ramifications for privacy. “I don’t like the idea that you’re going to monitor people’s spending habits—whether they choose to buy healthy food or a bag of potato chips,” she told Fraser, who clarified that no benefits would be cut based on a recipient’s spending habits.</p> <p>Recipients would not be required to take part in the incentives program, he added. His answers did not mollify Paladino, who continued to express deep concern over embarking on a heavily digitized, centralized project.</p> <p>“Everything sounds great in the beginning,” she said. “But five and ten years down the road, this is like something out of a science-fiction movie…I feel like as soon as we give an inch, you take a hand, and as soon as we give a hand, you take an arm, and before we know it, we don’t know how we all got here.”</p> <p>Less controversially, Fraser said that broadening the eligibility framework and tracking who is taking advantage of public services would allow agencies to spot which services an eligible person might not be taking advantage of.</p> <p>City Council Member Julie Won, a Queens Democrat, praised blockchain technology but asked whether the Adams administration had built the infrastructure to support their plans for consolidating blockchain data for operational purposes.</p> <p>Fraser sought to assure the committee that government agencies were in the process of standardizing their data collection and use practices, but Won continued to press him from the perspective of constituents seeking transparency over issues like the progress of a capital project or details of their procurement cycles.</p> <p>“Right now we have issues with CompStat, CouncilStat, Passport, which is not in real time,” Won said, referring to various city government digital programs. “And the user interface is not something that is easy for folks to use.”</p> <p>Assessing “real-time” data is something that the New York City police department (NYPD) has done for many years through its CompStat system, which is used for tracking crime and holding police officials accountable at regular internal NYPD meetings while also presenting information to the public. Mayor Adams has said he helped develop CompStat when he was in the police department and often touts its effectiveness. Fraser echoed Adams’ oft-stated plans to expand CompStat-type data aggregation and analysis (and use for government accountability) beyond the NYPD through NYCStat, a more general database for tracking city services that the administration is working to develop.</p> <p>“We are in the infancy stage, like babies dragging our faces on the floor and trying to get upright,” Fraser told Won, concerning NYCStat. “[CompStat] is the space we’re looking to get to with NYCStat. And it’s not just about one agency’s data, but about operation data across all the agencies.”</p> <p>Asked by Won if a digital wallet and other data-collecting tools would be used for punitive measures, Fraser assured the committee that they would not. He also said that OTI had no intention of sharing data with third parties, but demurred when asked if they would decline requests for data from law enforcement.</p> <p><strong>Education</strong><br />Under questioning from Council Members Gutiérrez and Won, Fraser explained the Office of Technology and Innovation’s efforts to educate the public on careful approaches to cryptocurrency.</p> <p>“We brought out a number of financial literacy courses,” he said. “I’m hopeful that as we go within the next near or so that we can make more of these courses broadly available, and we can incorporate other things into that like risks associated with these types of monies.”</p> <p>Fraser later said that OTI had partnered with the Department of Education and higher education institutions like CUNY to circulate information as early as possible and prepare the future workforce for changes in the currency landscape by introducing courses about cryptocurrency and blockchain technology into school curriculums. The DOE has introduced gaming into its curriculum this year, with hopes to add more emerging technology education in the coming year.</p> <p>In addition to formal coursework, OTI has played a prominent role in organizing relevant conferences and events, including the annual Blockchain Week, which Fraser said “brings together those that are leading innovators of blockchain and leveraging blockchain-related tech, those who are interested in learning blockchain-related tech, and also bringing civic innovation together for those that are in New York that have startups focusing on that space.” Fraser told the Council committee that thousands of people have participated in the event each year.</p> <p><strong>Implementation and Viability</strong><br />Since his appointment as Chief Technology Officer in early 2021, Fraser has been working to grow the cryptocurrency industry in New York City and lay the groundwork for integrating blockchain technology into government use, such as the sharing and validation of legal documents. Mayor Adams has talked about the city issuing, for example, birth certificates through blockchain.</p> <p>In a sign of the Adams administration’s increasing focus on cryptocurrency and blockchain, city government agencies are making several new hires with purview over emerging technology.</p> <p>The Human Resources Administration is seeking a Director of Security Operations specializing in blockchain technology, while OTI is recruiting two Policy Advisors to investigate and advance government blockchain use cases.</p> <p>“The individuals who fill these positions will work with government and external stakeholders to identify, assess, and develop strategies to implement blockchain applications in the right way,” Fraser’s office told Gotham Gazette. “It is important to note that while blockchain could have a plethora of use cases in government, our team is laser-focused on researching and determining where blockchain implementation could make more sense than traditional technology.”</p> <p>According to the job posting shared with Gotham Gazette, other key responsibilities for the OTI Policy Advisors include advising the CTO on how shifting trends might affect New York City government operations and serving as liaisons among the Adams administration, government partners, and industry on matters concerning digital assets.</p> <p>The city must work closely with the state government’s Department of Financial Services (DFS), which as chief regulator in New York is responsible for setting regulatory standards, issuing BitLicenses for cryptocurrency services, and controlling who can emerge into the digital asset field to do business in the state.</p> <p>Asked by Gutiérrez about any dialogue with state government leaders, Fraser called Governor Kathy Hochul a “big supporter of New York City” and affirmed that his office “has had a lot of conversations with the governor’s office about the speed it takes to get a BitLicense issued, and other conversations around eligibility criteria, around who can apply, and some of those conversations have resulted in changes by the DFS, including adding additional resources to that office so that they can turn out licenses quicker.”</p> <p>Part of the process involves lowering what the CTO’s office later referred to as “artificial barriers to entry.” OTI does not yet have a specific year-to-year goal for the number of licenses it would like to see issued, he said. None of the Council members present asked about the potential pitfalls of lowering barriers to entry or speeding up the issuance of BitLicenses.</p> <p>Fraser also emphasized his bottom line that maintaining New York City’s apparent position as the financial technology (fintech) capital of the world required “smart regulation, not overregulation.”</p> <p>One significant limitation, which some may call a protection, is that the federal government does not yet recognize cryptocurrency as a legitimate form of currency, which prevents the New York City government from accepting or providing payments in that form. As things stand, OTI is still looking for ways to potentially utilize third-party services like a New York City Coin for New Yorkers to pay their taxes, parking tickets, and other fees in cryptocurrency, which would then be converted into U.S. dollars for the final phase of transaction.</p> <p>But when it comes to widespread implementation of third-party cryptocurrency services like in Miami, with its controversial MiamiCoin, Fraser exercised more caution. According to OTI, New York City government has no connection to NYCCoin, which is run by the same company that created the now-defunct MiamiCoin.</p> <p>“As the fintech capital of the world, we can’t afford to make investments while we throw products out that don’t necessarily meet a maturity level that we feel comfortable with,” Fraser told Council members. “Since the start of the administration, we’ve been evaluating what’s the best way to enter the market if we enter the market…at this point, we haven’t made a tangible decision as to whether a New York City Coin would ever emerge, but we are looking for practical applications of blockchain-related technology and how we can use third-party applications to accept payments using crypto.”</p> <p>

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by Nicholas Liu, Gotham Gazette

Read more by this writer.

</p>
Bonds, Vouchers, Tax Credits, & More: Mayor Adams' Federal Housing Agenda 2023-03-15T13:00:00+00:00 2023-03-15T13:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11846-mayor-adams-federal-housing-agenda Ethan Geringer-Sameth ethangs@gothamgazette.com <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/fed-housing-agenda-edit.jpg" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams and Chief Housing Officer Katz unveil housing plans (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Facing an affordable housing and homelessness crisis, Mayor Eric Adams has set an ambitious goal to build 500,000 new homes, rehabilitate a collapsing public housing system, and transform social service delivery.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While most attention is paid to policies at the city and state levels, Adams is relying in part on action from Washington, D.C. that could bring in billions of dollars in subsidies and make it easier for New Yorkers to access housing benefits. That includes enough tenant protection vouchers to then borrow $5.5 billion through bonding, which officials say is needed to upgrade 25,000 NYCHA apartments under </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11850-nycha-progress-blueprint-change-preservation-trust" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the Public Housing Preservation Trust</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a major financing tool created last year by state lawmakers at the city’s urging.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">New York City Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz was in Washington, D.C. in January, pushing the administration's agenda with federal officials.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"All the easy stuff we've tried already in housing," Katz said on a recent </span><a href="https://thehousingproblem.com/episodes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">episode</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of The Housing Problem podcast, hosted by two long-time New York housing players. "Now we're trying to push the boulder up the mountain to some more difficult things. And the collaboration between the federal and state and city government is going to be the whole ballgame," Katz said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to the mayor’s office, the administration’s federal agenda includes passing legislation to expand key affordable housing financing mechanisms, reducing administrative hurdles to access Section 8 and other federal low-income housing programs, and the additional voucher funding that will make the NYCHA Preservation Trust work.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The $5.5 billion that could be raised from voucher-backed bonds accounts for only a fraction of NYCHA's $40 billion capital and operational shortfall. The city has been looking for billions in direct aid from the federal government for NYCHA repairs for many years, but no such funding has been forthcoming, even under full Democratic control in Washington in 2021 and 2022 and the passage of several major spending packages, including the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill. Members of the city's congressional delegation continue to push for tens of billions of dollars in direct public housing capital funding, but in the absence of that, other strategies are being pursued.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A number of the administration's federal proposals were in Adams' </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/office-of-the-mayor/2022/Housing-Blueprint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">first housing plan</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, "Housing Our Neighbors," released last June, including funding for NYCHA and easing administrative hurdles to securing benefits. Several others, like doubling the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, the strongest available federal resource for financing affordable housing development, are more recent goals, according to a City Hall spokesperson, who provided the full federal agenda to Gotham Gazette upon inquiry (though no comment for this article).</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Governor Kathy Hochul has also made housing production a major priority of her first term, promising to create or preserve 100,000 units of affordable housing over five years and build 800,000 new homes overall in the next decade. She is prioritizing some of the same measures in Washington as Adams, including capital funding for NYCHA and extending the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, according to a spokesperson. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hochul met with members of New York's congressional delegation in Washington in February where she "highlighted ways State and federal leaders can work together to address the housing crisis," the spokesperson, Justin Henry, wrote by email.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"[T]he Governor looks forward to continuing to work with our federal partners to bring her vision for a more affordable New York to fruition," he wrote. Hochul is also seeking a new federal tax credit to build or renovate 1-4 family housing in distressed parts of the state and greater monetary rewards for state and local governments that reform discriminatory zoning policies.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Many of the provisions Adams and Hochul are seeking have failed to gain traction in recent years, despite their inclusion in early drafts of major pandemic-era legislation. Now, in a divided Congress, advocates see an even steeper uphill battle to achieve their goals.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Every branch of government has a really important role to play in addressing the housing crisis," said Annemarie Gray, a former city housing official and now executive director of Open New York, a housing advocacy organization.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"And frankly for too long politicians at all levels of government sat on the sidelines and haven't actually done what they need to do to address the housing shortage," she added.</span></p> <p><b>Housing Supply Legislation<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Adams administration is also seeking the passage of three bills through Congress that would finance affordable housing construction by expanding the reach of private activity bonds, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, and low-cost loans to housing financing agencies. New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the Housing Development Corporation use these types of tools in conjunction with private developers, including for- and not-for-profit entities.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The New York City capital budget includes $5 billion for affordable housing over five years. That includes $3.6 billion for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and $1.2 billion for NYCHA's PACT program (a separate rehabilitation program outside of the Preservation Trust), and another $200 million for NYCHA developments in Brooklyn.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The state budget includes $5.7 billion in capital spending for affordable housing production, part of a five-year, $25 billion plan to help finance the building or preservation of 100,000 units across the state, 10,000 of which will be supportive housing.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another $8.8 billion will come from state and federal tax credits and other federal funding. And $11 billion will go toward rental subsidies and operating shelters and supportive housing.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A handful of federal bills could add billions in capital dollars to help boost New York's affordable housing supply.</span></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act and SAVE Act<br /></span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is the most valuable available federal mechanism to facilitate affordable housing construction. The </span><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1136/text#toc-id4514045BE71D4694960CDAE0831552CB"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> would extend an increase on the "9% tax credit," a form of LIHTC that is used to finance new construction and expires in 2024. It also increases tax credits for extremely low-income households.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Critically, according to housing advocates, it would reduce the "50% test" on affordable housing projects financed through the sale of private activity bonds, a type of bond that can create tax-exempt interest when used for affordable rental housing, among other non-housing-related categories. Affordable housing projects that use private activity bonds to pay for half or more of the total costs (hence, "50%") are able to generate LIHTCs, which incentivize production.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The federal government limits the number of private activity bonds a state can issue and thus the number of projects that can reach the 50% threshold. The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act would lower the threshold to 25%, increasing the number of developments eligible to receive LIHTCs. The bill would also allow states to reuse previous bond allocations, a practice known as bond recycling.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Adams administration estimates the measures could generate an annual $1.3 billion in new funding to finance affordable housing.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"It would really unlock affordable housing supply in New York. We would have the ability to finance double what we're financing now," said Rachel Fee, executive director of New York Housing Conference and former federal policy lead at the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Right now we use all of our federal resources for affordable housing and we're at the limit," Fee said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In February 2021, Fee and U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat and now the House Minority Leader, </span><a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-how-to-fix-americas-housing-crisis-20210213-s4bu7teborc4bbmefinglx24xa-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">penned an op-ed</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> calling for LIHTC increases and the bond cap exemption, along with fully funding Section 8 to create a form of universal rental assistance. None of those proposals made it across the finish line last year.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The limits on LIHTCs make it difficult for the city to finance affordable housing directly. That was part of why Mayor Bill de Blasio focused on private production and the implementation of Mandatory Inclusionary Housing – which permits greater density in exchange for affordable housing – and tax incentives like the now-defunct 421-a. Fee said more LIHTCs would allow the city and state to build more 100% below-market-rate rental buildings.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another bill – the </span><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/8533/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Support Allowing Volume Expansion Federally-Assisted Housing Act</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, or SAVE Act – would go further, exempting affordable housing projects from volume caps on private activity bonds, meaning more would become eligible for LIHTCs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We hope [changes to LIHTC] will be enough of a bipartisan issue that can get a little traction even despite the challenges of the political landscape in D.C. right now," Katz, the city’s chief housing officer, said on the podcast.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Henry, Hochul's spokesperson, said changes to the 50% test and the bond cap are among the measures the governor is pushing in Washington this session.