NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Changes Coming to the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Belmont Park Lands a Big Race in 2027, Why Some Tenants in Supportive Housing Are Facing Eviction, and Time for a Spelling Bee!

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

The Trump administration is ordering researchers at the Goddard [GOD-dard] Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan to clear out. One of horse racing's top events is coming to the new Belmont Park in 2027. Why some tenants in supportive housing are facing eviction

The Trump administration is ordering researchers at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan to clear out their building. One of horse racing's top events is coming to the new Belmont Park in 2027. A look at why some tenants in support of housing are facing eviction, and it's time for a spelling bee. From WNYC, this is NYC now. I'm Sean Carlson. The Trump administration is ordering researchers at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in Manhattan to clear out of their Columbia University building. The lab studies climate change and maintains weather data dating back to 1880. Matt Biggs is the president of the union representing many of the labs employees.

He has a theory for why the scientists are being booted. This is being fueled by Doge, but this is actually going to cost taxpayers more money. Not to mention what you're doing to the Earth and space science work that these 100 scientists and researchers do here. This is nonsensical, outrageous, and it's fiscally irresponsible. He says even though the offices will be empty, the feds will still be on the hook for a third. $3 million lease for the space through 2013. The Trump administration says the move is part of a broader efficiency mandate. One of horse racing's top events is coming to the new Belmont Park in 27.

WNYC's John Campbell has more. The Breeders Cup World Championships will set up shop at Belmont. It's a high-profile event that features some of the best horses in the world racing for big dollar purses. Drew Fleming is the Breeders' Cup CEO. He says he promised New York racing officials that he'd deliver the event if they built a new track. Today I'm honored to remain true to our word and bring the Breeders' Cup World Championships back to the Big Apple in 2027. New York State put up a $455 million loan to build the new Belmont Park, which is set to open next year. The last time Belmont hosted the Breeders Cup was 2005.

The 27 edition will be held in late October. Coming up after the break, supportive housing is meant to help vulnerable New Yorkers stay housed. So why are some tenants facing eviction? Stay tuned. Thousands of New Yorkers live in what's called supportive housing. Those are subsidized apartments for people who have been homeless or live with mental illness or addiction. The units come with services, things like counseling, job training, or case management. But as WNYC's Karen Ye reports, the same landlords who are paid to help these tenants are often the ones taking them to court.

This is really a model that has exploded in the last two decades. So nonprofits are contracted by several different city and state agencies to house New Yorkers who are the most vulnerable. And coming from homeless shelters, have a mental health illness, or are struggling with substance abuse. And they need additional support to live independently. There are 42,000 of these units citywide. And for the most part, the model works. Tenants pay 30% of their income toward rent. But some are at risk of losing their homes.

In the last five months, nearly 300 tenants had an eviction warrant issued against them by a judge. This gives a marshal the okay to evict someone from their house. So most are for unpaid rent. And so far, at least 52 people have lost their homes. Legal services, NYC has started compiling those cases, but some landlords don't tell the court their tenant lives in support of housing. That means a judge may not know if a tenant needs more time or legal help to defend themselves. And tenant lawyers tell me that this is a big, big problem because the judges won't know

the tenant could have a mental health illness and could have trouble getting to court or could need extra time or could need maybe a guardian med litem to properly defend themselves. Craig Hughes is a social worker with legal services NYC. They're going to end up in the shelter system. They're going to end up on the streets. They're going to end up in the homeless systems and it's going to take them years if they ever get out. Hughes says many of these evictions are preventable. If tenants just get the help, they're promised. That includes help securing public benefits that can help them pay their rent instead of turning to the courts to compel residents to pay up or leave.

Karen reports landlords say evictions are a last resort. Some providers claim they need that rent money to keep their buildings running, and in some cases, evictions can help unlock emergency rental aid. So when they file an eviction notice, it sends a tenant's application for rental assistance to the top of the pile, so it sort of fast-tracks it is what they tell me. The city denies that. Officials say tenants don't need an eviction on their record to qualify for help.

And when tenants are forced to leave, they often have nowhere to go. Charles Hart Jr. has lived in a Bronx apartment for 14 years. He says his health issues made it hard to pay rent, and mold in his unit made things worse. If I get that, we had rights outside of coming in these places for whatever reason. We can't be looked at any less than human. We have to be respected, and we have not been respected. Another tenant, Kat Corbell, says her landlord told her not to worry about the eviction filing. It was just to unlock rental aid.

They had volunteer social work interns from a college come and lead coloring activities on a Friday, and that was the only version of support services that they offered to us. If I ever needed help, they would just always ask me to Google it, and it's like, then why am I even asking you for help? According to Karen, the city now says it's considering new rules, including tracking evictions and requiring landlords to prove they tried everything else first. To say, you know, show us you've done everything to help a tenant find a way to pay their rent before you took them to court. That's WN MICE's Karen Yee.

Before we go, let's talk spelling. The Scripps National Spelling Bee is underway. As W.N.Y.C.'s Wynke-Kylath reports there are several New York area spellers this year. Round one is relatively easy, says 8th grader Brian Liu from Greatneck. All the words come off an official study list, one spelling word and one vocab. What was your spelling word? CERI. It's like the plural of CERIS, like the cloud. So is that C-I-R-R-I-I-I?

Just one-I at the end. Ah, dang, I'm out. For her vocab word, 14-year-old Izzy Canada got fiduciary. Oh, this sounds really nerdy. But the Greek root fid means to trust. So the definition had trusting in it. So that's how I figured it out. Yeah.

It's the Dalton School students first time competing. A third New Yorker, Jay Nyick, was too busy cramming to chat. The finals take place Thursday. You can watch it live at spellingbee.com. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNMIC. I'm Sean Carlson. We'll be back tomorrow.