NYC NOW - July 8, 2024: Morning Headlines

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

Insurance prices keep climbing for affordable housing, and property owners say it’s threatening their long-term finances. WNYC’s David Brand reports some landlords are taking action. Meanwhile, a man faces arson charges after allegedly giving an 11-year-old fireworks that set a shed and two homes on fire on Long Island. Plus, starting this month, New Jersey’s house cleaners, caretakers, and nannies are entitled to the state’s minimum wage and will have protections previously unavailable to domestic workers, such as guaranteed lunch breaks.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WMYC. It's Monday, July 8th. Here's the morning headlines from Michael Hill. Insurance prices keep climbing for affordable housing, and property owners say it's threatening their long-term finances. Now, as W&C's David Brand reports, some landlords are doing something about it.

Owners of about 80,000 apartments decided to form a collective to insure themselves and curb costs. John Crotty runs the development firm Workforce Housing Group and is a member of the new collective. He says high insurance costs eat away at other expenses affecting tenants. It crowds out other costs that you anticipated take, like deferred maintenance, like upgrades and improvements needed to building. Those get pushed out to satisfy the very current bill of insurance. In the past five years, property insurance rates have more than doubled for the average affordable apartment. All of the apartments covered by the new collective are rent stabilized. Starting this month, New Jersey's house cleaners, caretakers, and nannies are entitled to be paid the state's minimum wage.

They'll also have protections previously unavailable to domestic workers, such as guaranteed lunch breaks. Lawmakers allocated $100,000 in the state budget for education and enforcement of the new domestic workers' Bill of Rights, but advocates say it's not enough. Grassroots organizations said lobby for five times that much. Without it, they say they won't be able to spend as much time letting workers know about the new legal protections. A man is facing arson charges after allegedly giving an 11-year-old fireworks that set a shed in two homes on fire on Long Island.

Nassau County police say the child was outside his home in Levittown on the 4th, when 30-year-old Karamjit Singh told him to light the fireworks. After something went wrong, the fireworks engulfed a shed in flames. The blaze then spread to Singh's home in a neighboring house. The fires resulted in severe damage, but no injuries. Singh was arrested and the child was released to a family member. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation says the air quality today will be unhealthy for sensitive groups that's due to ozone pollution. Children and teens, older adults, people with lung disease such as asthma, and folks who are usually outdoor or active outdoors may want to shorten their time outdoors, if possible.

Ozone is driven largely by tailpipe pollution, which means it may be a good day to take public transportation. 75 and sunny now, mostly sunny and 91 today, but feeling hotter than that up to 96. A heat advisory begins at noon. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day, for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. See you this afternoon.