</span></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Federal-Financing Bank Risk-Sharing Act</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> <br /></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The city is also seeking an extension of the Housing Finance Agency Multifamily Loan Risk-Sharing Program. The program provides low-cost capital to build and maintain multi-family affordable rentals. Advocates from New York City pushed for its temporary reinstatement in 2021, after it sunset in 2018. The program will expire again in 2024 without the passage of the </span><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/8824/text?s=1&amp;r=4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Federal-Financing Bank Risk-Sharing Act</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams had previously included the SAVE Act in his "Housing Our Neighbors" plan, while the other bills are newer sights for the administration.</span></p> <p><b>Biden’s Budget<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">In his budget plan, released last week, Democratic President Joe Biden included a reduction in the 50% test for LIHTCs to 25%, in line with the Adams administration agenda. According to an </span><a href="https://www.novoco.com/notes-from-novogradac/novogradac-estimates-193-million-additional-affordable-rental-homes-could-be-financed-if-lihtc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">analysis</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from the audit and tax services organization Novogradac, lowering that threshold could create 1.48 million new affordable rental units nationwide from private activity bonds issued between 2023 and 2032. Biden also wants to extend the "9% tax credit" in 2025.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The proposed federal budget, which will inform spending and policy negotiations with Congress, also includes $51 billion in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and other subsidies used to develop affordable rental and owner-occupied units. Congress will pass its budget resolutions and formally approve appropriations over the coming months.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Biden also included over $8.9 billion in total discretionary spending </span><a href="https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/CFO/documents/2024_CJ_Program_Template_-_PH_Fund.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">on public housing nationally</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, including $5.1 billion in operating funding and $3.2 billion for capital. That funding also includes $535 million specifically earmarked for environmental upgrades, lead remediation, and other improvements. Given NYCHA is the largest public housing authority in the country, by far, it would likely receive a significant portion of any public housing funding.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The budget also places $7.5 billion in mandatory capital funding for the public housing properties with the most dire needs. By including that funding in the mandatory side of the budget, Biden signaled support for making public housing an entitlement that would be shielded from fights over discretionary spending. But that inclusion is being viewed by advocates as a symbolic gesture given its near impossible chances of being passed by a divided Congress. House Republicans are proposing drastic cuts to HUD including reducing housing programs by up to 43%, according to a </span><a href="https://nlihc.org/resource/president-biden-releases-fy24-budget-request" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.</span></p> <p><b>Administrative Burdens<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Most publicly-funded affordable housing is subject to federal eligibility requirements that can be onerous for individuals and families to access, leaving available units vacant. Applicants for public assistance, rental subsidy vouchers, and affordable units are often asked to provide excessive and duplicative paperwork, and attend in-person appointments – all while facing the trials of housing instability.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Experts, including Katz, argue these regulations are unnecessary and counter to the purpose of public assistance – while having the effect of keeping shelter populations artificially high.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Housing Our Neighbors" outlined a number of administrative shifts in the processing of Section 8 rental assistance and other state and federal housing placement programs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A spokesperson for Mayor Adams said changes to HUD and IRS standards, both administratively and through statute, would have a serious impact on housing access in New York City. For example, aligning HUD regulations with Treasury Department and IRS rules around tax-credits and tax-exempt bonds would limit the administrative overlap of various programs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A recent HUD rule change allowed government housing agencies, like New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to use income information held by other programs and agencies to determine an applicant's eligibility.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I think the timing is good for that because money is tight so where they can help us with regulation and not cash, I think people are more than interested in stepping up and helping," Katz said of her recent trip to Washington.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We actually got a surprising number of administrative burdens nerds to talk to us up there and we're hoping to make some real progress both on the regulatory and the legislative sides with administrative burdens," she said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But for Fee, the political environment is less favorable to administrative fixes than when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"It just seems so dysfunctional and I think for Republicans controlling the House, housing is not going to be a top priority for them," she said. "Nothing is easy in Washington," she added. "Like, </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">nothing</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is easy."</span></p> <p><b>NYCHA and the Public Housing Preservation Trust<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">NYCHA is America's largest public housing authority and the city's largest affordable housing provider. With over 177,000 apartments, it is home to an official count of roughly 370,000 residents, though in reality it is likely far more.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Most of NYCHA's 335 developments are in need of serious repair, with failing elevators and boilers, mold, vermin, lead paint, and a host of other building and apartment deficiencies. The authority estimates the total price tag for capital repairs is around $40 billion, having ballooned over decades of scant support from city, state, and federal leaders. (</span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11858-hochul-state-budget-funding-nycha-rent" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">NYCHA projects an additional operational shortfall of $35 million this calendar year, in part due to growing rent arrears.</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Housing experts warn that if officials don't act soon, it may no longer be cost effective to repair the existing public housing stock.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">NYCHA's five-year spending plan includes just $8.6 billion of the $40 billion capital needs, of which $3.7 billion is available this year. From 2023 to 2027, federal capital dollars are expected to total nearly $4.3 billion, with another $3.5 billion from the city, and $538 million from the state, according to a presentation from NYCHA's chief financial officer in December.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To pay for some of the costs, state lawmakers </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11850-nycha-progress-blueprint-change-preservation-trust" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">created the Public Housing Preservation Trust</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a publicly-controlled entity that leases NYCHA property in order to secure Tenant Protection Vouchers. The vouchers and rent revenues support the issuance of bonds, which can be used to rehabilitate apartments at twice the value of NYCHA's current federal subsidies, according to NYCHA. The law creating the trust authorizes funding for an initial swath of 25,000 units, with officials hopeful to significantly expand that number eventually.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We worked very hard last session with the state government to pass the Public Housing Preservation Trust but all of that is incumbent upon this federal government now to come to us with the tenant protection vouchers that we need," Katz said on The Housing Problem podcast.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">NYCHA estimates the 25,000 eligible units – to be selected by development based on a tenant-approval process – will cost $225,000 per unit in repairs, on average, for a total of $5.5 billion.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Washington lawmakers have apparently heard the call. In the current fiscal year, Congress appropriated $337 million for tenant protection vouchers, more than three times the previous year. According to NYCHA spokesperson Barbara Brancaccio, the 25,000 unit conversions are unlikely to fall in the same year and the current federal funding "provides ample levels for initial tranches."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Experts say that a higher level of investment must be sustained in order to meet and eventually expand the goal of the Preservation Trust. The city's Independent Budget Office estimates NYCHA will need </span><a href="https://www.ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/money-for-nycha-examining-the-public-housing-preservation-trust-and-other-strategies-in-nychas-blueprint-for-change-february-2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">$500 million</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in vouchers to leverage to rehabilitate the 25,000 units under the Trust.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Biden's spending plan, which will help shape negotiations with Congress, includes $385 million for tenant protection vouchers, a $48 million increase from the current enacted budget. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"This is really a proof of concept," said Iziah Thompson, a senior policy analyst at Community Service Society, a nonprofit focused on economic mobility. "They are only targeting the 25,000 units first…if they can get these votes and developments to go for the trust then maybe they can reset 25,000."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Thompson warned that leaders at all levels of government must not lose sight of NYCHA's mammoth overall needs, including the thousands of units that will remain under NYCHA management. "Those units can't be forgotten and there is still a great need to provide capital for those from the state, city, and the federal governments," he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, a Manhattan Democrat and the Assembly's housing committee chair, said NYCHA needs federal help to cover unpaid rents, many of which were not covered by the state's Emergency Rental Assistance Program. "A lot of us with NYCHA developments [in our districts] are very concerned that NYCHA is already dipping into its reserves and that's not a good thing," she told Gotham Gazette.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A group of state lawmakers, NYCHA tenants, and housing advocates is pushing for an additional $389 million for ERAP to be included in the state budget this year to cover eligible tenants who applied for assistance but were denied because they live in public or subsidized housing.</span></p> <p>

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by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/fed-housing-agenda-edit.jpg" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams and Chief Housing Officer Katz unveil housing plans (photo: Ed Reed/Mayor's Office)</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Facing an affordable housing and homelessness crisis, Mayor Eric Adams has set an ambitious goal to build 500,000 new homes, rehabilitate a collapsing public housing system, and transform social service delivery.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While most attention is paid to policies at the city and state levels, Adams is relying in part on action from Washington, D.C. that could bring in billions of dollars in subsidies and make it easier for New Yorkers to access housing benefits. That includes enough tenant protection vouchers to then borrow $5.5 billion through bonding, which officials say is needed to upgrade 25,000 NYCHA apartments under </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11850-nycha-progress-blueprint-change-preservation-trust" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">the Public Housing Preservation Trust</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a major financing tool created last year by state lawmakers at the city’s urging.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">New York City Chief Housing Officer Jessica Katz was in Washington, D.C. in January, pushing the administration's agenda with federal officials.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"All the easy stuff we've tried already in housing," Katz said on a recent </span><a href="https://thehousingproblem.com/episodes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">episode</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of The Housing Problem podcast, hosted by two long-time New York housing players. "Now we're trying to push the boulder up the mountain to some more difficult things. And the collaboration between the federal and state and city government is going to be the whole ballgame," Katz said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to the mayor’s office, the administration’s federal agenda includes passing legislation to expand key affordable housing financing mechanisms, reducing administrative hurdles to access Section 8 and other federal low-income housing programs, and the additional voucher funding that will make the NYCHA Preservation Trust work.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The $5.5 billion that could be raised from voucher-backed bonds accounts for only a fraction of NYCHA's $40 billion capital and operational shortfall. The city has been looking for billions in direct aid from the federal government for NYCHA repairs for many years, but no such funding has been forthcoming, even under full Democratic control in Washington in 2021 and 2022 and the passage of several major spending packages, including the trillion-dollar infrastructure bill. Members of the city's congressional delegation continue to push for tens of billions of dollars in direct public housing capital funding, but in the absence of that, other strategies are being pursued.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A number of the administration's federal proposals were in Adams' </span><a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/home/downloads/pdf/office-of-the-mayor/2022/Housing-Blueprint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">first housing plan</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, "Housing Our Neighbors," released last June, including funding for NYCHA and easing administrative hurdles to securing benefits. Several others, like doubling the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, the strongest available federal resource for financing affordable housing development, are more recent goals, according to a City Hall spokesperson, who provided the full federal agenda to Gotham Gazette upon inquiry (though no comment for this article).</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Governor Kathy Hochul has also made housing production a major priority of her first term, promising to create or preserve 100,000 units of affordable housing over five years and build 800,000 new homes overall in the next decade. She is prioritizing some of the same measures in Washington as Adams, including capital funding for NYCHA and extending the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, according to a spokesperson. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hochul met with members of New York's congressional delegation in Washington in February where she "highlighted ways State and federal leaders can work together to address the housing crisis," the spokesperson, Justin Henry, wrote by email.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"[T]he Governor looks forward to continuing to work with our federal partners to bring her vision for a more affordable New York to fruition," he wrote. Hochul is also seeking a new federal tax credit to build or renovate 1-4 family housing in distressed parts of the state and greater monetary rewards for state and local governments that reform discriminatory zoning policies.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Many of the provisions Adams and Hochul are seeking have failed to gain traction in recent years, despite their inclusion in early drafts of major pandemic-era legislation. Now, in a divided Congress, advocates see an even steeper uphill battle to achieve their goals.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Every branch of government has a really important role to play in addressing the housing crisis," said Annemarie Gray, a former city housing official and now executive director of Open New York, a housing advocacy organization.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"And frankly for too long politicians at all levels of government sat on the sidelines and haven't actually done what they need to do to address the housing shortage," she added.</span></p> <p><b>Housing Supply Legislation<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Adams administration is also seeking the passage of three bills through Congress that would finance affordable housing construction by expanding the reach of private activity bonds, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, and low-cost loans to housing financing agencies. New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development and the Housing Development Corporation use these types of tools in conjunction with private developers, including for- and not-for-profit entities.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The New York City capital budget includes $5 billion for affordable housing over five years. That includes $3.6 billion for the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and $1.2 billion for NYCHA's PACT program (a separate rehabilitation program outside of the Preservation Trust), and another $200 million for NYCHA developments in Brooklyn.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The state budget includes $5.7 billion in capital spending for affordable housing production, part of a five-year, $25 billion plan to help finance the building or preservation of 100,000 units across the state, 10,000 of which will be supportive housing.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another $8.8 billion will come from state and federal tax credits and other federal funding. And $11 billion will go toward rental subsidies and operating shelters and supportive housing.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A handful of federal bills could add billions in capital dollars to help boost New York's affordable housing supply.</span></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act and SAVE Act<br /></span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is the most valuable available federal mechanism to facilitate affordable housing construction. The </span><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1136/text#toc-id4514045BE71D4694960CDAE0831552CB"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> would extend an increase on the "9% tax credit," a form of LIHTC that is used to finance new construction and expires in 2024. It also increases tax credits for extremely low-income households.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Critically, according to housing advocates, it would reduce the "50% test" on affordable housing projects financed through the sale of private activity bonds, a type of bond that can create tax-exempt interest when used for affordable rental housing, among other non-housing-related categories. Affordable housing projects that use private activity bonds to pay for half or more of the total costs (hence, "50%") are able to generate LIHTCs, which incentivize production.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The federal government limits the number of private activity bonds a state can issue and thus the number of projects that can reach the 50% threshold. The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act would lower the threshold to 25%, increasing the number of developments eligible to receive LIHTCs. The bill would also allow states to reuse previous bond allocations, a practice known as bond recycling.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Adams administration estimates the measures could generate an annual $1.3 billion in new funding to finance affordable housing.