NYC NOW - August 14, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

Interfaith activists are expressing alarm over a float in this weekend's India Day Parade in Midtown, Manhattan. Plus, WNYC’s Janae Pierre talks with Mike Bobbitt, Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development about its newly awarded funds from the Adams administration to enhance summer programs in underserved neighborhoods. Also, WNYC’s David Brand reports on a housing complex in Queens that happens to be the site of more evictions than anywhere else in the city; the landlord is suing to speed up the process. And finally, real estate listings site, StreetEasy, finds more condos, co-ops and houses are hitting the market, and interest rates could soon start dropping in New York City.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jinnay P.A. Interfaith activists are expressing alarm over a float in this weekend's India Day parade in Midtown Manhattan. The float depicts a new Hindu temple built on the site in India where Hindus destroyed a 500-year-old mosque in 1992. Ajit Sahi is with the Indian American Muslim Council. For them to bring the divisive float, This divisive temple to the civil life of the United States is quite problematic. Parade organizers say the float is an expression of Indian heritage.

Avanash Gupta is the president of the Federation of Indian Associations. He says the parade includes representatives of many faiths, including Muslims. That shows that, you know, we are all inclusive and we celebrate our unity and diversity. The parade marks India's independence from Britain. Eric Adams recently announced a $2 million investment into the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, or DYCD. It supports vulnerable children and young adults through various programs, including literacy services and youth development. The additional funds are to enhance DYCD's summer programs in underserved neighborhoods. So what does that look like?

For more, I talked with Deputy Commissioner Mike Bobbitt. So, Mike, how has DYCD evolved? over the years to support New York City's youth and families. Well before I was a part of DUICD, it's going back to maybe the 1990s, the Community Development Agency and the City's Department of Youth Services were merged and the coming together of those different disciplines

focusing on helping individuals and families lift themselves out of poverty and focusing on youth. And so now DUIC has a wide array of youth workforce programs to try to increase their awareness and connection to the formal world of work. My division community development looks to help stabilize individuals and families, and we do a lot of work with adolescents, but also adults. And our Division of Strategic Partnerships looks to strengthen DYC and our providers' relationships with other important institutional stakeholders around the city.

Yeah. And it's been doing so now for 60 years, and that's exciting. and it now supports over 90 programs across the five boroughs. And we mentioned that Mayor Adams in the city is investing $2 million to expand summer youth programs. Mike, tell us what that looks like and what impact will be. There are a number of ways that DYC is able to play a helpful role in helping youth and their families over the summer. You may be familiar with some of these terms of art. Summer Rising is one of them. I think it's most likely that D.C. is the largest summer school provider, working cooperatively, of course, with the New York City Public Schools to offer enrichment experiences.

Kids can enjoy their summer, but also mitigate against any summer learning loss. Another big way that DYC supports New Yorkers throughout the summer is the summer youth employment program. There again, I believe, we're the largest summer school after program in the country. There's over 100,000 youth served by summer rising and another 100,000 youth served by SYEP, getting meaningful work experience over the summer. What challenges do you foresee? This work is not easy, as you know, whether it's lifting folks out of poverty, trying to increase their literacy levels, trying to help promote the social, emotional learning,

and the engagements that they can go on and thrive. So I think operationally administratively, there are a lot of challenges. that our providers face. And so part of our task is to deliver technical assistance and help strengthen the field and also be a broker because we work with nonprofits. We're able to talk to other city agencies where maybe there have been administrative stumbling blocks and see what can we do together to try to reduce those barriers. Yeah. Mike, looking ahead, what can we expect from DYCD in the future? One of the programs that I'm really excited about is our adolescent literacy portfolio that focuses on middle schoolers. So as part of the program design now, we have professional

staff, but they also will hire a high school student. And since we're looking to support English language learners, I'm very excited the idea of someone who is in high school who can reach back to someone in middle school, both to help them in terms of tutoring and their command of English, but also experientially, this is what I did in middle school that led to me being successful in high school. That's Mike Bobbitt, Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development. You can learn more about these initiatives at nyc.gov slash DYCD.

