As NYC’s Food Stamp Crisis Worsens, State Agency Withholds Relief
This holiday season, tens of thousands of low-income New Yorkers could go without food stamps amid a staffing shortage at the city’s social services agency—and state officials with the power to ease the bureaucratic crisis have so far declined to take action.
Over half of food stamp applicants are left waiting for the crucial benefits as staff at the city’s beleaguered Human Resources Administration (HRA)—down 20 percent of its workforce and facing a fresh round of budget cuts ordered by Mayor Eric Adams—struggle to process documents and issue approvals.
HRA has requested a waiver from the state that would temporarily suspend recertification requirements for food stamp recipients so that agency staff can tackle the massive backlog of new applications, including 50,000 in October alone. But New York State’s Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) has declined to relax the rules.
City’s Street Vendors Saw Twice as Many Tickets This Year Compared to Pre-Pandemic, With NYPD Leading Enforcement This year, the NYPD has been the leading enforcement agency against street vendors, breaking from an earlier pledge to take them out of the process as part of reforms announced by former Mayor Bill de Blasio. Read the story.
NYCHA Blames Dreary Financial Outlook on $454 Million in Unpaid Pandemic Rent More than 73,000 NYCHA households are behind on rent, which officials say will force the public housing authority to draw from dwindling operating reserves and make other cuts in the year ahead—and could potentially hamper its repair plans. Meanwhile, the state’s already exhausted Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) to aid New Yorkers in arrears is unlikely to reach NYCHA. Read the story.
Q&A: Journalist Yevgenia Albats on Curiosity and Freedom of the Press Yevgenia Albats, a Russian investigative reporter who is currently the Distinguished Journalist in Residence at the NYU Jordan Center, recently spoke to City Limits’ youth reporting interns about what it’s like to be a journalist in a country that does not have a free press. Read the story.
Vendedores ambulantes de la ciudad recibieron el doble de multas este año en comparación con los niveles pre-pandemia En 2019, cuando la policía de Nueva York era el único encargado, emitió 1.812 multas frente a 2.499 en los primeros nueve meses de este año, con casi la mitad (48.6 por ciento) repartidas en el último trimestre. En solo nueve meses, la policía de Nueva York y el Departamento de Protección al Consumidor y al Trabajador (DCWP por sus siglas en inglés) emitieron 3.884 multas a vendedores, más del doble de la cantidad de multas emitidas en 2019. Leer la historia
PODCAST: ¿Se avecina el fin del Título 42? El próximo 21 de diciembre podría llegar a su fin el título 42, la medida que permite a funcionarios rechazar a los inmigrantes encontrados en la frontera. El periodista Felipe de la Hoz, co-fundador de Border/Lines, nos ayuda a explicar el Título 42 y las opciones que habría tras su terminación. Leer la historia
City Views
Opinions & Analysis
Opinion: Fare Hike is the Wrong Approach to MTA’s Financial Woes “If New York’s city and state leaders truly prioritize a society where social equity as well as environmental sustainability are fundamental values, discussion of subway and bus fare increases would not be on the table. And if the overarching goal is to bring riders back to the nation’s greatest public transit system, why disincentivize them with higher fares?” Read the story.
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Senior Account Executive, Cities and Real Estate for BerlinRosen BerlinRosen is seeking a Senior Account Executive to join our rapidly-growing team and work with clients in the commercial real estate space. This is a great opportunity for someone who has a full roster of media relationships in the world of commercial real estate media and wants to take the lead on client initiatives and work, and help further grow the practice area.
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