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"It would really unlock affordable housing supply in New York. We would have the ability to finance double what we're financing now," said Rachel Fee, executive director of New York Housing Conference and former federal policy lead at the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Right now we use all of our federal resources for affordable housing and we're at the limit," Fee said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In February 2021, Fee and U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Brooklyn Democrat and now the House Minority Leader, </span><a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-how-to-fix-americas-housing-crisis-20210213-s4bu7teborc4bbmefinglx24xa-story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">penned an op-ed</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> calling for LIHTC increases and the bond cap exemption, along with fully funding Section 8 to create a form of universal rental assistance. None of those proposals made it across the finish line last year.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The limits on LIHTCs make it difficult for the city to finance affordable housing directly. That was part of why Mayor Bill de Blasio focused on private production and the implementation of Mandatory Inclusionary Housing – which permits greater density in exchange for affordable housing – and tax incentives like the now-defunct 421-a. Fee said more LIHTCs would allow the city and state to build more 100% below-market-rate rental buildings.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Another bill – the </span><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/8533/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Support Allowing Volume Expansion Federally-Assisted Housing Act</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, or SAVE Act – would go further, exempting affordable housing projects from volume caps on private activity bonds, meaning more would become eligible for LIHTCs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We hope [changes to LIHTC] will be enough of a bipartisan issue that can get a little traction even despite the challenges of the political landscape in D.C. right now," Katz, the city’s chief housing officer, said on the podcast.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Henry, Hochul's spokesperson, said changes to the 50% test and the bond cap are among the measures the governor is pushing in Washington this session.</span></p> <p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Federal-Financing Bank Risk-Sharing Act</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> <br /></span><span style="font-weight: 400;">The city is also seeking an extension of the Housing Finance Agency Multifamily Loan Risk-Sharing Program. The program provides low-cost capital to build and maintain multi-family affordable rentals. Advocates from New York City pushed for its temporary reinstatement in 2021, after it sunset in 2018. The program will expire again in 2024 without the passage of the </span><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/8824/text?s=1&amp;r=4" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Federal-Financing Bank Risk-Sharing Act</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams had previously included the SAVE Act in his "Housing Our Neighbors" plan, while the other bills are newer sights for the administration.</span></p> <p><b>Biden’s Budget<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">In his budget plan, released last week, Democratic President Joe Biden included a reduction in the 50% test for LIHTCs to 25%, in line with the Adams administration agenda. According to an </span><a href="https://www.novoco.com/notes-from-novogradac/novogradac-estimates-193-million-additional-affordable-rental-homes-could-be-financed-if-lihtc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">analysis</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from the audit and tax services organization Novogradac, lowering that threshold could create 1.48 million new affordable rental units nationwide from private activity bonds issued between 2023 and 2032. Biden also wants to extend the "9% tax credit" in 2025.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The proposed federal budget, which will inform spending and policy negotiations with Congress, also includes $51 billion in Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and other subsidies used to develop affordable rental and owner-occupied units. Congress will pass its budget resolutions and formally approve appropriations over the coming months.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Biden also included over $8.9 billion in total discretionary spending </span><a href="https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/CFO/documents/2024_CJ_Program_Template_-_PH_Fund.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">on public housing nationally</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, including $5.1 billion in operating funding and $3.2 billion for capital. That funding also includes $535 million specifically earmarked for environmental upgrades, lead remediation, and other improvements. Given NYCHA is the largest public housing authority in the country, by far, it would likely receive a significant portion of any public housing funding.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The budget also places $7.5 billion in mandatory capital funding for the public housing properties with the most dire needs. By including that funding in the mandatory side of the budget, Biden signaled support for making public housing an entitlement that would be shielded from fights over discretionary spending. But that inclusion is being viewed by advocates as a symbolic gesture given its near impossible chances of being passed by a divided Congress. House Republicans are proposing drastic cuts to HUD including reducing housing programs by up to 43%, according to a </span><a href="https://nlihc.org/resource/president-biden-releases-fy24-budget-request" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.</span></p> <p><b>Administrative Burdens<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">Most publicly-funded affordable housing is subject to federal eligibility requirements that can be onerous for individuals and families to access, leaving available units vacant. Applicants for public assistance, rental subsidy vouchers, and affordable units are often asked to provide excessive and duplicative paperwork, and attend in-person appointments – all while facing the trials of housing instability.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Experts, including Katz, argue these regulations are unnecessary and counter to the purpose of public assistance – while having the effect of keeping shelter populations artificially high.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Housing Our Neighbors" outlined a number of administrative shifts in the processing of Section 8 rental assistance and other state and federal housing placement programs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A spokesperson for Mayor Adams said changes to HUD and IRS standards, both administratively and through statute, would have a serious impact on housing access in New York City. For example, aligning HUD regulations with Treasury Department and IRS rules around tax-credits and tax-exempt bonds would limit the administrative overlap of various programs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A recent HUD rule change allowed government housing agencies, like New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) to use income information held by other programs and agencies to determine an applicant's eligibility.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"I think the timing is good for that because money is tight so where they can help us with regulation and not cash, I think people are more than interested in stepping up and helping," Katz said of her recent trip to Washington.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We actually got a surprising number of administrative burdens nerds to talk to us up there and we're hoping to make some real progress both on the regulatory and the legislative sides with administrative burdens," she said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But for Fee, the political environment is less favorable to administrative fixes than when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress and the White House.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"It just seems so dysfunctional and I think for Republicans controlling the House, housing is not going to be a top priority for them," she said. "Nothing is easy in Washington," she added. "Like, </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">nothing</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> is easy."</span></p> <p><b>NYCHA and the Public Housing Preservation Trust<br /></b><span style="font-weight: 400;">NYCHA is America's largest public housing authority and the city's largest affordable housing provider. With over 177,000 apartments, it is home to an official count of roughly 370,000 residents, though in reality it is likely far more.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Most of NYCHA's 335 developments are in need of serious repair, with failing elevators and boilers, mold, vermin, lead paint, and a host of other building and apartment deficiencies. The authority estimates the total price tag for capital repairs is around $40 billion, having ballooned over decades of scant support from city, state, and federal leaders. (</span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11858-hochul-state-budget-funding-nycha-rent" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">NYCHA projects an additional operational shortfall of $35 million this calendar year, in part due to growing rent arrears.</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Housing experts warn that if officials don't act soon, it may no longer be cost effective to repair the existing public housing stock.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">NYCHA's five-year spending plan includes just $8.6 billion of the $40 billion capital needs, of which $3.7 billion is available this year. From 2023 to 2027, federal capital dollars are expected to total nearly $4.3 billion, with another $3.5 billion from the city, and $538 million from the state, according to a presentation from NYCHA's chief financial officer in December.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To pay for some of the costs, state lawmakers </span><a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11850-nycha-progress-blueprint-change-preservation-trust" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">created the Public Housing Preservation Trust</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a publicly-controlled entity that leases NYCHA property in order to secure Tenant Protection Vouchers. The vouchers and rent revenues support the issuance of bonds, which can be used to rehabilitate apartments at twice the value of NYCHA's current federal subsidies, according to NYCHA. The law creating the trust authorizes funding for an initial swath of 25,000 units, with officials hopeful to significantly expand that number eventually.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"We worked very hard last session with the state government to pass the Public Housing Preservation Trust but all of that is incumbent upon this federal government now to come to us with the tenant protection vouchers that we need," Katz said on The Housing Problem podcast.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">NYCHA estimates the 25,000 eligible units – to be selected by development based on a tenant-approval process – will cost $225,000 per unit in repairs, on average, for a total of $5.5 billion.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Washington lawmakers have apparently heard the call. In the current fiscal year, Congress appropriated $337 million for tenant protection vouchers, more than three times the previous year. According to NYCHA spokesperson Barbara Brancaccio, the 25,000 unit conversions are unlikely to fall in the same year and the current federal funding "provides ample levels for initial tranches."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Experts say that a higher level of investment must be sustained in order to meet and eventually expand the goal of the Preservation Trust. The city's Independent Budget Office estimates NYCHA will need </span><a href="https://www.ibo.nyc.ny.us/iboreports/money-for-nycha-examining-the-public-housing-preservation-trust-and-other-strategies-in-nychas-blueprint-for-change-february-2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">$500 million</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> in vouchers to leverage to rehabilitate the 25,000 units under the Trust.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Biden's spending plan, which will help shape negotiations with Congress, includes $385 million for tenant protection vouchers, a $48 million increase from the current enacted budget. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"This is really a proof of concept," said Iziah Thompson, a senior policy analyst at Community Service Society, a nonprofit focused on economic mobility. "They are only targeting the 25,000 units first…if they can get these votes and developments to go for the trust then maybe they can reset 25,000."</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Thompson warned that leaders at all levels of government must not lose sight of NYCHA's mammoth overall needs, including the thousands of units that will remain under NYCHA management. "Those units can't be forgotten and there is still a great need to provide capital for those from the state, city, and the federal governments," he said.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, a Manhattan Democrat and the Assembly's housing committee chair, said NYCHA needs federal help to cover unpaid rents, many of which were not covered by the state's Emergency Rental Assistance Program. "A lot of us with NYCHA developments [in our districts] are very concerned that NYCHA is already dipping into its reserves and that's not a good thing," she told Gotham Gazette.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A group of state lawmakers, NYCHA tenants, and housing advocates is pushing for an additional $389 million for ERAP to be included in the state budget this year to cover eligible tenants who applied for assistance but were denied because they live in public or subsidized housing.</span></p> <p>

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by Ethan Geringer-Sameth, reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
City Libraries Launch Push to Beat Back Mayor Adams' Budget Cuts 2023-03-15T04:00:00+00:00 2023-03-15T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11878-library-systems-mayor-adams-budget-cuts Samar Khurshid samarkhurshid@gmail.com <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/1-libary-push-beat.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>At a library in Queens (photo: John McCarten/City Council)</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The city’s public library systems launched a campaign on Monday to push back against tens of millions of dollars in budget cuts in Mayor Eric Adams’ proposed budget. Adams’ $102.7 billion preliminary budget for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1, is now the focus of a series of City Council hearings.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For the past several months, the mayor’s budget moves have invited criticism as he pushed major cuts to city spending. Ahead of a mid-year November modification to the current fiscal year’s budget, he announced a Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG), to find cuts and savings worth 3% across most city agencies in the current fiscal year and 4.75% in the next three fiscal years.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For the city’s three public library systems, with 200 branches across the city, and the city’s Research Libraries, the 3% PEG meant a $13.5 million reduction in operating aid in the current fiscal year, which they have had to absorb. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the mayor’s preliminary budget for the 2024 fiscal year, the library systems together are now facing about $20.5 million in reductions, which they are hoping to reverse. They are also calling on the administration to baseline a $15.7 million discretionary one-shot allocation that was made by the City Council last year in its “Schedule C” that comes with the adopted budget, for a total of $36.2 million.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The realized and planned library funding reductions, among broader cuts at many city agencies, created an uproar in the City Council, which symbolically refused to vote on the November mid-year budget modification.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Many Council members, including Speaker Adrienne Adams and finance chair Justin Brannan, as well as advocates, service-providers, and others are now pushing back on the mayor’s preliminary budget and looking to restore much of the funding cuts before a budget deal is reached in June. Among the most-cited examples of proposed cuts that they are upset with are those to early childhood education, CUNY, and libraries.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“This is a serious threat to the ability of the city’s public libraries to serve New Yorkers at a time when we should be investing in these essential public institutions, not cutting them,” said leaders of the Queens, Brooklyn, and New York Public Libraries in a joint statement (New York Public Library serves Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island). “The good news is that New Yorkers love their libraries and are ready to tell the administration and the City Council how important libraries are to every community.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams’ preliminary budget, released in January, proposed an allocation of $150 million for The New York Public Library, nearly $114 million for The Brooklyn Public Library, about $118 million for The Queens Borough Public Library, and $29.1 million for the Research Libraries for a total of about $411 million. That funding is about $41.7 million less than the $452.7 million allocated for libraries when the current city budget was adopted last June and about $50 million less than the $461 million for libraries in the modified budget for this fiscal year.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But, as mayoral spokesperson Jonah Allon noted, the 2024 funding is likely to increase since it does not yet include state or federal funds that get passed through the city or any discretionary funding that the City Council could choose to allocate. (The library systems also raise philanthropic dollars, among other sources of revenue.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The library systems say the mayor’s cuts are already hurting their ability to serve New Yorkers, and that future reductions will only worsen services. On Monday, they sent out an email blast to all their subscribers, calling on everyday New Yorkers to sign </span><a href="https://www.nypl.org/speakout"><span style="font-weight: 400;">letters</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to push back against the funding cuts. Leaders of the library systems will also headline a rally outside City Hall on Monday, March 20, before they testify at a budget hearing held by the City Council.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Council has already expressed its displeasure with the mayor, repeatedly criticizing his budget proposal and specifically pointing to libraries as one of the areas where they intend to oppose any cuts. “Our libraries are neighborhood resource hubs that provide critical programs and services for New Yorkers of all ages in every community,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams in a statement to Gotham Gazette. “Funding for our library systems that enrich and improve the lives of residents are critical to achieving healthier and safer neighborhoods. The Council will fight to protect these community centers of opportunity and safe haven in the city budget.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Our libraries are always the first to be cut whenever we are in an age of austerity,” said Council Member Chi Ossé, chair of the Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations, in a phone interview. He stressed the important role that libraries have played during times of crisis, including providing COVID-19 resources and PPEs during the pandemic, hosting COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites, and providing services to the thousands of migrant asylum-seekers arriving in the city.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ossé also pointed to the December hearing where library officials pleaded for more funding to avoid cutting programs. “There's no more fat to trim, they were at the bone after those PEGs came into fruition,” he said. “I'm sure that at [next week’s] hearing, we're going to hear that we're touching marrow now.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“This administration has made critical investments in the city’s three library systems and recognizes the vital role they play in our communities,” said Jonah Allon, a spokesperson for the mayor, in a statement. “While every agency has been asked to tighten its belt in the current Fiscal Year in response to fiscal and economic conditions — including more than $4 billion in migrant costs by next year, the expiration of labor contracts that went unresolved for years, and skyrocketing health care costs — it is inaccurate to say we cut libraries’ funding in January’s Preliminary Budget. We will continue to evaluate their needs and work with them through the budget process.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After the preliminary budget was released, Mayor Adams also sought to defend the proposed library cuts in a press conference, insisting that he was merely reducing budgeted vacancies without affecting services. His proposed budget removed 4,300 vacant budgeted positions across all agencies, even as 23,000 vacancies remain in city government . “I'm a big believer in libraries,” he said at the time. “What we're looking at are the vacancies…We are saying 50% that we want them to remove. And that's the same for our libraries.” The mayor’s savings program, however, very clearly defines the library cuts as “Baseline reduction to Operating Subsidy” rather than vacancy reductions.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The library system provides a wide range of services to New Yorkers from traditional book-lending and a place to read to free internet access and English-language classes to early-childhood education and after-school programs, and more. Library officials had already warned the Council at a previous hearing in December that they will be forced to reduce service and staff if the cuts should go through. “We have become more efficient. But at some point you get to the bone,” Tony Marx, president and CEO of New York Public Library </span><a href="https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-public-libraries-say-proposed-budget-cuts-may-push-us-over-the-edge" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said at the hearing</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “This may push us over the edge.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Linda Johnson, president and CEO of Brooklyn Public Library, called the proposed budget cuts a “gut punch” in an email blast on Monday. “If these cuts proceed, we will be forced to make agonizing choices about shortening hours, cutting programs and collections, and rolling back services,” she wrote.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Similarly, Dennis Walcott, president and CEO of Queens Public Library, said the cuts would result in “fewer programs, like storytimes, homework help, language classes, and digital literacy workshops, reduced hours at our locations, and fewer books, magazines, and newspapers. We cannot let this happen.”</span></p> <p>

