NYC NOW - Evening Roundup: Housing Fight Brewing in NJ, New Guidelines Create COVID Vaccine Hassle, Liberty Clinch Playoff Spot, and Fire Island Faces Climate Threat

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

Advocates are pressing New Jersey courts to enforce affordable housing requirements as towns fall short on construction. Meanwhile, pharmacies say demand for COVID shots is rising at the start of the school year, but new FDA guidelines are complicating access. Also, the New York Liberty have clinched a playoff spot despite losing 6 of their last 10 games. And WNYC’s Liam Quigley reports on how Fire Island is grappling with climate change.

Housing fight brewing in New Jersey. New guidelines create COVID vaccine hassle. The New York Liberty clinch a playoff spot and Fire Island faces climate threat. From WNYC, this is NYC now. I'm Sean Carlson. A new fight is brewing over affordable housing in New Jersey. Housing advocates are asking state courts to crack down on towns for not meeting requirements to build affordable housing. WNYC's Mike Hayes reports. Housing advocates and nonprofit developers were up in arms early. earlier this year, when the Murphy administration and state legislature diverted $125 million

from the state's affordable housing trust fund. Last month, WNYC reported on a project to build low-cost homes that was stalled due to lack of trust fund money. But on Tuesday, the state's Department of Community Affairs announced it was restoring $45 million to the trust fund. The agency says 10 million of that will be earmarked for Habitat for Humanity projects, which builds affordable homes for low and medium-income families to own. Doctors and pharmacies in New York regions say they've begun getting more requests for COVID vaccinations as back-to-school season gets underway. But shifting federal guidance means getting those shots is becoming more complicated.

WDNIC's Caroline Lewis says pharmacies are struggling to get blanket orders and are having to get creative. National chains are figuring out their own workarounds like CVS and Walgreens both said they will start offering the new COVID shots in New York. but patients have to get a prescription from their doctor, something that has never been required in the past. New FDA guidelines say COVID shots are approved for people over 65 and for younger people at high risk for severe symptoms.

Conditions that make someone qualify include HIV, asthma, and diabetes. It hasn't been pretty, but the defending WMBA champs are heading back to the playoffs. Despite coming off a loss, the New York Liberty have officially qualified for the postseason. The libs took an L Tuesday night and lost six of their last. last 10 games, but thanks to the Indiana fever losing in Phoenix, the Liberty get in anyway. The team won their first ever championship last fall and are looking to repeat. They have three regular season games left and the playoffs begin September 14th. Up next, Fire Island is one of the most sought after beach fronts in New York, but now it's at the center of a climate crisis.

I love more on that after the break. It's one of the most beautiful beach fronts in the entire northeast. And it's been a haven for the city's LGBT community for decades, but Fire Island is also facing increased threats in the climate crisis. WNIC's Liam quickly reports on a push to prevent it from becoming New York's version of Atlantis. Getting to most parts of Fire Island requires a ferry ride or a water taxi along the Great South Bay, but once you arrive, you're met with natural beauty. The water is clear and there's a lot of sand to enjoy. But overall, it's a narrow little island. I only have to walk. a few hundred feet from one side to the other to reach Henry Robin's house.

Robin first came to Fire Island around 1998, and like many gay men of his era, the journey wasn't easy. He didn't come out until his first marriage to a woman ended in divorce. I didn't have the courage to come out to myself or to my family and friends and community until I was in my early 30s when our marriage ended in divorce. That's when Robin first came to the pines. It's a largely gay community on the eastern half of Fire Island. It didn't take me long upon landing in New York to learn that if you are a gay man and living in New York City, you've got to experience Fire Island Pines. You know, that's just a requirement.

Even though the island attracts two million visitors a year, severe storms and rising sea levels are increasingly threatening its communities. Just a couple years ago, a major storm had worn away most of the beachfront at the pines. There was, of course, the real possibility that if the erosion were to continue and no repairs were to occur, communities, including the pines, were at jeopardy of being lost. Fire Island is more than a destination. It's a crucial barrier island that shields the entire south shore of Long Island from tides and storm surge, but it's also at major risk from climate change. The flooding, the erosion, the loss of property,

and potentially the loss of life would be significantly more real and more threatening, were it not for Fire Island. Sandy threw the future of Fire Island into more serious doubt, and things were again looking very bleak just a couple years ago after another big storm. The beach was almost gone, and the end seemed imminent. Now, thanks to $1.7 billion in funding approved by state lawmakers and Governor Kathy Hokel in May,

there's a solid framework to keep the beach from being eroded for the next three decades. Robin runs the local property owners association. He played a big role in fighting for Hokal to deliver for Fire Island in the state budget. Robin is crediting Hockel for holding up the state side of a deal with the federal government. It's a three-decade plan to restore the beaches at regular intervals. Now she's getting a hero's welcome. Good thing. The return of the beach

and the reassurance of regular replenishment work is like a calming way for the community. It's also comforting for homeowners like Darren Jones. To see this vast expanse of golden sand, and then you walk out to the tide's edge and look back, you can see practically the whole pines we're so far out. It's very reassuring and necessary because we're protecting Long Island. But Jones also recognizes how Fire Island's future is precarious.

For people being here, but probably be better for the environment if nobody was here. Less than a thousand people live here full time. The uncertainty of continued federal funding for beach replenishment gives experts like Rob Young some pause when talking about the future of places like this. Looking 30 years down the road, you know, I'm not positive that the federal match is going to be available for that period of time. Young is the director of the program for the study of developed shorelines at Western Carolina University. He said Fire Island is in a better position than other places that are fighting back the ocean

because there's so much sand to use offshore. He said this is a battle being fought from Maine to Texas. Beach nourishment, pumping hands on the beaches has become our primary response to long-term sea level rise and shoreline change. and we're basically trying to do it everywhere. This is not something that's unique to Fire Island or New York. But for how many decades is this sustainable? Young said there's enough sand to keep replenishing the beaches for the foreseeable future,

and sand wants to move. Fire Island was once connected to the rest of Long Island on its eastern end. The work that will benefit Fire Island is part of a massive coastal protection plan for the whole South Shore, so it doesn't benefit Fire Island alone. But the work it allows for might be more crucial here than anywhere else. The certainty of that money flowing for decades to come is a bigger question. The main question is, how long can this really happen and who should pay?

Under the 30-year plan to keep Fire Island beaches replenished, the federal government is on the hook for a large portion of the cash. By the time Hockel left the island, the party in the pines was roaring to life. But keeping beaches in place is going to get more expensive. Henry Robin says he's going to keep fighting to keep the sand and the island protected. It's a community that has such a strong history and such meaning today. It would be a shame to see that lost because of the inaction around taking smart, normal, effective measures at protecting the shoreline.

Nothing is promised for Fire Island, but for right now, the sun is shining on a big stretch of sandy beach, and the future is feeling a bit more secure. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. I'm Sean Carlson. We'll be back tomorrow.