State of the Homeless 2019

Black Veterans for Social Justice has received a $3.18 million contract renewal from the New York City Department of Social Services. The six-month deal will fund through June 2019 a homeless shelter located at 665 Willoughby Avenue in Brooklyn, according to the City Record. The Human Resources Administration Office of Child Support Services plans to renew a six-month contract with Alert Process Servers for Summons Services for an unnamed amount. That contract will fund summons services for absent parents.

The Legal Aid Society is getting in on the city’s ongoing debate about electric bikes. The nonprofit is suing the NYPD in state Supreme Court, alleging that the department is wrongfully fining delivery workers instead of their employers, amNewYork reports.

“This is a very oppressive situation. Very few of these workers have $500, and their bikes are confiscated and they lose their livelihood until the $500 is paid.” -  #SteveWasserman, Staff Attorney with the Special Litigation Unit at LAS https://t.co/uXyL3zzatz

— The Legal Aid Society (@LegalAidNYC) April 29, 2019

The city Department of Small Business Services has awarded $1.3 million in grants to more than a dozen development nonprofits. The money will fund multi-year commercial revitalization programs in low- and middle-income neighborhoods, according to an April 25 press release. Organizations getting a piece of the action include the Pitkin Avenue Business Improvement District in Brownsville, Brooklyn; the Lower East Side Partnership in Manhattan; and Mosholu Preservation Corporation, in the Norwood area of the Bronx. Each grantee will be awarded $100,000 per year for up to three years.

The New York Civil Liberties Union is deploying teen activists who want the city to change its approach to sex education. Whether it’s by promoting cis-gender parenting or scaring students into remaining abstinent, students are not getting a message that works for them, activists said outside the headquarters of the city Department of Education in downtown Manhattan on April 29. To make matters worse, the city does not require that sex education be taught at all, according to the NYCLU.

Teens are chanting ”Sex ed matters!” from the steps of Tweed Courthouse. #JustTeachIt #SexEdNYC pic.twitter.com/US9TGuJQsx

— NYCLU (@NYCLU) April 29, 2019

The Coalition for the Homeless has released a new report about where homelessness stands in New York City. The State of the Homeless 2019 does not mince words about where the nonprofit stands on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s approach to homelessness at a time when nearly 70,000 people depend on city shelters. “Mayor de Blasio’s hollow plan to address the crisis, Turning the Tide on Homelessness, has floundered, failing entirely to live up to its title,” the report asserts.

The 43-page report includes an analysis of the major factors driving homelessness citywide and recommendations on how to address it – along with demographic data on homeless families and single adults.