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/1-libary-push-beat.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>At a library in Queens (photo: John McCarten/City Council)</p> <hr /> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The city’s public library systems launched a campaign on Monday to push back against tens of millions of dollars in budget cuts in Mayor Eric Adams’ proposed budget. Adams’ $102.7 billion preliminary budget for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1, is now the focus of a series of City Council hearings.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For the past several months, the mayor’s budget moves have invited criticism as he pushed major cuts to city spending. Ahead of a mid-year November modification to the current fiscal year’s budget, he announced a Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG), to find cuts and savings worth 3% across most city agencies in the current fiscal year and 4.75% in the next three fiscal years.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For the city’s three public library systems, with 200 branches across the city, and the city’s Research Libraries, the 3% PEG meant a $13.5 million reduction in operating aid in the current fiscal year, which they have had to absorb. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the mayor’s preliminary budget for the 2024 fiscal year, the library systems together are now facing about $20.5 million in reductions, which they are hoping to reverse. They are also calling on the administration to baseline a $15.7 million discretionary one-shot allocation that was made by the City Council last year in its “Schedule C” that comes with the adopted budget, for a total of $36.2 million.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The realized and planned library funding reductions, among broader cuts at many city agencies, created an uproar in the City Council, which symbolically refused to vote on the November mid-year budget modification.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Many Council members, including Speaker Adrienne Adams and finance chair Justin Brannan, as well as advocates, service-providers, and others are now pushing back on the mayor’s preliminary budget and looking to restore much of the funding cuts before a budget deal is reached in June. Among the most-cited examples of proposed cuts that they are upset with are those to early childhood education, CUNY, and libraries.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“This is a serious threat to the ability of the city’s public libraries to serve New Yorkers at a time when we should be investing in these essential public institutions, not cutting them,” said leaders of the Queens, Brooklyn, and New York Public Libraries in a joint statement (New York Public Library serves Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island). “The good news is that New Yorkers love their libraries and are ready to tell the administration and the City Council how important libraries are to every community.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Adams’ preliminary budget, released in January, proposed an allocation of $150 million for The New York Public Library, nearly $114 million for The Brooklyn Public Library, about $118 million for The Queens Borough Public Library, and $29.1 million for the Research Libraries for a total of about $411 million. That funding is about $41.7 million less than the $452.7 million allocated for libraries when the current city budget was adopted last June and about $50 million less than the $461 million for libraries in the modified budget for this fiscal year.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But, as mayoral spokesperson Jonah Allon noted, the 2024 funding is likely to increase since it does not yet include state or federal funds that get passed through the city or any discretionary funding that the City Council could choose to allocate. (The library systems also raise philanthropic dollars, among other sources of revenue.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The library systems say the mayor’s cuts are already hurting their ability to serve New Yorkers, and that future reductions will only worsen services. On Monday, they sent out an email blast to all their subscribers, calling on everyday New Yorkers to sign </span><a href="https://www.nypl.org/speakout"><span style="font-weight: 400;">letters</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to push back against the funding cuts. Leaders of the library systems will also headline a rally outside City Hall on Monday, March 20, before they testify at a budget hearing held by the City Council.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Council has already expressed its displeasure with the mayor, repeatedly criticizing his budget proposal and specifically pointing to libraries as one of the areas where they intend to oppose any cuts. “Our libraries are neighborhood resource hubs that provide critical programs and services for New Yorkers of all ages in every community,” said Speaker Adrienne Adams in a statement to Gotham Gazette. “Funding for our library systems that enrich and improve the lives of residents are critical to achieving healthier and safer neighborhoods. The Council will fight to protect these community centers of opportunity and safe haven in the city budget.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“Our libraries are always the first to be cut whenever we are in an age of austerity,” said Council Member Chi Ossé, chair of the Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations, in a phone interview. He stressed the important role that libraries have played during times of crisis, including providing COVID-19 resources and PPEs during the pandemic, hosting COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites, and providing services to the thousands of migrant asylum-seekers arriving in the city.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ossé also pointed to the December hearing where library officials pleaded for more funding to avoid cutting programs. “There's no more fat to trim, they were at the bone after those PEGs came into fruition,” he said. “I'm sure that at [next week’s] hearing, we're going to hear that we're touching marrow now.” </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">“This administration has made critical investments in the city’s three library systems and recognizes the vital role they play in our communities,” said Jonah Allon, a spokesperson for the mayor, in a statement. “While every agency has been asked to tighten its belt in the current Fiscal Year in response to fiscal and economic conditions — including more than $4 billion in migrant costs by next year, the expiration of labor contracts that went unresolved for years, and skyrocketing health care costs — it is inaccurate to say we cut libraries’ funding in January’s Preliminary Budget. We will continue to evaluate their needs and work with them through the budget process.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After the preliminary budget was released, Mayor Adams also sought to defend the proposed library cuts in a press conference, insisting that he was merely reducing budgeted vacancies without affecting services. His proposed budget removed 4,300 vacant budgeted positions across all agencies, even as 23,000 vacancies remain in city government . “I'm a big believer in libraries,” he said at the time. “What we're looking at are the vacancies…We are saying 50% that we want them to remove. And that's the same for our libraries.” The mayor’s savings program, however, very clearly defines the library cuts as “Baseline reduction to Operating Subsidy” rather than vacancy reductions.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The library system provides a wide range of services to New Yorkers from traditional book-lending and a place to read to free internet access and English-language classes to early-childhood education and after-school programs, and more. Library officials had already warned the Council at a previous hearing in December that they will be forced to reduce service and staff if the cuts should go through. “We have become more efficient. But at some point you get to the bone,” Tony Marx, president and CEO of New York Public Library </span><a href="https://gothamist.com/news/nyc-public-libraries-say-proposed-budget-cuts-may-push-us-over-the-edge" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said at the hearing</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. “This may push us over the edge.”</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Linda Johnson, president and CEO of Brooklyn Public Library, called the proposed budget cuts a “gut punch” in an email blast on Monday. “If these cuts proceed, we will be forced to make agonizing choices about shortening hours, cutting programs and collections, and rolling back services,” she wrote.  </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Similarly, Dennis Walcott, president and CEO of Queens Public Library, said the cuts would result in “fewer programs, like storytimes, homework help, language classes, and digital literacy workshops, reduced hours at our locations, and fewer books, magazines, and newspapers. We cannot let this happen.”</span></p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
NYCHA Officials Sound Alarm at City Council Budget Hearing 2023-03-14T04:00:00+00:00 2023-03-14T04:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11879-nycha-budget-rent-arrears-repairs-vacancies Samar Khurshid samarkhurshid@gmail.com <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/2a-precarious-grounds-water.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>City Council Member Alexa Avilés leads the NYCHA budget hearing (photo: William Alatriste/NYC Council)</p> <hr /> <p>The New York City Housing Authority is facing a fiscal crisis as rent revenue has plummeted in the wake of the pandemic, affecting its operational budget, constraining its ability to hire personnel, and forcing it to suspend dozens of infrastructure improvement projects. Amid the city's larger affordable housing and homelessness crisis, the public housing authority is also struggling with a worsening ability to get vacant units repaired and filled with new tenants, a problem apparently exacerbated by Mayor Eric Adams' budget cuts.</p> <p>At a City Council budget hearing on Monday, NYCHA officials outlined the dire situation facing the public housing authority as it struggles to recover its financial footing while continuing to make repairs and upgrades at its 175,000 units, home to nearly half a million New Yorkers and many in deep disrepair. The authority is in the midst of implementing a major transformation plan, while also complying with the mandates of an agreement with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to make repairs at thousands of apartments under the watch of a federal monitor.</p> <p>“Our public housing is an incredible asset and a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who deserve healthy and safe homes,” said City Council Member Alexa Avilés, a Brooklyn Democrat and chair of the Council’s public housing committee, in her opening remarks. “But its beleaguered finances present existential challenges.”</p> <p>“Every level of government can and should do more,” she added. “Each level is making active choices to defund NYCHA or minimally fund NYCHA. Every day this choice imperils residents and some of our greatest social housing assets.”</p> <p>As part of NYCHA’s transformation plan, repairs and upgrades are being made at 62,000 apartments under the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program – which turns over developments to private management, allowing them to access federal funds under the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. Last year, Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature also worked to fulfill one of Mayor Eric Adams’ top priorities, approving a new Public Housing Preservation Trust that is projected to help the authority raise billions of dollars for repairs for about 25,000 apartments. </p> <p>While the priority has usually been NYCHA’s $40 billion capital need for maintenance and upgrades to its buildings and units, this year the authority, its residents and their allies are more urgently focused on filling the hole left by tenants that have not paid their rent. </p> <p>NYCHA relies on rent for about a third of its annual operating budget and current tenant rent arrears total about $466 million across 73,000 households, up from $125 million in 2019. The authority only collected about 65% of rent it was owed over the last year, and had to dip into its reserves to cover an operating deficit.</p> <p>NYCHA officials predict an operating budget of $4.4 billion for the 2023 fiscal year, with a $35 million deficit while again having to rely on reserve funds. That will also leave the authority with less than one month of reserve funds, though HUD recommends that public authorities should have at least three to four months of reserves on hand.<br /><br />[READ: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11858-hochul-state-budget-funding-nycha-rent" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NYCHA Rent Arrears Crisis Shifts Budget Focus from Capital Needs to Operating Assistance, But Hochul’s Budget Includes Nothing</a>]</p> <p>“Without additional funding or an increase in rent payments beginning next year, NYCHA will have no choice but to significantly cut expenses and curtail repairs, including those related to the HUD agreement, which will have a real impact for our residents,” said NYCHA’s interim CEO, Lisa Bova-Hiatt, in her opening testimony to the City Council. Though she said the agency will undertake cost-cutting measures and expects to cover its projected deficit, that deficit will grow to about $57 million by 2027 if rent losses continue to mount. </p> <p>NYCHA has sought emergency funds to help its tenants. The authority applied for $120 million worth of aid for more than 31,330 households from the pandemic-era Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), a state program created with federal funding. But the state placed NYCHA residents at the bottom of the priority list, and not a single NYCHA tenant has received ERAP funding so far.</p> <p>Rent arrears for those households have already grown to about $240 million. The agency is now looking for $330 million from the state to help cover lost rental revenue, though Governor Hochul <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11858-hochul-state-budget-funding-nycha-rent" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">included no new NYCHA money in her executive budget</a> released earlier this year, which is now the subject of negotiations with the Legislature. A deal is due by the April 1 start of the new fiscal year.</p> <p>When Avilés asked about NYCHA’s contingency plan if state aid does not come through, and whether they would ask the city for help, officials insisted that they do not want to let the state off the hook. “There has to be funding from the state for ERAP,” Bova-Hiatt said. “There has to be a way to protect affordable housing and our NYCHA residents.”</p> <p>Brian Honan, NYCHA’s senior vice president for intergovernmental affairs, said the authority is working hard to lobby on the issue before the Legislature. “We feel very confident in our ability to make our case and I think we have made our case,” he said. “However, if that does not come to fruition, we will come right back to the Council, I'm telling you, on April 2, to present a plan B. I do not want to give that today because I think that we'll be letting other folks off the hook.”</p> <p>NYCHA has several allies in the fight for rent arrear funding. The New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH), a trade group, and Legal Aid Society have proposed a $2 billion Tenant Fund for Affordable Housing (TFAH), of which, $500 million would be dedicated to NYCHA. State Senator Brian Kavanagh, chair of the Senate Housing Committee, and Assemblymember Grace Lee, member of the Assembly Housing Committee, have also called for $389 million in additional ERAP funding to cover both public housing tenants and those living in subsidized housing.</p> <p>The State Senate and the Assembly will each soon pass a one-house budget resolution, likely this week, that outlines their priorities and help inform negotiations among the two houses and governor. NYCHA funding will be among many closely-watched items in the one-house budgets.</p> <p>At Monday’s hearing, Bova-Hiatt said NYCHA’s challenges aren’t limited to rent revenue. There are other NYCHA costs that are out of its control including the rising cost of utilities and employee benefits, and the escalating costs of maintenance and repairs to the aging housing stock. To control costs, the authority has taken several measures including eliminating 145 vacant positions, cutting nonessential contract spending, and submitting an operating subsidy appeal to HUD to cover some costs of the HUD agreement.</p> <p>Bova-Hiatt also ran down a lengthy list of capital repairs that NYCHA has achieved in recent years. The agency has about $2.45 billion in available capital funds for 2023 – including about $390 million in federal funds and $741 million in city funds, and other funds from previous years – and is expected to spend about $935 million. </p> <p>“While the capital funding we receive is only a fraction of the more than $40 billion needed to provide residents with the quality of life they deserve, we are making a difference with the money we do receive,” she said. There are currently more than 700 capital projects underway across the city, she said, including more than 250 that are under construction this year. The agency has also consistently met or exceeded HUD deadlines for allocating and spending federal funds, she said. </p> <p>She also outlined smaller projects backed by discretionary funding from the mayor, City Council, and borough presidents. She said that 72 such projects were expedited last year – 20 are substantially complete, 32 are under construction, and 20 are in the procurement or completion of design phase and will move to construction this year. But, she said those capital projects could be affected by the authority’s operating shortfall and the consequent staffing issues. </p> <p>“We are mitigating these impacts to the extent possible, but have identified approximately 70 projects that we must pause in the next few months as a result of our operating budget constraints, which are due to growing rent arrears, insufficient operating funding, rising expenses and staffing and resourcing limitations,” she said, though she noted that they do not relate to the HUD agreement and will not create health, safety or security issues.