NYC NOW - July 25, 2023: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: July 25, 2023

Some constituents of Representative George Santos are imploring members of Congress to get rid of him before they break for their August recess. Plus, some voters in Queens will head to the polls this Fall to choose their new state Assembly member. Also, Prosecutors are seeking long prison sentences for four men who have pleaded guilty to drug charges in connection with the fatal overdose of the late actor Michael K. Williams. And finally, WNYC’s Michael Hill talks with housing reporter David Brand about a practice that’s raising concerns that insurers may be unfairly discriminating against groups protected by state and federal fair housing laws.

Good evening and welcome to NYC now. I'm Jene Pierre for WNYC. Some constituents of Representative George Santos are imploring members of Congress to get rid of him before they break for their August recess. It's no secret that Santos' well-documented lies have been a political headache for Republicans. Yet he was able to survive an expulsion vote in May.

Then GOP members punted the issue to the House Ethics Committee. Jody Finkel lives in Santos' district, which covers parts of Queens and Long Island. Right now it's already seven months that we've been having to have this charlatan as our representative. But if it doesn't get taken care of by Friday, it'll be nine months at the earliest before we get rid of him. Santos has denied any wrongdoing and has vowed to remain in office. In other parts of Queens, some voters will head to the polls this fall to choose their new state assembly member. WNYC's John Campbell has the details.

Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado called a special election for September 12th to replace assembly member Daniel Rosenthal, who resigned to take a job in the private sector this month. The 27th District stretches from Q Gardens Hills and Central Queens up to Whitestone. The winner will serve the rest of the current term, which runs through next year. Democrat and Republican leaders will meet this week to screen candidates. Usually, the task of calling a special election falls to the governor. But Governor Hockel is in California for a Democratic governor's retreat, leaving Delgado to sign the official proclamation.

Stay close. after the break. Prosecutors are seeking long prison sentences for four men who have pleaded guilty to drug charges in connection with the fatal overdose of actor Michael K. Williams. But some people close to him say the Brooklyn native would have wanted the judge to show mercy. Williams is best known for playing Omar Little

on the TV series The Wire. He was also an advocate for criminal justice reform. WNYC reporter Samantha Max has more. The case follows a growing strategy among prosecutors across the country. seeking harsh sentences for people who distribute deadly drugs. The goal is to deter sales that can lead to overdoses, especially from opioids like fentanyl. But Maritza-Peras-Medina with the Drug Policy Alliance says these tough-on-crime approaches to drug

enforcement aren't necessarily the most effective way to treat addiction. When you take that drug seller away, a drug user will have to turn to a different source. And that's when we see them getting exposed to substances that they may not be used to. and that is what can trigger an overdose. Irvin Cartagena, Hector Robles, Luis Cruz, and Carlos Machi are facing the possibility of years or even decades behind bars for their role in William's death. But several of William's friends have asked to judge not to give them lengthy prison sentences. They say the Brooklyn native dedicated much of his life to criminal justice reform and that he believed in redemption.

Friend Darrell Phillips called William's anti-incarceration and pro-referioration, and pro-reliven. rehabilitation. I can't imagine that Mike would want anyone or them specifically to be incarcerated for a long time. It's incarcerated at all. The Wire creator David Simon has asked a judge for leniency for Machi, who is 71, illiterate and addicted to drugs. But Dana Ratchelan, who co-founded a nonprofit with Williams, says her friend would have wanted mercy for all four men, not just the one with the most obvious case for sympathy. I also want to figure out how to turn this horrible thing that has happened into something positive. And I want us to have complex conversations about what accountability looks like.

Lawyers for the four men declined to comment. That's WNYC reporter Samantha Max. It's illegal for New York City landlords to reject tenants because they use housing vouchers to pay their rent. But those same rules don't apply to insurance companies that write coverage for apartment buildings in the five boroughs. WNYC reporter David Brand investigated the practice. He talked with my colleague Michael Hill about his findings. This is a wonky subject. Help us understand what you've been looking into. So the background here is that tens of thousands of New Yorkers receive some form of rental

assistance. That can be the federal Section 8 program. That can be New York City's CityFEPs program. And what those do is help people with low incomes pay their rent. But they can have a really, really hard finding a place to live, often because many landlords and rental agents don't want to take those vouchers. And that's illegal in New York. It's called source of income discrimination. But what our reporting looks at is another systemic barrier. And that's the fact that landlords who do rent to people using housing vouchers are having a tough time getting property insurance for their buildings because insurers are refusing to offer them coverage. Okay, walk us through your findings, David.

I looked at more than 70 insurance applications from companies operating, in New York and found almost all of them have questions that ask owners whether they rent a tenants who receive these housing subsidies. And then many explicitly say they just won't cover buildings with a certain percentage of subsidized tenants or any subsidized tenants at all. I also spoke with a number of brokers who said this is a common practice in the industry. Brokers act as intermediaries between customers and insurers, and so they're intimately familiar with underwriting policies and practices. I'll add that I've spoken with close to 20 landlords. about this too, and this practice is making it much more expensive for them to insure their buildings.

And they say this is a problem that's making it much harder to provide affordable housing at a time when both rents and homelessness are skyrocketing. You mentioned that it's illegal for landlords to discriminate against renters with housing vouchers. What is the legality of what you're describing with insurers? This is a bit of a gray area in New York. Some states have banned this practice. What the law here says is that insurers have to base their decisions about cuts. coverage on what is the actual risk? Is a building in a flood zone? How old is it? But none of the

insurers I spoke with or their industry trade group could define what the risk is to renting to people who use these vouchers. I did speak with Alika Amprey-Samuel. She's a former city council member from Brooklyn, who is now the regional administrator for the federal department of housing and urban development, better known as HUD. It runs a Section 8 program. She said HUD is concerned about this issue, and that because so many of the recipients who receive Section 8 vouchers are women or people with disabilities, people of color, these insurance companies may be violating federal fair housing laws if they're denying coverage because of Section 8 housing. If an insurer denies coverage or charges higher rates because housing includes Section 8 residents

and that action discriminates because of one of the protected characteristics, it may violate the Fair Housing Act. HUD takes violations very seriously. Michael, I also spoke with the New York Attorney General's office, and they said they're going to begin investigating claims of discrimination against insurers. The state's Department of Financial Services oversees the industry, and they told me they're going to begin requiring insurers to give them more detailed information about how insurance companies are using these questions about subsidized housing to determine insurance rates or

to deny coverage. But, David, in the meantime, how does all of this affect New Yorkers who use these houses? vouchers. You know, what a top attorney at a nationwide fair housing group told me is that these questions about vouchers, these denials of coverage, in a worst case scenario, they discourage landlords from accepting tenants with housing vouchers, which again, it's that term source of income discrimination. It's illegal in New York. I mentioned it's making it more expensive to buy insurance. The Department of Financial Services found that insurance rates for affordable housing rose by an average of 43% between 2019 and 2021.

And that's based on a review of 20,000 units. And what landlords have told me is that means they're going to cut corners on maintenance and repairs. That's WNYC reporter David Brand talking with my colleague Michael Hill. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. We'll be back tomorrow.