NYC NOW - May 16, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: May 16, 2023

Mayor Eric Adams is temporarily suspending rules around the city’s review process for locating and building new homeless shelters, Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan is dropping out of the competitive race for her Harlem district 9. And, Coney Island residents have mixed opinions on the city using a gym at P.S. 188 as temporary shelter for about 75 migrants. Some locals share their thoughts. Finally, the nonprofit group Breaking Ground gets millions of dollars from the government to support low-income and formerly homeless New Yorkers. But some advocates say the organization is creating instability in the lives of the people it is supposed to help. WNYC’s Chau Lam has more.

Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Tuesday, May 16th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. Mayor Eric Adams is temporarily suspending rules around the city's review process for locating and building new homeless shelters. His executive order published today is a sign of the growing urgency to shelter hundreds of new migrants to the city each day. as the city's shelter system nears capacity. Mayor Adams also says the city's looking at 20 more public school gyms as possible shelter sites. The city previously suspended its lengthy land use review

process for the building of emergency relief centers to house migrants. Council member Kristen Richardson Jordan is dropping out of the competitive race for her Harlem District 9. The Democratic Socialist departure leaves two state lawmakers and a political newcomer who's a a member of the exonerated Central Park 5. Jordan had faced criticism for opposing the 1-45 development, which would have included affordable housing, but is now a truck depot. Look for the Empire State Building to turn violet tonight

for tomorrow's NYU graduation at Yankee Stadium. 75 with sunshine now increasing clouds in 82 today. Coney Island residents are raising mixed opinions now that the city is using, an elementary school there to temporarily house about 75 migrants. The city is using a gym at PS 188 as it scrambles to find shelter for the many migrants that continue to arrive in New York, and the practice is dividing the community. We spoke to one man named Ty, who only wanted us to use his first name. He's been homeless for the past few years.

He says he understands migrants need help, but he says he does too. I think it's kind of good because they need a place to stay, but I also think it's bad because you have people who are born and raised here, they have all their life homeless and can't get no help. And I don't think that's right. Connie, I'm the resident, Tiffany Hall, says she doesn't think a school gym is the place for anyone in need of shelter. It should be like normally like kids should be going to the gym, getting their education. It should be no adult, no bed, no none of that.

Destiny Martin took a similar stance, but is a little closer to the situation. Her 11-year-old son attends PS-188, and she pulled him out of school yesterday. Martin says she just doesn't feel comfortable with the situation. We don't know any of their backstory. We just know they're immigrants, and that's so sad. He just said he saw the immigrants outside when he's at recess. You mean to tell me my kid don't feel safe at school? Monique Brown falls on the opposite end of the spectrum. She's also a parent with kids at PS-188.

She says she doesn't get the concern. just, oh, they came from this place, that place. Okay, school's about to be over in a month. So at the end of the day, lead on people alone. Mayor Adams has said the city needs more federal or state assistance to continue to treat new arrivals and those already here with the dignity and care they deserve. So far, New York City has opened more than 140 emergency shelters and eight relief centers to accommodate more than 65,000 migrants. The nonprofit group Breaking Ground gets millions of dollars.

from the federal government to support low-income and formerly unhoused New Yorkers. But some advocates say the organization is creating instability in the lives of the people it's supposed to help. WNYC's Chow Lamb explains. I'm standing on the corner of 43rd and 8th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. In front of me is a 15-story brick building that was once a hotel called the Times Square. Today, it houses 650 formerly homeless people. Some suffer from mental illness, others are low-income workers. Recently, 82 of the tenants here were sued for failing to pay their portion for subsidized rent.

31-year-old Osirius Rulis is one of them. His landlord, the nonprofit group Breaking Ground, sued him to recover about $20,000 in back rent. Rulis didn't have the money, and when he learned about the lawsuit, he didn't return to his apartment, thinking he had. had been kicked out. I tried working with them and they kind of were basically just wanting to get me out. He says he fell behind on his roughly $750 a month rent after he lost his job at a Starbucks in the early days of the pandemic. First, my hours got cut and they laid us all off. He's not the only tenant that breaking ground took to court. Three of the tenants are in their 70s. One of them suffers from mental illness and each owed rent ranging from 3,000, 7,000.

$100 to $10,000. Meg Floss is an advocate which shout. That stands for supportive housing, organized, and united tenants. The most vulnerable population we have are going in without any legal representation. Some can't even read, you know, basic paperwork. On the surface, it may seem like a typical tenant landlord dispute, but breaking ground is no ordinary landlord. It's the city's largest supportive housing provider, and it gets millions of dollars from the government to provide social services to tenants. Brenda Rosen is Breaking Grounds president and CEO. The tenant portion of the rent, the total arrears across all tenants at the Times Square right now, is $1.1 million. The nonprofit is not looking to evict its tenants, she says, only to recover the money owe.

So Breaking Ground, even as a nonprofit, is still a building operator that must collect rent to pay debt service, to pay operating fees, and to fundamentally pay for the crucial wraparound support services or tenants that result in a 98% stability rate. On the nonprofit's website, it says, quote, home is more than four walls and a roof. At breaking ground, home means a support system. But homeless and supportive housing advocates say breaking ground failed at one of its core missions to help its tenants regain their financial footing so they can resume paying rent. Here's Meg Floss again. She says breaking ground should put more resources into helping his clients. Why would you spend all of that money on lawyers instead of spending money on social workers,

Edward Josephson is a supervising attorney with the League of A Society. He says even if breaking ground doesn't intend to evict its tenants, suing them puts them at risk of losing their government-supported housing. There's a huge potential for people falling through the cracks and losing their apartments. This is obviously not a way for handling rent payment problems in supportive housing. These lawsuits are coming at a moment when the number of homeless New Yorkers in city shelters is at record highs, and Mayor Adams' administration is also struggling

to find shelter for the thousands of asylum seekers coming to the city. Breaking Grounds facilities sits in council member Eric Botcher's district. He says he wants more information on the situation. We're going to be sitting down with all the different stakeholders and looking into what exactly is going on here. He, like various homeless and supportive housing advocates, say there is a better way to resolve rent dispute,

than taking tenants to court. Chow Lam, WNYC News. 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.

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