</p> <p>Sounding a familiar theme in this month’s budget hearings, Council members also raised concerns about NYCHA’s staffing vacancies. Though the authority’s overall personnel vacancy rate is about 7%, vacancies in core operations such as heating, elevators, and safety services rise to 17.5%. “This is a problem,” said Avilés. “To get the repairs that tenants so desperately need, we need those kinds of operational staff.” </p> <p>NYCHA officials did insist that their hiring goals were manageable. “Out of 937 budgeted positions, only 696 have to be filled,” said Bova-Hiatt. “We actually think that that's a pretty achievable goal.”</p> <p>As Avilés noted, the effects of the various challenges facing NYCHA are apparent in its Vacant Unit Readiness program. Wait times for NYCHA to turn around vacant units more than doubled from 182 days in January 2022 to 399 days in January 2023, and the number of vacant units increased from about 486 to 3,593 in that time. </p> <p>Council members seemed particularly incensed that Mayor Adams’ November budget modification cut contracts for the Vacant Unit Readiness program by 10%, a decrease of nearly $31 million over the next four years. “Cutting this program to get units back online amidst a housing crisis is simply unconscionable for residents who both need to transfer and for some of the quarter of a million people that are waiting on NYCHA’s waiting list,” Avilés said. </p> <p>Council Member Lincoln Restler echoed that point. “Could you just clarify for us how it's conscionable to cut this program when we're seeing such an extraordinary increase in the length of time that apartments are vacant?,” he asked. </p> <p>Eva Trimble, NYCHA's Chief Operating Officer, said that NYCHA “worked closely with [the mayor’s Office of Management and Budget] to realign the forecasts” of actual spending on the program, which involves making repairs to vacant apartments, including abating lead and asbestos. “We've worked with OMB to match the funding to our production volume and so we have never had a shortfall in funding to do the work that we need to do,” she said, while insisting that delays in turning around apartments also stem from stricter standards for housing conditions implemented in recent years.  </p> <p>Restler, however, was dissatisfied with the explanation. “OMB is cutting us off at the knees and preventing us from actually being able to do the work that's necessary to fill these vacant apartments and get them inhabitable,” he said. “That's why I'm angry.”</p> <p>Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit fiscal watchdog, also presented testimony at the hearing, reiterating recommendations that NYCHA should speed up repairs of deteriorating buildings, improve property management, boost rent collection and find savings and increased productivity through collective bargaining. In the testimony, Sean Campion, CBC's director of Housing and Economic Development Studies, noted that NYCHA's operating costs are increasing faster than those of comparable rental properties, even though the number of properties under its management has decreased. Overtime costs have also increased despite the authority's efforts to reduce them. </p> <p>Campion also pointed out that NYCHA has relied on non-operating revenue and city subsidies to balance its budget, an unsustainable practice in the long run. </p> <p>"While a balanced budget remains in sight for 2023, fiscal stability is not on the horizon. Ultimately, structural reforms, not just one-time bailouts, are needed to put NYCHA’s operations back on the path to solvency," he said.  </p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p> <p>Note - this article has been updated with testimony from Citizens Budget Commission.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/2a-precarious-grounds-water.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>City Council Member Alexa Avilés leads the NYCHA budget hearing (photo: William Alatriste/NYC Council)</p> <hr /> <p>The New York City Housing Authority is facing a fiscal crisis as rent revenue has plummeted in the wake of the pandemic, affecting its operational budget, constraining its ability to hire personnel, and forcing it to suspend dozens of infrastructure improvement projects. Amid the city's larger affordable housing and homelessness crisis, the public housing authority is also struggling with a worsening ability to get vacant units repaired and filled with new tenants, a problem apparently exacerbated by Mayor Eric Adams' budget cuts.</p> <p>At a City Council budget hearing on Monday, NYCHA officials outlined the dire situation facing the public housing authority as it struggles to recover its financial footing while continuing to make repairs and upgrades at its 175,000 units, home to nearly half a million New Yorkers and many in deep disrepair. The authority is in the midst of implementing a major transformation plan, while also complying with the mandates of an agreement with the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to make repairs at thousands of apartments under the watch of a federal monitor.</p> <p>“Our public housing is an incredible asset and a lifeline to hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who deserve healthy and safe homes,” said City Council Member Alexa Avilés, a Brooklyn Democrat and chair of the Council’s public housing committee, in her opening remarks. “But its beleaguered finances present existential challenges.”</p> <p>“Every level of government can and should do more,” she added. “Each level is making active choices to defund NYCHA or minimally fund NYCHA. Every day this choice imperils residents and some of our greatest social housing assets.”</p> <p>As part of NYCHA’s transformation plan, repairs and upgrades are being made at 62,000 apartments under the Permanent Affordability Commitment Together (PACT) program – which turns over developments to private management, allowing them to access federal funds under the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. Last year, Governor Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature also worked to fulfill one of Mayor Eric Adams’ top priorities, approving a new Public Housing Preservation Trust that is projected to help the authority raise billions of dollars for repairs for about 25,000 apartments. </p> <p>While the priority has usually been NYCHA’s $40 billion capital need for maintenance and upgrades to its buildings and units, this year the authority, its residents and their allies are more urgently focused on filling the hole left by tenants that have not paid their rent. </p> <p>NYCHA relies on rent for about a third of its annual operating budget and current tenant rent arrears total about $466 million across 73,000 households, up from $125 million in 2019. The authority only collected about 65% of rent it was owed over the last year, and had to dip into its reserves to cover an operating deficit.</p> <p>NYCHA officials predict an operating budget of $4.4 billion for the 2023 fiscal year, with a $35 million deficit while again having to rely on reserve funds. That will also leave the authority with less than one month of reserve funds, though HUD recommends that public authorities should have at least three to four months of reserves on hand.<br /><br />[READ: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11858-hochul-state-budget-funding-nycha-rent" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NYCHA Rent Arrears Crisis Shifts Budget Focus from Capital Needs to Operating Assistance, But Hochul’s Budget Includes Nothing</a>]</p> <p>“Without additional funding or an increase in rent payments beginning next year, NYCHA will have no choice but to significantly cut expenses and curtail repairs, including those related to the HUD agreement, which will have a real impact for our residents,” said NYCHA’s interim CEO, Lisa Bova-Hiatt, in her opening testimony to the City Council. Though she said the agency will undertake cost-cutting measures and expects to cover its projected deficit, that deficit will grow to about $57 million by 2027 if rent losses continue to mount. </p> <p>NYCHA has sought emergency funds to help its tenants. The authority applied for $120 million worth of aid for more than 31,330 households from the pandemic-era Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), a state program created with federal funding. But the state placed NYCHA residents at the bottom of the priority list, and not a single NYCHA tenant has received ERAP funding so far.</p> <p>Rent arrears for those households have already grown to about $240 million. The agency is now looking for $330 million from the state to help cover lost rental revenue, though Governor Hochul <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/state/11858-hochul-state-budget-funding-nycha-rent" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">included no new NYCHA money in her executive budget</a> released earlier this year, which is now the subject of negotiations with the Legislature. A deal is due by the April 1 start of the new fiscal year.</p> <p>When Avilés asked about NYCHA’s contingency plan if state aid does not come through, and whether they would ask the city for help, officials insisted that they do not want to let the state off the hook. “There has to be funding from the state for ERAP,” Bova-Hiatt said. “There has to be a way to protect affordable housing and our NYCHA residents.”</p> <p>Brian Honan, NYCHA’s senior vice president for intergovernmental affairs, said the authority is working hard to lobby on the issue before the Legislature. “We feel very confident in our ability to make our case and I think we have made our case,” he said. “However, if that does not come to fruition, we will come right back to the Council, I'm telling you, on April 2, to present a plan B. I do not want to give that today because I think that we'll be letting other folks off the hook.”</p> <p>NYCHA has several allies in the fight for rent arrear funding. The New York State Association for Affordable Housing (NYSAFAH), a trade group, and Legal Aid Society have proposed a $2 billion Tenant Fund for Affordable Housing (TFAH), of which, $500 million would be dedicated to NYCHA. State Senator Brian Kavanagh, chair of the Senate Housing Committee, and Assemblymember Grace Lee, member of the Assembly Housing Committee, have also called for $389 million in additional ERAP funding to cover both public housing tenants and those living in subsidized housing.</p> <p>The State Senate and the Assembly will each soon pass a one-house budget resolution, likely this week, that outlines their priorities and help inform negotiations among the two houses and governor. NYCHA funding will be among many closely-watched items in the one-house budgets.</p> <p>At Monday’s hearing, Bova-Hiatt said NYCHA’s challenges aren’t limited to rent revenue. There are other NYCHA costs that are out of its control including the rising cost of utilities and employee benefits, and the escalating costs of maintenance and repairs to the aging housing stock. To control costs, the authority has taken several measures including eliminating 145 vacant positions, cutting nonessential contract spending, and submitting an operating subsidy appeal to HUD to cover some costs of the HUD agreement.</p> <p>Bova-Hiatt also ran down a lengthy list of capital repairs that NYCHA has achieved in recent years. The agency has about $2.45 billion in available capital funds for 2023 – including about $390 million in federal funds and $741 million in city funds, and other funds from previous years – and is expected to spend about $935 million. </p> <p>“While the capital funding we receive is only a fraction of the more than $40 billion needed to provide residents with the quality of life they deserve, we are making a difference with the money we do receive,” she said. There are currently more than 700 capital projects underway across the city, she said, including more than 250 that are under construction this year. The agency has also consistently met or exceeded HUD deadlines for allocating and spending federal funds, she said. </p> <p>She also outlined smaller projects backed by discretionary funding from the mayor, City Council, and borough presidents. She said that 72 such projects were expedited last year – 20 are substantially complete, 32 are under construction, and 20 are in the procurement or completion of design phase and will move to construction this year. But, she said those capital projects could be affected by the authority’s operating shortfall and the consequent staffing issues. </p> <p>“We are mitigating these impacts to the extent possible, but have identified approximately 70 projects that we must pause in the next few months as a result of our operating budget constraints, which are due to growing rent arrears, insufficient operating funding, rising expenses and staffing and resourcing limitations,” she said, though she noted that they do not relate to the HUD agreement and will not create health, safety or security issues.</p> <p>Sounding a familiar theme in this month’s budget hearings, Council members also raised concerns about NYCHA’s staffing vacancies. Though the authority’s overall personnel vacancy rate is about 7%, vacancies in core operations such as heating, elevators, and safety services rise to 17.5%. “This is a problem,” said Avilés. “To get the repairs that tenants so desperately need, we need those kinds of operational staff.” </p> <p>NYCHA officials did insist that their hiring goals were manageable. “Out of 937 budgeted positions, only 696 have to be filled,” said Bova-Hiatt. “We actually think that that's a pretty achievable goal.”</p> <p>As Avilés noted, the effects of the various challenges facing NYCHA are apparent in its Vacant Unit Readiness program. Wait times for NYCHA to turn around vacant units more than doubled from 182 days in January 2022 to 399 days in January 2023, and the number of vacant units increased from about 486 to 3,593 in that time. </p> <p>Council members seemed particularly incensed that Mayor Adams’ November budget modification cut contracts for the Vacant Unit Readiness program by 10%, a decrease of nearly $31 million over the next four years. “Cutting this program to get units back online amidst a housing crisis is simply unconscionable for residents who both need to transfer and for some of the quarter of a million people that are waiting on NYCHA’s waiting list,” Avilés said. </p> <p>Council Member Lincoln Restler echoed that point. “Could you just clarify for us how it's conscionable to cut this program when we're seeing such an extraordinary increase in the length of time that apartments are vacant?,” he asked. </p> <p>Eva Trimble, NYCHA's Chief Operating Officer, said that NYCHA “worked closely with [the mayor’s Office of Management and Budget] to realign the forecasts” of actual spending on the program, which involves making repairs to vacant apartments, including abating lead and asbestos. “We've worked with OMB to match the funding to our production volume and so we have never had a shortfall in funding to do the work that we need to do,” she said, while insisting that delays in turning around apartments also stem from stricter standards for housing conditions implemented in recent years.  </p> <p>Restler, however, was dissatisfied with the explanation. “OMB is cutting us off at the knees and preventing us from actually being able to do the work that's necessary to fill these vacant apartments and get them inhabitable,” he said. “That's why I'm angry.”</p> <p>Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit fiscal watchdog, also presented testimony at the hearing, reiterating recommendations that NYCHA should speed up repairs of deteriorating buildings, improve property management, boost rent collection and find savings and increased productivity through collective bargaining. In the testimony, Sean Campion, CBC's director of Housing and Economic Development Studies, noted that NYCHA's operating costs are increasing faster than those of comparable rental properties, even though the number of properties under its management has decreased. Overtime costs have also increased despite the authority's efforts to reduce them. </p> <p>Campion also pointed out that NYCHA has relied on non-operating revenue and city subsidies to balance its budget, an unsustainable practice in the long run. </p> <p>"While a balanced budget remains in sight for 2023, fiscal stability is not on the horizon. Ultimately, structural reforms, not just one-time bailouts, are needed to put NYCHA’s operations back on the path to solvency," he said.  </p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p> <p>Note - this article has been updated with testimony from Citizens Budget Commission.</p>
Adams Administration to Launch 'MyCity' Portal in Coming Weeks with Child Care Services First 2023-03-10T14:00:00+00:00 2023-03-10T14:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11875-adams-administration-to-launch-mycity-portal-in-coming-weeks-with-child-care-services-first Samar Khurshid samarkhurshid@gmail.com <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/portal-with-child.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)</p> <hr /> <p>Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign promise to launch the “MyCity” centralized portal for city benefits will soon become reality, administration officials told the City Council on Thursday. </p> <p>At a budget hearing held by the Council’s Committee on Technology, New York City Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser said that MyCity will be “rolling out in a few weeks,” initially offering a child care subsidy application portal before expanding to other city benefits.</p> <p>MyCity was one of the signature proposals that Adams, a first-term Democrat, advanced on the campaign trail, as he criticized the city’s dysfunctional and bureaucracy-laden government and pledged a more efficient, tech-friendly administration.</p> <p>The portal, he promised, would be a one-stop-shop for benefits and services. It would allow low-income New Yorkers to apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), cash benefits, or rental assistance. It would help businesses cut through red tape to get licenses and permits. And, as the mayor promised in his first State of the City speech in April 2022, it would help parents and caregivers apply for child care. All among many other uses.</p> <p>“We know that working parents don’t have time to navigate complex bureaucracy to get their children care, and we are going to make sure that city government works for them,” Adams said at the time.</p> <p>In public interviews in December and January, Adams acknowledged that MyCity was set for a later launch than he might have hoped but called it one of his main priorities for his second year in office. “One of the top things I want to do is something called MyCity Card,” Adams said in a January 9 interview on WBLS 107.5 FM. “It’s one card that all New Yorkers can get the resources that they deserve so they'll know what's available to them. It's using technology. That's what this year's about, using technology to improve the quality of life of New Yorkers and continue to address the public safety issue.” (It’s not clear what Adams meant by “card” but the plan is for MyCity to be an online portal.)</p> <p>At the hearing this week, Fraser updated the Council on the next steps for the MyCity portal after the imminent launch of the child care application. He said Office of Technology and Innovation is looking at “workforce development and how we bring people into public service, looking at small businesses and how they grow and interact with the city and get access to the services that they need and…looking at other things that live within the Health and Human Services umbrella to see how we can bring those into a common platform.”  </p> <p>“The key here is as we move, over time, moving away from individual systems and bringing them into a single place,” Fraser said, referring to the redundancies that Adams often decried on the campaign trail. “It's like a snowball that builds mass as it goes downhill. It took a lot of effort to get the underpinning platform done. Now that we've got the platform done and we've got the first service, the things that come thereafter will come at a much more expedient pace.”</p> <p>The development of the portal hasn’t been as quick as the administration originally envisioned. The portal was meant to be created in-house by the Office of Technology and Innovation, but was outsourced — following the pattern that many civic technologists and other experts have decried. After OTI predicted a rollout before the end of last year, it is now set to release the portal in a few weeks, 15 months into Adams’ term. The last hurdle, Fraser said at Thursday’s hearing, is “getting a seal of approval from our colleagues in state government whose subsidies are included in the portal.” A spokesperson for OTI would not clarify to Gotham Gazette what type of approval the city needs.</p> <p>The state is likely to support the city’s efforts (and is working on its own more user-friendly government access points). Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul have been close partners, particularly on child care initiatives. In the state budget last year, Hochul delivered on major priorities for herself and Adams including a $4 billion budget allocation over four years for child care services in the city (out of a total $7 billion statewide), an expanded income eligibility threshold for child care subsidies, and tax incentives for property owners to create child care centers and for businesses that provide employers with free or discounted child care.