Catch up on homelessness, housing and hunger issues

Woman studying something on a computer. Perhaps it's New York housing, hunger or homelessness policy?

Woman studying something on a computer. Perhaps it's New York housing, hunger or homelessness policy? Shutterstock

By Zach Williams

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The Fresh Air Fund raised more than $450,000 at a Nov. 15 event. More than 400 people attended the midtown Manhattan event in support of the nonprofit, which provides free summer experiences to New York City children from low-income households.

 

Brooklyn Defender Services Senior Staff Attorney Scott Hechinger is the star of a new NowThis video. The public defender aims to explain within five minutes why cash bail must be ended. See how he did below:

 

Praxis Housing Initiatives has received a $1.13 million contract from the New York City Department of Social Services. The money will fund housing and supportive services for people living with AIDS for one year, according to the City Record. The Administration for Children’s Services has thrown down $99,996 in beautician services from Joy Jones of Brooklyn for hair care services for youth at ACS juvenile detention centers, according to the agency. Community Mediation Services also received a $1.8 million contract from the agency to fund a mentoring and advocacy program.

 

Want to catch up on homeless policy in New York City? Giselle Routhier, policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless, spells out during an appearance on the Max & Murphy Show on WBAI why the nonprofit is pushing the de Blasio administration to devote more units to homeless families. Molly Park, the deputy commissioner in charge of development for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, has her own take on why that might not be the best way forward in confront affordable housing issues in the city. Hear the discussions here, or skip to Routhier below:

 

 

A new report examines how a New York City plan might not be up to the task of confronting the affordable housing crisis. Nearly 600,000 households are in need of affordable housing, according to the report from the office of Comptroller Scott Stringer. Almost 90 percent of these households survive on less than $47,000 each year and spend more than half of their incomes on rent. Less than a quarter of the city’s current affordable housing plan is earmarked for these households, according to the report. The report also includes recommendations on how to address these shortcomings. Read more here.

 

A new report examines food insecurity in New York City at a time of declining unemployment and poverty. Despite these positive economic trends, many people in the city are still struggling to secure enough food to eat, according to the “Poverty Tracker” report, released by the Robin Hood Foundation in partnership with Columbia University. Here are a few takeaways, taken more or less verbatim from a press release.

  • Nearly half of all children in New York City live in households that struggle with food security and ran out of food at least sometimes over a three-year period.
  • 30 percent of all New Yorkers (nearly 2.6 million) often or sometimes run of out food each year, and even more (nearly half) worry that they won’t have enough food to feed their family.
  • Many working New Yorkers wind up using food pantries: nearly 50 percent of those who used a food pantry in the past year worked at least at some point during the year, and nearly 30 percent worked at least 11 months of the year.
  • Black New Yorkers have been more than five times as likely as white New Yorkers to be food insecure in each of the past three years, and Hispanic New Yorkers are nearly eight times as likely.
  • Bronx residents were about 1.6 times more likely to experience food hardship in comparison to the city as a whole.

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