A WMYC review of city data finds one housing complex in Queens accounts for more evictions than anywhere else in New York City, and the landlord there is suing to speed up the process. More on that after the break. The owner of the 4,600 unit LaFRAC City Housing Complex in Queens is suing the state court system to speed up the eviction process for tenants behind on rent. The development is already the site of more evictions than anywhere else in the city since the start of last year. Here's WMYC's David Brand.

Hi. Hi, David. Hello, nice to see you. Manuelita de Olio has been living in her first floor apartment since 2019. Now she's about to be evicted. She lost her job as a hairstylist early in the pandemic. She shows off the wigs, product, and other supplies, stuffed in boxes inside our living room.

Look, it's a spray for the wie. I have a chair over here, and I have my diploma here, my license over here. She says she can't use them anymore. Chronic pain keeps her from working. She now gets a social security check equal to about half her monthly rent and owes the landlord around $20,000. She needs assistance to avoid becoming homeless.

I want somebody to help me. that's what I need. And I don't need nothing else, only helping me with the rent. She's not alone. The Lafraq organization owns the development and says Deolio is one of about

500 tenants currently behind on rent. Thousands of New Yorkers across the city are in a similar bind. They're out of work or earning too little to cover the monthly cost of rent. About a third of New York City tenants spend at least half their income on housing.

If I play half a place to go and I can pay this rent, I go. We don't have to do this one, but in Hawaii, going to have found the apartment. Lefrak City has become an epicenter of the housing crisis. The landlord has completed at least 121 eviction since the start of last year, city data shows, more than anywhere else in the five boroughs. Now they want the process to move, even faster.

A company spokesperson says they're suing the state office of court administration because they often wait months before a judge gives them permission to remove a tenant. The state court agency didn't respond to request for comment. But some nonprofit groups are joining a fight against the lawsuit. Every eviction is a calamity, not only for the individuals involved who've lost their home, but really often for New York City more generally. Melissa Banks is deputy director of the Housing Rights Project at Legal Services NYC. She says tenants need opportunities to appear in court, challenge the landlord,

and come up with money for back rent. People need time and they need help understanding how they can resolve this matter. Landlords have completed more than 21,000 evictions since the start of last year, according to a WNYC review of city data. But housing policy expert Rachel Fee says no one wins in a non-payment eviction. Landlords usually don't get the money the road. And tenants can become homeless, forcing them to rely on more public services. There's real families behind each of the numbers, and every month they're struggling to make it work.

There's no apartment waiting with a cheaper rent that they can move. into next week. Fee is the executive director of the New York Housing Conference and says the country needs a stronger eviction safety net. We just don't have enough assistance given the scale of the problem. Only a fraction of New Yorkers eligible for federal rent subsidies actually get them. New York City has its own rent subsidy program, but most recipients have to first enter a homeless shelter. And the state reserves its voucher program for a small number of low-income families with kids, like Lefraq City resident Asial Aladungay and her sons, ages 7 and 16. It's a lifesaver, is that I'll live, because I deal with stress.

Aladungay says she couldn't keep up with monthly rent payments for her one-bedroom apartment after she got seriously hurt while working as a home health aide. She says she's lucky she got a housing voucher. She loves this section of Queens. You have schools, you have all the shops, you have doctors, you have post off, and it's safe. Aladungay says she knows many people who need the same help she's receiving. It's a red flag. Something's not right.

It's not because people doesn't want to pay. Back at her first floor apartment, Manuela Diolio is scared she'll have to pack up and leave if she can't get some kind of rental assistance, quickly. I feel a new job like they forgot about people. Believe me. She's applying for a grant from the city, an aid from non-profit groups. Without emergency assistance, she could be evicted as early as next week. She says she doesn't know where she'd go.

That's WMYC's David Brand. Before we leave, some rare good news may be on the horizon for New Yorkers trying to buy a home in the five boroughs. More condos, co-ops, and houses are hitting the market and interest rates could soon start dropping. That's according to a new report from real estate listing site, Street Easy. The analysis finds the number of homes on the market rose by over 3% in June and July. According to data from the past five years, the number of available homes in New York City usually increases at the highest rate in September and October. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve is expected to lower interest rates in the fall. But New York City homes certainly are not cheap.

Median asking price is just over a million dollars. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday three times a day. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back to my mom. Come on.