</p> <p>At Thursday’s hearing, when asked by Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, chair of the technology committee, about OTI’s budget priorities, Fraser said the agency is focused on “ensuring that we democratize access to city services.” MyCity is central to that goal. </p> <p>“A lot of the challenges that we face and what our constituents face is we have a bureaucracy that's overly complex to interact with, and figuring out ways where we can streamline and simplify that process is one of the things that we're focused on,” he said.  The MyCity portal “signifies a change to how we've done business historically, where we take the emphasis from the agency-specific service and we shift it to the customer, the person, the resident that requires that service.” </p> <p>Fraser detailed that the new portal will be effective in cutting down the time and effort it takes people to receive city services, while also reducing the workload of city agencies and the need for more staff. For instance, parents that want to access child care currently must fill out a 15-page form and submit it to one of three agencies, which then has to schedule an interview and request supplemental documents to determine the applicant’s eligibility. “So by digitizing the process, making sure that all those required documents are submitted ahead of time, it reduces the administrative burden on the people that are responsible for that task,” he said.</p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/portal-with-child.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>Mayor Adams (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Office)</p> <hr /> <p>Mayor Eric Adams’ campaign promise to launch the “MyCity” centralized portal for city benefits will soon become reality, administration officials told the City Council on Thursday. </p> <p>At a budget hearing held by the Council’s Committee on Technology, New York City Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser said that MyCity will be “rolling out in a few weeks,” initially offering a child care subsidy application portal before expanding to other city benefits.</p> <p>MyCity was one of the signature proposals that Adams, a first-term Democrat, advanced on the campaign trail, as he criticized the city’s dysfunctional and bureaucracy-laden government and pledged a more efficient, tech-friendly administration.</p> <p>The portal, he promised, would be a one-stop-shop for benefits and services. It would allow low-income New Yorkers to apply for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), cash benefits, or rental assistance. It would help businesses cut through red tape to get licenses and permits. And, as the mayor promised in his first State of the City speech in April 2022, it would help parents and caregivers apply for child care. All among many other uses.</p> <p>“We know that working parents don’t have time to navigate complex bureaucracy to get their children care, and we are going to make sure that city government works for them,” Adams said at the time.</p> <p>In public interviews in December and January, Adams acknowledged that MyCity was set for a later launch than he might have hoped but called it one of his main priorities for his second year in office. “One of the top things I want to do is something called MyCity Card,” Adams said in a January 9 interview on WBLS 107.5 FM. “It’s one card that all New Yorkers can get the resources that they deserve so they'll know what's available to them. It's using technology. That's what this year's about, using technology to improve the quality of life of New Yorkers and continue to address the public safety issue.” (It’s not clear what Adams meant by “card” but the plan is for MyCity to be an online portal.)</p> <p>At the hearing this week, Fraser updated the Council on the next steps for the MyCity portal after the imminent launch of the child care application. He said Office of Technology and Innovation is looking at “workforce development and how we bring people into public service, looking at small businesses and how they grow and interact with the city and get access to the services that they need and…looking at other things that live within the Health and Human Services umbrella to see how we can bring those into a common platform.”  </p> <p>“The key here is as we move, over time, moving away from individual systems and bringing them into a single place,” Fraser said, referring to the redundancies that Adams often decried on the campaign trail. “It's like a snowball that builds mass as it goes downhill. It took a lot of effort to get the underpinning platform done. Now that we've got the platform done and we've got the first service, the things that come thereafter will come at a much more expedient pace.”</p> <p>The development of the portal hasn’t been as quick as the administration originally envisioned. The portal was meant to be created in-house by the Office of Technology and Innovation, but was outsourced — following the pattern that many civic technologists and other experts have decried. After OTI predicted a rollout before the end of last year, it is now set to release the portal in a few weeks, 15 months into Adams’ term. The last hurdle, Fraser said at Thursday’s hearing, is “getting a seal of approval from our colleagues in state government whose subsidies are included in the portal.” A spokesperson for OTI would not clarify to Gotham Gazette what type of approval the city needs.</p> <p>The state is likely to support the city’s efforts (and is working on its own more user-friendly government access points). Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul have been close partners, particularly on child care initiatives. In the state budget last year, Hochul delivered on major priorities for herself and Adams including a $4 billion budget allocation over four years for child care services in the city (out of a total $7 billion statewide), an expanded income eligibility threshold for child care subsidies, and tax incentives for property owners to create child care centers and for businesses that provide employers with free or discounted child care.</p> <p>At Thursday’s hearing, when asked by Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, chair of the technology committee, about OTI’s budget priorities, Fraser said the agency is focused on “ensuring that we democratize access to city services.” MyCity is central to that goal. </p> <p>“A lot of the challenges that we face and what our constituents face is we have a bureaucracy that's overly complex to interact with, and figuring out ways where we can streamline and simplify that process is one of the things that we're focused on,” he said.  The MyCity portal “signifies a change to how we've done business historically, where we take the emphasis from the agency-specific service and we shift it to the customer, the person, the resident that requires that service.” </p> <p>Fraser detailed that the new portal will be effective in cutting down the time and effort it takes people to receive city services, while also reducing the workload of city agencies and the need for more staff. For instance, parents that want to access child care currently must fill out a 15-page form and submit it to one of three agencies, which then has to schedule an interview and request supplemental documents to determine the applicant’s eligibility. “So by digitizing the process, making sure that all those required documents are submitted ahead of time, it reduces the administrative burden on the people that are responsible for that task,” he said.</p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
With 16% Vacancy Rate, City Planning Department ‘Laser Focused’ on Staffing to Advance 'Ambitious' Agenda 2023-03-09T14:00:00+00:00 2023-03-09T14:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11873-vacancies-department-city-planning-housing-growth Samar Khurshid samarkhurshid@gmail.com <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/questions-arise-planning.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>City Planning Head Dan Garodnick (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)</p> <hr /> <p>The acute staffing crisis at city agencies threatens to undo the many ambitious plans announced by Mayor Eric Adams, and has <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11866-city-council-mayor-adams-personnel-budget" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">become the central concern</a> for the City Council as it examines the mayor’s proposed $102.7 billion preliminary budget for next fiscal year.</p> <p>On Thursday, at a Council hearing focused on the Department of City Planning, a similar refrain emerged as the agency currently faces a 18% personnel vacancy rate, which includes recent hires not yet onboarded, and has a considerable agenda now and for the years ahead.</p> <p>Design and implementation of the administration's land-use policies falls to a significant degree under the purview of City Planning, and Mayor Adams has set it to task. He has proposed a massive “<a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/893-22/mayor-adams-get-stuff-built-bold-three-pronged-strategy-tackle-affordable-housing#/0">Get Stuff Built</a>” housing plan with a “moonshot” goal of building 500,000 new units of housing over the next decade and he is also pursuing three citywide zoning text amendments under his “<a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/353-22/mayor-adams-outlines-vision-city-yes-plan-citywide-zoning-initiatives-support#/0">City of Yes</a>” plan that are meant to promote affordable housing, economic development, and climate sustainability.</p> <p>At the same time, the city is lobbying for various proposals at the state level as Governor Kathy Hochul pursues her own “housing compact” that will create 800,000 units of housing over ten years.</p> <p>The Department of City Planning is taking the lead on the zoning amendments as well as dozens of land-use process reforms meant to speed up permitting, environmental assessments, construction, and more to facilitate the larger housing plan. And, it is constantly advancing individual affordable housing and economic development projects, while currently working on several area rezonings in the city, including in Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens, with more to come.</p> <p>“City Planning continues to be laser focused on hiring staff to meet the ambitious goals we've set, under your and the mayor's leadership, for housing, job creation, and climate resiliency,” said Dan Garodnick, Director of the Department of City Planning and Chair of the City Planning Commission, at Thursday’s hearing. Garodnick, a former City Council member from Manhattan himself, was appointed to the dual posts by Mayor Adams early last year.</p> <p>Adams’ proposed budget for the Department of City Planning for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1, is $44.3 million, a $4.8 million decrease from the budget for the current fiscal year that was adopted last June. In the proposed budget, the agency would see a net increase of one more position, bringing its budgeted headcount to 348.</p> <p>But the agency has 286 employees – including 17 that were just hired and haven’t started yet. Out of the remaining 62 positions, 55 are vacant — for a nearly 16% vacancy rate — while another 7 are federal grant-funded positions that are currently unfunded. DCP did hire 74 new staffers in 2022 and is continuing to bring people on into this year. At the hearing, agency officials told the Council they had a 26% attrition rate, echoing a similar struggle that other agencies have also faced in retaining workers given the city's rigid workforce policies that do not allow any work-from-home or hybrid arrangements, low public sector salaries, and national labor shortages.</p> <p>Garodnick, however, expressed optimism about the current state of affairs. “We believe we are now in a much better position than we were at the start of last year,” he said.</p> <p>Though Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr., a Bronx Democrat who chairs the Council’s land use committee, suggested that City Planning might need an even higher headcount beyond what is proposed in the preliminary budget, Garodnick said the agency would be able to meet its needs if it fills its vacancies. “We are hopeful that we continue to hire at the same pace…but we're not even at our budgeted headcount. So, to me, I think we should aspire to get there and that is what we are trying to do,” he said.</p> <p>Part of the challenge seems to stem from low levels of pay at the agency, where city planners – who currently make up about 63% of the staff and are required to have either a bachelor’s degree and two years of experience or a master’s degree before being hired – start off with an annual salary of just over $55,000. Under questioning from Salamanca, Garodnick acknowledged that salary levels had led to departures and recruitment challenges.</p> <p>“[Y]ou're right to say that this is a concern that has been presented by the folks who have left and certainly by prospective hires,” he said, noting that the agency had also seen a drop in applicants for city planner positions.</p> <p>The low pay also means that those who apply for jobs tend to be wealthier and whiter, Garodnick said. “The people who can take those lower paying jobs frequently are disproportionately more privileged because they're doing something as a mission driven effort, and they tend to be more white on the whole so it is not an area in which it helps our ability to create a more diverse workforce,” he said.</p> <p>Asked by Council Member Kevin Riley, a Bronx Democrat who chairs the Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises, David Parish, DCP’s Chief Operating Officer, outlined the agency’s recruitment efforts. DCP has hired an Assistant Director of Recruitment and Retention, and is holding hiring panels roughly every six weeks, as well as “salary exercises to look for promotional opportunities and increase wages,” Parrish said. “We're doing everything we can to recruit and retain as quickly as possible.”</p> <p>[READ: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11866-city-council-mayor-adams-personnel-budget" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">At First Preliminary Budget Hearing, City Council Takes Aim at Agency Staffing Crisis</a>]</p> <p>The hearing also touched on City Planning’s work ahead.</p> <p>Garodnick said the first of the proposed citywide zoning amendments, dubbed “City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality,” will head to public review on April 24, just after Earth Day.</p> <p>The agency also recently created a seven-member Community Planning and Engagement Division to conduct outreach on the many initiatives the city is pursuing. “We want to find ways to speak the language of the various communities of New York City and I mean, like literally actually speak the language,” Garodnick said. “And I also mean talk in ways that demystify some of these complicated concepts that we're frequently engaged in communities on.”</p> <p>Zoning for Carbon Neutrality will be followed by Zoning for Economic Opportunity, then perhaps the most ambitious, important, and political fraught: Zoning for Housing Opportunity, which is expected to be unveiled in early 2024.</p> <p>Besides the citywide zoning amendments, the Department of City Planning is also heading up several major neighborhood rezoning efforts that are underway including around the four new MetroNorth Stations planned for the East Bronx and along Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. The agency is also in the preliminary stages of studying a rezoning in Midtown South in Manhattan, another on Staten Island’s North Shore, and has been asked by City Council Member Julie Won and the local community board to start work on rezoning a stretch of Northern Boulevard in Queens.</p> <p>Garodnick also addressed one of the city’s priorities at the state level, the next step in joint city and state efforts to provoke the conversion of unused office space into housing. Governor Hochul’s housing plan includes allowing conversions of office space into housing, to capitalize on office vacancies caused by the pandemic. At the hearing, Council members pushed Garodnick on the necessary steps to ensure that new housing is affordable.</p> <p>“I think most fundamentally, we recognize the challenges here and that we need to find ways to incentivize the creation of affordable housing in connection with office conversions today,” Garodnick said. “There is no incentive to do that. Office conversion gives you a market rate unit. Full stop.” </p> <p>Hochul has <a href="https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2023/02/02/hochul-pitches-conversion-tax-break-will-developers-bite/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">floated</a> a proposal called Affordable Housing from Commercial Conversions, which would provide a 19-year tax break in exchange for a requirement that 20% of converted units are rent-stabilized and affordable for households making 70% of the area median income. Though Garodnick said the administration supports some level of tax breaks for such conversions, he did not comment specifically on Hochul’s proposal.</p> <p>[READ: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11869-city-council-mayor-adams-cuts-department-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">City Council Questions Mayor's Additional Planned Cuts to Internal Government Watchdog</a>]</p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p> <p>Note - this article has been corrected to note that DCP’s vacancy rate is about 16%, not 18%, and that David Parish is DCP’s Chief Operating Officer, not Chief Financial Officer. </p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/questions-arise-planning.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>City Planning Head Dan Garodnick (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)</p> <hr /> <p>The acute staffing crisis at city agencies threatens to undo the many ambitious plans announced by Mayor Eric Adams, and has <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11866-city-council-mayor-adams-personnel-budget" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">become the central concern</a> for the City Council as it examines the mayor’s proposed $102.7 billion preliminary budget for next fiscal year.</p> <p>On Thursday, at a Council hearing focused on the Department of City Planning, a similar refrain emerged as the agency currently faces a 18% personnel vacancy rate, which includes recent hires not yet onboarded, and has a considerable agenda now and for the years ahead.</p> <p>Design and implementation of the administration's land-use policies falls to a significant degree under the purview of City Planning, and Mayor Adams has set it to task. He has proposed a massive “<a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/893-22/mayor-adams-get-stuff-built-bold-three-pronged-strategy-tackle-affordable-housing#/0">Get Stuff Built</a>” housing plan with a “moonshot” goal of building 500,000 new units of housing over the next decade and he is also pursuing three citywide zoning text amendments under his “<a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/353-22/mayor-adams-outlines-vision-city-yes-plan-citywide-zoning-initiatives-support#/0">City of Yes</a>” plan that are meant to promote affordable housing, economic development, and climate sustainability.</p> <p>At the same time, the city is lobbying for various proposals at the state level as Governor Kathy Hochul pursues her own “housing compact” that will create 800,000 units of housing over ten years.</p> <p>The Department of City Planning is taking the lead on the zoning amendments as well as dozens of land-use process reforms meant to speed up permitting, environmental assessments, construction, and more to facilitate the larger housing plan. And, it is constantly advancing individual affordable housing and economic development projects, while currently working on several area rezonings in the city, including in Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Queens, with more to come.</p> <p>“City Planning continues to be laser focused on hiring staff to meet the ambitious goals we've set, under your and the mayor's leadership, for housing, job creation, and climate resiliency,” said Dan Garodnick, Director of the Department of City Planning and Chair of the City Planning Commission, at Thursday’s hearing. Garodnick, a former City Council member from Manhattan himself, was appointed to the dual posts by Mayor Adams early last year.</p> <p>Adams’ proposed budget for the Department of City Planning for the 2024 fiscal year, which begins July 1, is $44.3 million, a $4.8 million decrease from the budget for the current fiscal year that was adopted last June. In the proposed budget, the agency would see a net increase of one more position, bringing its budgeted headcount to 348.</p> <p>But the agency has 286 employees – including 17 that were just hired and haven’t started yet. Out of the remaining 62 positions, 55 are vacant — for a nearly 16% vacancy rate — while another 7 are federal grant-funded positions that are currently unfunded. DCP did hire 74 new staffers in 2022 and is continuing to bring people on into this year. At the hearing, agency officials told the Council they had a 26% attrition rate, echoing a similar struggle that other agencies have also faced in retaining workers given the city's rigid workforce policies that do not allow any work-from-home or hybrid arrangements, low public sector salaries, and national labor shortages.</p> <p>Garodnick, however, expressed optimism about the current state of affairs. “We believe we are now in a much better position than we were at the start of last year,” he said.