NYC NOW - December 6, 2023 : Evening Roundup

Episode Date: December 6, 2023

George Latimer is officially running for Congress next year against Representative Jamaal Bowman of the Bronx. Plus, New York City’s teachers union is joining criticism of Mayor Adams’ 60-day limit for migrant families in shelters. Also, WNYC’s Karen Yi reports the city isn't formally connecting young migrants to youth homeless services, leaving many unaware of resources available to them. And finally, WNYC’s Giulia Heyward looks into a bill the city council hope to pass in order to stop a Queens man who has made money off thousands of noise complaints.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jene Pierre. A congressional battle is brewing between New York Democrats. Congressman Jamal Bowman of the Bronx now has a Democratic primary challenger in 2024. I'm George Latimer and I'm running for Congress because it's time for Washington to stop bickering and start working for us. Latimer, who officially threw his hat in the race Wednesday, is currently the Westchester County Executive. He's previously served as a state senator and assembly member. He has support from pro-Israel groups who have criticized Bowman for supporting a ceasefire in the Israel Hamas War.

Bowman is one of the more progressive members of Congress, while Latimer is considered more moderate. The 16th congressional district covers much of Westchester County, including Yonkers and Mount Vernon, as well as the Wakefield neighborhood in the Bronx. The Adams administration is receiving criticism for a policy that limits how long migrants can stay in New York City's shelters to 60 days. Now the city's Teachers Union is joining that chorus. WMYC's Jessica Gould has more. The United Federation of Teachers says the mayor's plan to force families out of shelters

will disrupt schooling for children already grappling with dislocation and trauma. Nearly 3,000 families have received notices that they have to leave their current shelters and reapply or find housing elsewhere. Those families will have to leave shortly after Christmas. Their new shelter, if they find one, may be far from kids' current schools. The union says the policy will force kids to switch schools, causing chaos for families and teachers. Adams insists the policy will not disrupt migrant students' education. Stay close.

We'll have more on the city's handling of the migrant crisis after the break. New York City isn't tracking how many migrants seeking shelter are older teens or young adults. Many young newcomers are here alone and have never held a job or finished school. But the city isn't formally connecting them to youth homeless services. As WMYC's Karen Ye reports, many are unaware of the resources available to them. 20-year-old Samir shivers behind a police barricade. He's wearing a hoodie over his head and tucks his gloves. hands into his pockets as the wind picks up.

It's so cold, he says. Samir didn't want to give his last name for fear of jeopardizing his immigration status or chances for housing. He was one of about 400 people standing in line outside a former Catholic school in the East Village last week, trying to get placed in a homeless shelter. A new city policy limits adult migrants without children to 30 days and makes them reappearable. at the school. The city says it's adding additional staff at St. Bridget's to alleviate wait times. I have four days of the Bronx. For here, me man, manhattan. As if it were a jugueget, something.

Samir says he was kicked out of his shelter on Thanksgiving morning and spent four days bouncing around the city hoping to secure another bed. One night, he slept in an outdoor dining shed with six others. He says at least now, he knows how the subway works. Homeless youth in New York City generally have the option to stay in separate facilities from the adult homeless population, but only if there's an available bed. The city has about 800 beds reserved for homeless youth between 16 to 24 years old. But it isn't formally referring younger new arrivals to these shelters and the resources that come with them, such as help enrolling in school or GED classes and immigration assistance.

Instead, migrant youth are being funneled into the city's main migrant shelter system for adults, where stays are limited to a month. Samir says he didn't know a whole shelter system existed for young people. He and many others could be missing out on city services designed for people just like him. Life in a new country while also being a teenager? Like, that's its own challenge, right? Alexandra Rizio is a managing attorney for Safe Passage Project, which provides immigration lawyers to children. We are kind of losing people in the shuffle, even though we're trying to serve everybody that we possibly can.

And that's just because we don't have the funding. Service providers say there's never been enough beds for homeless youth, or a central way to direct them to services. And the arrival of young migrants is exacerbating the need. Providers say older teens and young adults have unique housing, mental health, and education needs, and could be eligible for a special juvenile visa. Andrew Heinrich is the executive director of Project Rousseau, a legal and social services provider. They are more child than adult in how they interact with systems that provide resources to them, but are treated exclusively as adults by those very systems. Even if the city had a central referral process for migrant youth, there aren't enough beds. to meet demand. That's left youth advocates scrambling to create their own informal patchwork of

aid, texting and calling each other to find emergency housing placements or lawyers for any younger migrants who come to their door, largely through word of mouth. Kate Barnhart started new alternatives to help LGBTQ homeless youth find shelter. You're just dialing numbers and crossing your fingers that somebody just happens to have had someone move out that day or, you know, that you've caught at the right moment. The Department of Youth and Community Development oversees the network of youth shelter beds. The agency says anyone can access one of the city's eight drop-in centers, where teens and young adults can rest indoors, shower, and wash their clothes while providers

help them find shelter. But not all migrant youth know these centers exist. Some are sleeping inside mosques, in the subway, or on the street. Others return to the former Catholic school every day to see. if a bed opens up, like 20-year-old Ismail Gengay. Because I don't have room, I need to get a room. Gengay arrived from Mauritania last month on his own. I need to do my asylum because in my country I'm not free.

He's also hoping for another shelter placement, while he cobbles together enough money to rent his own place and hopes he can hold on to a warm bed through the winter months. That's WMYC's Karen Yee. One New Yorker has made it his personal. personal mission to eliminate some of the bustle from New York City's hustle by reporting noisy businesses around the city. And he's making a live and doing it. Now, there's a bill before the city council that would eliminate that lucrative income stream. WNYC's Julia Hayward has more.

In the loud streets of Times Square, Dietmar de Taring points out all the local businesses he's helped keep in check with the city's noise code. There's Madame Tussaud, Applebee's and a souvenir shop around the corner called Gotham Gifts. We see noise pollution spread like cancer in neighborhoods. If it's not enforced, if one store gets away with it, the neighboring stores are like, why is that store getting my walk-in customers? I want them too. And then they put a speaker out and then it's louder or whatever, more obnoxious.

A provision buried in the city's noise code lets citizens file noise complaints on businesses. If the businesses find, complainers like deterrent. deterring get a cut. De Tatering takes it upon himself to keep businesses in compliance. He says he captures noise offenders with... Body camps. So I go with the cheap ones. I use one that is not like $70. But you can use you a cell phone. De Tatering says he's providing the city with a service. The vast majority of businesses in the city are not noise polluters.

These lawbreakers don't protect them. Tell them to stop. And the payout he gets from filing these complaint. isn't bad either. The city says DeTering has filed more than 3,800 noise complaints since early last year. Fines for businesses start at $440, and DeTering gets at least a 25% cut of that fine once it's paid. That means if every one of his noise complaints were upheld, De Tatarin could rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars. But some elected officials say they want to defend business owners and end Deterring's gravy train. Councilmember James Gennaro is one of them. Businesses are being fleeced by profiteers who have no interest whatsoever

other than lining their own pockets with ill-gotten gains. He introduced a bill that will reduce the payout to just a few dollars and put a cap on funds for the thousands of pending violations the city hasn't reviewed yet. This is just not the way it's supposed to work. So this is a fix that had to happen. This is a section of the code that people had forgotten about. The city council is expected to vote on the bill this week.

De Tatarin called the bill absurd, and he's already filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that it has already begun taking steps to undermine the city's noise code. That's WMYC's Julia Hayward. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WMYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Jenae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.