</p> <p>Though Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr., a Bronx Democrat who chairs the Council’s land use committee, suggested that City Planning might need an even higher headcount beyond what is proposed in the preliminary budget, Garodnick said the agency would be able to meet its needs if it fills its vacancies. “We are hopeful that we continue to hire at the same pace…but we're not even at our budgeted headcount. So, to me, I think we should aspire to get there and that is what we are trying to do,” he said.</p> <p>Part of the challenge seems to stem from low levels of pay at the agency, where city planners – who currently make up about 63% of the staff and are required to have either a bachelor’s degree and two years of experience or a master’s degree before being hired – start off with an annual salary of just over $55,000. Under questioning from Salamanca, Garodnick acknowledged that salary levels had led to departures and recruitment challenges.</p> <p>“[Y]ou're right to say that this is a concern that has been presented by the folks who have left and certainly by prospective hires,” he said, noting that the agency had also seen a drop in applicants for city planner positions.</p> <p>The low pay also means that those who apply for jobs tend to be wealthier and whiter, Garodnick said. “The people who can take those lower paying jobs frequently are disproportionately more privileged because they're doing something as a mission driven effort, and they tend to be more white on the whole so it is not an area in which it helps our ability to create a more diverse workforce,” he said.</p> <p>Asked by Council Member Kevin Riley, a Bronx Democrat who chairs the Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises, David Parish, DCP’s Chief Operating Officer, outlined the agency’s recruitment efforts. DCP has hired an Assistant Director of Recruitment and Retention, and is holding hiring panels roughly every six weeks, as well as “salary exercises to look for promotional opportunities and increase wages,” Parrish said. “We're doing everything we can to recruit and retain as quickly as possible.”</p> <p>[READ: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11866-city-council-mayor-adams-personnel-budget" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">At First Preliminary Budget Hearing, City Council Takes Aim at Agency Staffing Crisis</a>]</p> <p>The hearing also touched on City Planning’s work ahead.</p> <p>Garodnick said the first of the proposed citywide zoning amendments, dubbed “City of Yes for Carbon Neutrality,” will head to public review on April 24, just after Earth Day.</p> <p>The agency also recently created a seven-member Community Planning and Engagement Division to conduct outreach on the many initiatives the city is pursuing. “We want to find ways to speak the language of the various communities of New York City and I mean, like literally actually speak the language,” Garodnick said. “And I also mean talk in ways that demystify some of these complicated concepts that we're frequently engaged in communities on.”</p> <p>Zoning for Carbon Neutrality will be followed by Zoning for Economic Opportunity, then perhaps the most ambitious, important, and political fraught: Zoning for Housing Opportunity, which is expected to be unveiled in early 2024.</p> <p>Besides the citywide zoning amendments, the Department of City Planning is also heading up several major neighborhood rezoning efforts that are underway including around the four new MetroNorth Stations planned for the East Bronx and along Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. The agency is also in the preliminary stages of studying a rezoning in Midtown South in Manhattan, another on Staten Island’s North Shore, and has been asked by City Council Member Julie Won and the local community board to start work on rezoning a stretch of Northern Boulevard in Queens.</p> <p>Garodnick also addressed one of the city’s priorities at the state level, the next step in joint city and state efforts to provoke the conversion of unused office space into housing. Governor Hochul’s housing plan includes allowing conversions of office space into housing, to capitalize on office vacancies caused by the pandemic. At the hearing, Council members pushed Garodnick on the necessary steps to ensure that new housing is affordable.</p> <p>“I think most fundamentally, we recognize the challenges here and that we need to find ways to incentivize the creation of affordable housing in connection with office conversions today,” Garodnick said. “There is no incentive to do that. Office conversion gives you a market rate unit. Full stop.” </p> <p>Hochul has <a href="https://therealdeal.com/new-york/2023/02/02/hochul-pitches-conversion-tax-break-will-developers-bite/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">floated</a> a proposal called Affordable Housing from Commercial Conversions, which would provide a 19-year tax break in exchange for a requirement that 20% of converted units are rent-stabilized and affordable for households making 70% of the area median income. Though Garodnick said the administration supports some level of tax breaks for such conversions, he did not comment specifically on Hochul’s proposal.</p> <p>[READ: <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11869-city-council-mayor-adams-cuts-department-investigation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">City Council Questions Mayor's Additional Planned Cuts to Internal Government Watchdog</a>]</p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p> <p>Note - this article has been corrected to note that DCP’s vacancy rate is about 16%, not 18%, and that David Parish is DCP’s Chief Operating Officer, not Chief Financial Officer. </p>
Council Speaker Adams Outlines State of the City Agenda Focused on Housing and Economic Mobility 2023-03-09T05:00:00+00:00 2023-03-09T05:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11872-speaker-adams-state-of-the-city-agenda-housing Samar Khurshid samarkhurshid@gmail.com <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/council-speaker-outlines.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (photo: John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit)</p> <hr /> <p>City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a Queens Democrat, on Wednesday dedicated her second State of the City speech to the essential workers of New York City who “kept going and kept us going” during the pandemic. In her speech Adams announced an agenda for the year ahead focused on “economic mobility, housing, and healthier and safer neighborhoods.”</p> <p>“Workers run this city. They put the people of this city over everything, and so should we,” Adams said, speaking at the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Houses and Community Center in Soundview in the Bronx. The speech was attended by dozens of elected officials including Mayor Eric Adams, Public Advocate Jumaane WIlliams, Comptroller Brad Lander, Council members, borough presidents, and district attorneys.</p> <p>Speaker Adams announced a series of measures covering workforce development, higher education, early childhood education, affordable housing and homeownership, homelessness prevention, economic and industrial development, small business incentives, healthcare, public safety, and more. Those proposals were included in a detailed agenda she released Wednesday, titled “<a href="http://council.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/030823.Speaker_Adams_SOC_2023_Report-_final1.pdf">People Over Everything</a>.”</p> <p>Among the items on her agenda are a proposal to build new public housing developments; modernizing the city’s manufacturing zoning regulations; tweaks to the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing policy; expanding eligibility for the Fair Fares discounted MetroCard program; a mobile health care hub for food delivery workers; and more. Some of her proposals require legislative action and support from the mayoral administration, and even the state in some cases, while others are a matter of increased funding in the upcoming city budget.</p> <p>Though the speaker extended a friendly welcome to her fellow Democrat, Mayor Adams (no relation), her speech took direct aim at his proposed $102.7 billion preliminary budget for the next fiscal year. Speaker Adams and many of her colleagues have been severely critical of cuts the mayor has already made and additional ones he’s proposed across city agencies. They’ve focused many questions, including at the Council’s first preliminary budget hearings this week, on the mayor’s handling of city government personnel, including failures to adapt recruitment and retention policies as the city faces a major staffing crisis and his proposed reduction in budgeted vacancies.</p> <p>“Proposals in a speech are meaningless if they are not consistent with budget decisions,” she said, pointing specifically to cuts to 3-K, libraries, and CUNY. And she stressed a particular urgency in addressing agency personnel shortages. “It has created a domino effect, and now New Yorkers who rely on essential services are feeling those impacts in real time,” she said, alluding to the city’s reduced performance on things like distributing food stamps to closing affordable housing financing deals.</p> <p>The mayor’s budget scraps a previously planned expansion of pre-kindergarten for three-year-olds, another area where the administration and the Council find themselves at loggerheads. The administration has insisted that there are thousands of vacant 3-K seats that should be filled before the program grows any further, but the Council has pushed back.</p> <p>“We must work to correct the course that has weakened our 3-K system,” Speaker Adams said in her speech. She pointed to the “hollowed out” Early Childhood Education division at the Department of Education, another victim of the staffing shortage. She also said that the 3-K program should be “revamped and expanded with a newly designed contract,” along with salary parity for early childhood workers.</p> <p>Adams also recommitted to the effort to close the scandal-ridden and violence-plagued Rikers Island jail complex. Rikers is set by law to close by the start of 2027 and be replaced by four borough-based jails everywhere but Staten Island, a plan that is contingent on reducing the jail population to below 3,300. But the jail population has increased in the last two years, exceeding 5,800 as of the latest count, and there were more detainee deaths last year than in a quarter century. Mayor Adams and his administration have been openly skeptical that the closure plan will be achievable on the current timeline.</p> <p>“The conditions at Rikers are only creating harm for everyone there,” Speaker Adams said Wednesday, stressing the need to invest in pre-trial and alternative-to-incarceration programs, and supportive housing with re-entry programs for people leaving the jail system. “Advancing the closure of Rikers is more urgent now than ever before – for both public safety and human rights,” she said.</p> <p>The speaker did not otherwise delve too deeply into public safety, though she did call for greater investments in street safety infrastructure, expanded community safety solutions to violent crime, and increased support for the city’s two Overdose Prevention Centers, which the mayor just pledged last week when he released a <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/140-23/mayor-adams-ambitious-mental-health-agenda-focused-improving-family-child-mental#/0">plan</a> focused on mental health and drug addiction.</p> <p>Adams, the first Black City Council speaker, took the speech as an opportunity to tout the Council’s achievements in her first year in the role, leading the first woman-majority Council. Those included the passage of abortion protections, measures to tackle racial disparities in maternal health, legislation to curb racial and gender wage disparities, creation of the state’s first community-based trauma recovery centers, and the <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11700-affordable-housing-mayor-adams-city-of-yes-development">approval</a> of 40 land use projects that will create 12,000 units of housing, to name a few.</p> <p>“We will continue to advance solutions for New Yorkers whose needs have too often been marginalized, because when we respond through this lens of equity, all New Yorkers win,” she said. “This means focusing on the needs of women, who make up 60% of our city’s frontline workforce, and people of color, who are three out of every four frontline workers.”</p> <p>Adams also celebrated the success of the CUNY Reconnect program, which she proposed and launched last year for CUNY students that left without earning their degrees. Since its launch, the program has helped 16,000 students return to college, exceeding the original goal of 10,000. “The overwhelming success of this program makes clear: we need to fully fund CUNY, and expand programs like CUNY Reconnect,” she said.</p> <p>Housing was among the main areas that Adams addressed on Wednesday, with a particular focus on the New York City Housing Authority, the public housing agency which houses roughly half-a-million New Yorkers. NYCHA has suffered from years of underinvestment at every level of government, leading to dilapidated apartments and egregious living conditions that have harmed the health and safety of its residents.</p> <p>Speaker Adams made an ambitious proposal to ameliorate those conditions by building new public housing developments for existing NYCHA residents on un- or under-used NYCHA-owned land. The new higher-density developments would require city, state, and federal funding and would also include other affordable and mixed-income housing, she said.</p> <p>“I’m under no illusion that this is an easy or straightforward idea,” she acknowledged. “In fact, this ambitious task would require resources and close coordination from DC, Albany, and Gracie Mansion. But I present it even with its complexities, because we can’t keep tinkering around the edges of the status quo and expect to deliver transformative change that residents deserve.”</p> <p>Adams also further teased the impending introduction of a Fair Housing Framework bill, which she first announced <a href="https://council.nyc.gov/press/2022/12/15/2317/">in December</a>, to set local affordable housing production goals, and expressed her support for proposals in Governor Kathy Hochul’s budget plan that will help build more housing in the city including through mandatory local growth targets, converting office space to housing, and eliminating the floor-area-ratio cap in the city. And she said the city should update its Mandatory Inclusionary Housing policy, approved under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, to require more deeply affordable housing.</p> <p>The speaker also pledged to strengthen programs to help preserve existing rent-regulated apartments and to expand affordable homeownership, and new legislation to make it easier for low-income families to receive rental assistance vouchers that prevent evictions.</p> <p>In keeping with the theme of the speech, Adams announced several workforce development  proposals. She said the Council would work to reduce barriers to entry for civil service jobs and announced a new Social Work Fellows program that would cover tuition for college graduates and create a pipeline for them to join the city’s mental health workforce. She also said the Council will make a “multi-million-dollar” investment to create three more workforce development centers at NYCHA developments. And she promised legislation to ban non-compete agreements for workers.</p> <p>The speaker is also proposing several economic development measures to boost small businesses, revive industrial manufacturing, and create programs for underrepresented entrepreneurs.</p> <p>She proposed updates to the city’s manufacturing zoning to incentivize businesses to set up shop in abandoned industrial zones. “We are sitting on industrial goldmines that have been neglected,” she said. That proposal would be accompanied by legislation mandating citywide industrial planning, she said, “so we can transition away from fossil fuels towards green energy, support job growth and citywide needs.”</p> <p>She said the Council would partner with Community Development Financial Institutions to build programs that will provide capital to under-represented entrepreneurs, Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs), and small businesses. And she announced support for NYCHA residents that own their own small businesses.</p> <p>Benefits for low-income New Yorkers were also on Speaker Adams’ agenda as she announced expanded guaranteed income programs and an expansion of the Fair Fares half-priced MetroCard program to New Yorkers with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level, effectively doubling the number of low-income New Yorkers who are eligible (the cutoff is currently at or below 100% of the poverty level, meaning an annual income of $14,580 for an individual).</p> <p>Adams also announced that the Council would push to expand year-round public access to swimming pools, invest in free swimming and lifeguard training programs, and pass legislation requiring the city to find locations for new public pools.</p> <p>On healthcare, Adams announced a new mobile healthcare hub for deliveristas, the food delivery workers that were essential during the pandemic and whose number has skyrocketed as New Yorkers order more and more delivery. She also said the Council would expand funding for healthy food markets for NYCHA developments and would push the city to expand farmer’s markets year-round.</p> <p>

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/council-speaker-outlines.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams (photo: John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit)</p> <hr /> <p>City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a Queens Democrat, on Wednesday dedicated her second State of the City speech to the essential workers of New York City who “kept going and kept us going” during the pandemic. In her speech Adams announced an agenda for the year ahead focused on “economic mobility, housing, and healthier and safer neighborhoods.”</p> <p>“Workers run this city. They put the people of this city over everything, and so should we,” Adams said, speaking at the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Houses and Community Center in Soundview in the Bronx. The speech was attended by dozens of elected officials including Mayor Eric Adams, Public Advocate Jumaane WIlliams, Comptroller Brad Lander, Council members, borough presidents, and district attorneys.</p> <p>Speaker Adams announced a series of measures covering workforce development, higher education, early childhood education, affordable housing and homeownership, homelessness prevention, economic and industrial development, small business incentives, healthcare, public safety, and more. Those proposals were included in a detailed agenda she released Wednesday, titled “<a href="http://council.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/030823.Speaker_Adams_SOC_2023_Report-_final1.pdf">People Over Everything</a>.”</p> <p>Among the items on her agenda are a proposal to build new public housing developments; modernizing the city’s manufacturing zoning regulations; tweaks to the city’s Mandatory Inclusionary Housing policy; expanding eligibility for the Fair Fares discounted MetroCard program; a mobile health care hub for food delivery workers; and more. Some of her proposals require legislative action and support from the mayoral administration, and even the state in some cases, while others are a matter of increased funding in the upcoming city budget.</p> <p>Though the speaker extended a friendly welcome to her fellow Democrat, Mayor Adams (no relation), her speech took direct aim at his proposed $102.7 billion preliminary budget for the next fiscal year. Speaker Adams and many of her colleagues have been severely critical of cuts the mayor has already made and additional ones he’s proposed across city agencies. They’ve focused many questions, including at the Council’s first preliminary budget hearings this week, on the mayor’s handling of city government personnel, including failures to adapt recruitment and retention policies as the city faces a major staffing crisis and his proposed reduction in budgeted vacancies.</p> <p>“Proposals in a speech are meaningless if they are not consistent with budget decisions,” she said, pointing specifically to cuts to 3-K, libraries, and CUNY. And she stressed a particular urgency in addressing agency personnel shortages. “It has created a domino effect, and now New Yorkers who rely on essential services are feeling those impacts in real time,” she said, alluding to the city’s reduced performance on things like distributing food stamps to closing affordable housing financing deals.</p> <p>The mayor’s budget scraps a previously planned expansion of pre-kindergarten for three-year-olds, another area where the administration and the Council find themselves at loggerheads. The administration has insisted that there are thousands of vacant 3-K seats that should be filled before the program grows any further, but the Council has pushed back.</p> <p>“We must work to correct the course that has weakened our 3-K system,” Speaker Adams said in her speech. She pointed to the “hollowed out” Early Childhood Education division at the Department of Education, another victim of the staffing shortage. She also said that the 3-K program should be “revamped and expanded with a newly designed contract,” along with salary parity for early childhood workers.</p> <p>Adams also recommitted to the effort to close the scandal-ridden and violence-plagued Rikers Island jail complex. Rikers is set by law to close by the start of 2027 and be replaced by four borough-based jails everywhere but Staten Island, a plan that is contingent on reducing the jail population to below 3,300. But the jail population has increased in the last two years, exceeding 5,800 as of the latest count, and there were more detainee deaths last year than in a quarter century. Mayor Adams and his administration have been openly skeptical that the closure plan will be achievable on the current timeline.</p> <p>“The conditions at Rikers are only creating harm for everyone there,” Speaker Adams said Wednesday, stressing the need to invest in pre-trial and alternative-to-incarceration programs, and supportive housing with re-entry programs for people leaving the jail system. “Advancing the closure of Rikers is more urgent now than ever before – for both public safety and human rights,” she said.</p> <p>The speaker did not otherwise delve too deeply into public safety, though she did call for greater investments in street safety infrastructure, expanded community safety solutions to violent crime, and increased support for the city’s two Overdose Prevention Centers, which the mayor just pledged last week when he released a <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/140-23/mayor-adams-ambitious-mental-health-agenda-focused-improving-family-child-mental#/0">plan</a> focused on mental health and drug addiction.</p> <p>Adams, the first Black City Council speaker, took the speech as an opportunity to tout the Council’s achievements in her first year in the role, leading the first woman-majority Council. Those included the passage of abortion protections, measures to tackle racial disparities in maternal health, legislation to curb racial and gender wage disparities, creation of the state’s first community-based trauma recovery centers, and the <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11700-affordable-housing-mayor-adams-city-of-yes-development">approval</a> of 40 land use projects that will create 12,000 units of housing, to name a few.</p> <p>“We will continue to advance solutions for New Yorkers whose needs have too often been marginalized, because when we respond through this lens of equity, all New Yorkers win,” she said. “This means focusing on the needs of women, who make up 60% of our city’s frontline workforce, and people of color, who are three out of every four frontline workers.”</p> <p>Adams also celebrated the success of the CUNY Reconnect program, which she proposed and launched last year for CUNY students that left without earning their degrees. Since its launch, the program has helped 16,000 students return to college, exceeding the original goal of 10,000. “The overwhelming success of this program makes clear: we need to fully fund CUNY, and expand programs like CUNY Reconnect,” she said.</p> <p>Housing was among the main areas that Adams addressed on Wednesday, with a particular focus on the New York City Housing Authority, the public housing agency which houses roughly half-a-million New Yorkers. NYCHA has suffered from years of underinvestment at every level of government, leading to dilapidated apartments and egregious living conditions that have harmed the health and safety of its residents.</p> <p>Speaker Adams made an ambitious proposal to ameliorate those conditions by building new public housing developments for existing NYCHA residents on un- or under-used NYCHA-owned land. The new higher-density developments would require city, state, and federal funding and would also include other affordable and mixed-income housing, she said.</p> <p>“I’m under no illusion that this is an easy or straightforward idea,” she acknowledged. “In fact, this ambitious task would require resources and close coordination from DC, Albany, and Gracie Mansion. But I present it even with its complexities, because we can’t keep tinkering around the edges of the status quo and expect to deliver transformative change that residents deserve.”</p> <p>Adams also further teased the impending introduction of a Fair Housing Framework bill, which she first announced <a href="https://council.nyc.gov/press/2022/12/15/2317/">in December</a>, to set local affordable housing production goals, and expressed her support for proposals in Governor Kathy Hochul’s budget plan that will help build more housing in the city including through mandatory local growth targets, converting office space to housing, and eliminating the floor-area-ratio cap in the city. And she said the city should update its Mandatory Inclusionary Housing policy, approved under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, to require more deeply affordable housing.</p> <p>The speaker also pledged to strengthen programs to help preserve existing rent-regulated apartments and to expand affordable homeownership, and new legislation to make it easier for low-income families to receive rental assistance vouchers that prevent evictions.</p> <p>In keeping with the theme of the speech, Adams announced several workforce development  proposals. She said the Council would work to reduce barriers to entry for civil service jobs and announced a new Social Work Fellows program that would cover tuition for college graduates and create a pipeline for them to join the city’s mental health workforce. She also said the Council will make a “multi-million-dollar” investment to create three more workforce development centers at NYCHA developments. And she promised legislation to ban non-compete agreements for workers.</p> <p>The speaker is also proposing several economic development measures to boost small businesses, revive industrial manufacturing, and create programs for underrepresented entrepreneurs.</p> <p>She proposed updates to the city’s manufacturing zoning to incentivize businesses to set up shop in abandoned industrial zones. “We are sitting on industrial goldmines that have been neglected,” she said. That proposal would be accompanied by legislation mandating citywide industrial planning, she said, “so we can transition away from fossil fuels towards green energy, support job growth and citywide needs.”</p> <p>She said the Council would partner with Community Development Financial Institutions to build programs that will provide capital to under-represented entrepreneurs, Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprises (MWBEs), and small businesses. And she announced support for NYCHA residents that own their own small businesses.</p> <p>Benefits for low-income New Yorkers were also on Speaker Adams’ agenda as she announced expanded guaranteed income programs and an expansion of the Fair Fares half-priced MetroCard program to New Yorkers with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level, effectively doubling the number of low-income New Yorkers who are eligible (the cutoff is currently at or below 100% of the poverty level, meaning an annual income of $14,580 for an individual).</p> <p>Adams also announced that the Council would push to expand year-round public access to swimming pools, invest in free swimming and lifeguard training programs, and pass legislation requiring the city to find locations for new public pools.</p> <p>On healthcare, Adams announced a new mobile healthcare hub for deliveristas, the food delivery workers that were essential during the pandemic and whose number has skyrocketed as New Yorkers order more and more delivery. She also said the Council would expand funding for healthy food markets for NYCHA developments and would push the city to expand farmer’s markets year-round.</p> <p>

***
by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
City Council Questions Mayor's Additional Planned Cuts to Internal City Government Watchdog 2023-03-08T05:00:00+00:00 2023-03-08T05:00:00+00:00 https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11869-city-council-mayor-adams-cuts-department-investigation Samar Khurshid samarkhurshid@gmail.com <p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/2-pointing-vac-inv.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>City Council Member Gale Brewer (photo: Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit)</p> <hr /> <p>The New York City Department of Investigation has lost 86 budgeted positions, 21% of its staff, in the last two fiscal years, and is being hit with further vacancy reductions in Mayor Eric Adams’ proposed $102.7 billion preliminary budget for 2024. Those cuts threaten to undermine the agency’s work to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in city government, as it continues to handle an unchanged workload with fewer resources.</p> <p>The Department of Investigation (DOI) is a mayoral agency with law enforcement powers meant to be the inspector general for city government, operating without fear or favor toward the mayor. Given its powers, its commissioner is one of a very small number of mayoral appointments at that level of government that requires the consent of the City Council.</p> <p>At a City Council budget hearing on Tuesday, DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber testified to the agency’s dwindling staff and the efforts the office has taken to streamline operations in response. DOI has its own personnel budget and also receives funding from other agencies for dedicated Inspector General staff. For fiscal year 2024, which begins July 1 of this year, DOI’s overall budget proposed by the mayor is $45.27 million – a more than 15% cut from the budget adopted last year – while another $1.6 million will flow from other agencies and public authorities like NYCHA and NYC Health+Hospitals.</p> <p>“This committee is concerned that after multiple years of reductions the department is not adequately funded,” said City Council Member Gale Brewer, a Manhattan Democrat and chair of the Council’s Committee on Oversight and Investigations, in her opening remarks at Tuesday’s hearing.</p> <p>The mayor’s preliminary budget proposes a cut of 55 budgeted positions at DOI, from a budgeted headcount of 348 when the current budget was adopted last June to 293 for next fiscal year. That cut includes 18 positions that were added at the urging of the Council last year but not baselined in the budget as well as another 37 vacant positions that were cut as part of the mayor’s Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG), wherein the mayor sought 3% in savings across most agencies.</p> <p>As Strauber noted in her testimony, the PEG “hit DOI particularly hard because we already had a high vacancy rate due to difficulties in hiring and retaining staff over the past several years.” The agency currently has 63 positions that are vacant. “DOI is staff-driven, not program-driven, so our PEG cuts principally impact our headcount,” she said. Strauber, a former federal prosecutor, was appointed to the role by Mayor Adams during 2022, his first year in office.</p> <p>At the same time as it continues to lose staff, DOI’s workload has increased on some fronts. In the 2022 calendar year, the agency received 12,580 complaints, an increase of about 3.5% from the previous year. It opened 940 investigations, 46 more than in 2021. There were also 1,526 active investigations and another 837 closed investigations, roughly consistent with 2021. The agency also reduced its backlog of personnel background investigations to about 910, down from a high of 6,500 in 2019.</p> <p>“You've done more with less so I know you could do a lot more with more,” Brewer told Strauber.</p> <p>Strauber emphasized that the agency has strived to fulfill its responsibilities. “I certainly don't think there's work that we're not doing or important investigations that we're not pursuing,” she said. But, nonetheless, the staffing reductions have had an adverse impact. “Overall there may be a slower pace of work and we are…trying to make good and efficient choices about how we pursue investigations. So we're doing everything we can with what we have.”</p> <p>Strauber said the agency needs at least 30 more baselined positions at a total cost of just $1.7 million. That will free up staff to focus their attention on investigations rather than spending 20% of their time on administrative complaint intake, she said. Twenty of those staffers would include confidential investigators, auditors, lawyers, and other specialists, and six of them would be dedicated to a squad overseeing four agencies that handle more than $6.7 billion in capital projects. “That Squad has not been fully staffed to date which has hampered its ability to strategically establish its docket,” Strauber noted.</p> <p>Strauber also said that without baselined funding, the agency will struggle to fill empty positions and hire more investigators. “We can't really recruit people where we don't have assurance that the money will be there,” she said.</p> <p>“It is hard for me to envision how we could hire someone without a commitment that we have the funding to pay them for more than one year,” she later added.</p> <p>When asked by Brewer about the potential for DOI workers to be allowed hybrid work schedules, including some ability to work from home, Strauber said it would make it easier to hire personnel. “Our hiring, we think, would be considerably easier if we could offer even a moderate remote hybrid option,” she said. Mayor Adams has insisted that all city employees report to their official workplaces, continuing a policy put in place by Mayor Bill de Blasio after the worst of the covid pandemic.</p> <p>Brewer had broached the subject of DOI’s vacancy reductions and the administration’s stance on work-from-home policies on Monday, <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11866-city-council-mayor-adams-personnel-budget">at the first Council hearing on the mayor’s proposed budget</a>. At the hearing, Jacques Jiha, director of the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, defended the cuts in vacancies as part of the broad effort to reduce spending across city government. On the issue of hybrid work schedules, he declined any real discussion, instead pointing to a pilot hybrid work program that the administration has agreed to explore with DC37, the city’s largest public sector union. Brewer stressed that many non-union employees, like those at DOI, should be offered a hybrid schedule, and pointed to the lack of hybrid schedules as a major barrier to hiring and retention.</p> <p>On Tuesday, Strauber said that remote work had not negatively affected her agency’s work. “We had the vast majority of our staff work remotely during the pandemic,” she said. “Obviously that was a challenging time, but their ability to do their investigations really continued unabated. And certainly remote work we don't view as posing an issue to our ability to be productive and to work collaboratively as a team and as an agency.”</p> <p>

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>
<p><img src="https://www.gothamgazette.com/images/graphics/2-pointing-vac-inv.jpg" width="600" /></p> <p>City Council Member Gale Brewer (photo: Emil Cohen/NYC Council Media Unit)</p> <hr /> <p>The New York City Department of Investigation has lost 86 budgeted positions, 21% of its staff, in the last two fiscal years, and is being hit with further vacancy reductions in Mayor Eric Adams’ proposed $102.7 billion preliminary budget for 2024. Those cuts threaten to undermine the agency’s work to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in city government, as it continues to handle an unchanged workload with fewer resources.</p> <p>The Department of Investigation (DOI) is a mayoral agency with law enforcement powers meant to be the inspector general for city government, operating without fear or favor toward the mayor. Given its powers, its commissioner is one of a very small number of mayoral appointments at that level of government that requires the consent of the City Council.</p> <p>At a City Council budget hearing on Tuesday, DOI Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber testified to the agency’s dwindling staff and the efforts the office has taken to streamline operations in response. DOI has its own personnel budget and also receives funding from other agencies for dedicated Inspector General staff. For fiscal year 2024, which begins July 1 of this year, DOI’s overall budget proposed by the mayor is $45.27 million – a more than 15% cut from the budget adopted last year – while another $1.6 million will flow from other agencies and public authorities like NYCHA and NYC Health+Hospitals.</p> <p>“This committee is concerned that after multiple years of reductions the department is not adequately funded,” said City Council Member Gale Brewer, a Manhattan Democrat and chair of the Council’s Committee on Oversight and Investigations, in her opening remarks at Tuesday’s hearing.</p> <p>The mayor’s preliminary budget proposes a cut of 55 budgeted positions at DOI, from a budgeted headcount of 348 when the current budget was adopted last June to 293 for next fiscal year. That cut includes 18 positions that were added at the urging of the Council last year but not baselined in the budget as well as another 37 vacant positions that were cut as part of the mayor’s Program to Eliminate the Gap (PEG), wherein the mayor sought 3% in savings across most agencies.</p> <p>As Strauber noted in her testimony, the PEG “hit DOI particularly hard because we already had a high vacancy rate due to difficulties in hiring and retaining staff over the past several years.” The agency currently has 63 positions that are vacant. “DOI is staff-driven, not program-driven, so our PEG cuts principally impact our headcount,” she said. Strauber, a former federal prosecutor, was appointed to the role by Mayor Adams during 2022, his first year in office.</p> <p>At the same time as it continues to lose staff, DOI’s workload has increased on some fronts. In the 2022 calendar year, the agency received 12,580 complaints, an increase of about 3.5% from the previous year. It opened 940 investigations, 46 more than in 2021. There were also 1,526 active investigations and another 837 closed investigations, roughly consistent with 2021. The agency also reduced its backlog of personnel background investigations to about 910, down from a high of 6,500 in 2019.</p> <p>“You've done more with less so I know you could do a lot more with more,” Brewer told Strauber.</p> <p>Strauber emphasized that the agency has strived to fulfill its responsibilities. “I certainly don't think there's work that we're not doing or important investigations that we're not pursuing,” she said. But, nonetheless, the staffing reductions have had an adverse impact. “Overall there may be a slower pace of work and we are…trying to make good and efficient choices about how we pursue investigations. So we're doing everything we can with what we have.”</p> <p>Strauber said the agency needs at least 30 more baselined positions at a total cost of just $1.7 million. That will free up staff to focus their attention on investigations rather than spending 20% of their time on administrative complaint intake, she said. Twenty of those staffers would include confidential investigators, auditors, lawyers, and other specialists, and six of them would be dedicated to a squad overseeing four agencies that handle more than $6.7 billion in capital projects. “That Squad has not been fully staffed to date which has hampered its ability to strategically establish its docket,” Strauber noted.</p> <p>Strauber also said that without baselined funding, the agency will struggle to fill empty positions and hire more investigators. “We can't really recruit people where we don't have assurance that the money will be there,” she said.</p> <p>“It is hard for me to envision how we could hire someone without a commitment that we have the funding to pay them for more than one year,” she later added.</p> <p>When asked by Brewer about the potential for DOI workers to be allowed hybrid work schedules, including some ability to work from home, Strauber said it would make it easier to hire personnel. “Our hiring, we think, would be considerably easier if we could offer even a moderate remote hybrid option,” she said. Mayor Adams has insisted that all city employees report to their official workplaces, continuing a policy put in place by Mayor Bill de Blasio after the worst of the covid pandemic.</p> <p>Brewer had broached the subject of DOI’s vacancy reductions and the administration’s stance on work-from-home policies on Monday, <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/city/11866-city-council-mayor-adams-personnel-budget">at the first Council hearing on the mayor’s proposed budget</a>. At the hearing, Jacques Jiha, director of the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, defended the cuts in vacancies as part of the broad effort to reduce spending across city government. On the issue of hybrid work schedules, he declined any real discussion, instead pointing to a pilot hybrid work program that the administration has agreed to explore with DC37, the city’s largest public sector union. Brewer stressed that many non-union employees, like those at DOI, should be offered a hybrid schedule, and pointed to the lack of hybrid schedules as a major barrier to hiring and retention.</p> <p>On Tuesday, Strauber said that remote work had not negatively affected her agency’s work. “We had the vast majority of our staff work remotely during the pandemic,” she said. “Obviously that was a challenging time, but their ability to do their investigations really continued unabated. And certainly remote work we don't view as posing an issue to our ability to be productive and to work collaboratively as a team and as an agency.”</p> <p>

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

</p>