NYC NOW - September 14, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

Hamzeh Alwawi, the Clinton Hill restaurant owner accused of plowing his car into two men outside a migrant shelter, says he was trying to protect himself. Meanwhile, a New Yorker upset that the city has been housing homeless migrants on his block is delivering an unwelcoming recorded message through a loudspeaker for his new neighbors. Finally, despite childcare costs in New York City already being high, if not unaffordable for many families, a lot of childcare workers still struggle to get by on low wages. New York Times metro reporter Eliza Shapiro co-wrote a recent story about the crisis families and care providers are experiencing and speaks with Michael Hill about her findings.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Thursday, September 14th. Here's the midday news from Michael Hill. A Brooklyn restaurant owner accused of plowing his car into two men outside a migrant shelter says he was trying to protect himself. 42-year-old Hamsey-Awai told his story to WNYC's Brittany Kregstein. Restaurant owner Hamza Awawi says he was just trying to find a man who posed as a delivery worker

and stole food from his Clinton Hill Burger restaurant. After following that man to a nearby migrant shelter, Awawi says he was surrounded and attacked, then got into his car and tried to drive away. He denies hitting anyone and says he can't believe he's now being charged with attempted murder. I am not a criminal guy. Like when I go to the cops, I told them I'm dreaming. What's going on with me? I'm dreaming. Awawi made Bond earlier this week.

Awabi goes back to court tomorrow. A New Yorker upset that the city has been housing homeless migrants on his block is delivering an unwelcoming recorded message through a loudspeaker for his neighbors. This building has mold. It is unsafe for you. You're being lied to. This building is not safe for humans. The community wants you to go back to New York City. The message blares all day from Sky to Hurricanes front lawn on. Staten Island in New York City in six different languages. It urges migrant arrivals brought to a temporary shelter not to get off the bus.

The message also claims the building has rats and cockroaches. Mayor Adams says the NYPD is there to keep the peace. 74 and sunny now, high surf and high risk for rip currents along the shore from Suffolk all the way down to Jersey Shore. Sunny and 75 today. For our WNYC, I'm Michael Hill. As the cost of child care continues to soar in New York City, it's become increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for many families to afford the coverage they need. But even as prices for child care increase, many of the workers who provide their

care are barely scraping by on minimal wages. Eliza Shapiro is a metro reporter for the New York Times. She and reporter Esma Elkirti co-wrote a recent story about the crisis, and she joins us now. Good morning. Good morning. Would you give us a sense of the situation faced by people who need child care? How much on average are families in New York City? How much are they paying? There's a wide range.

We heard from working class and low-income families who are spending $2,000 a month on daycare, and that's about as much as their rent, in some cases more. And we heard from upper-middle-class families, families making $400,000 a year who are paying close to $5,000 a month. Now, in your reporting, you say the skyrocketing cost of child care is one of the few issues that connects working families across geography, across race, across social class. How so? Child care is no longer an issue that is a struggle largely for or mostly for low-income families

or working-class families. We found that families who are making a lot of money, money that used to, at least in theory, guarantee a pretty comfortable middle-class life in New York are scraping to afford the care that they thought they needed to continue to live in this city. We really found that everyone except the truly wealthy, almost everyone is struggling with affordability and access to child care. So it unites New Yorkers in a similar way that the current housing crisis does. Eliza, what do parents do if they can't find somewhere safe to leave their kids while they work? This is where this story and this crisis has profound stakes for the future of New York City and our economy as we emerged from the pandemic. We heard from mother after mother in particular across the city, you know, working class, upper middle class, low income who said either I had to step back from work, find a job that lets me work remotely, leave the workforce altogether, which we know is no good for the city.

or there are families who said, this just isn't worth it for me. I can't do this. We have to move to a different place where child care is more affordable. And we are seeing families with young kids leaving the city. We see it in the decline in the public school population, which is deeply concerning to the Adams administration. Your reporting highlights the story of child care business owner in the Bronx, who recently had to close down her operation after 25 years of business.

how are child care providers who are overwhelmingly women of color, how are they making it? Are they also struggling? They're really struggling. And one thing we heard that I think is not always obvious when we're thinking about the provider side of the ledger is that every expense that they have to run their centers, whether in many cases these are small daycare centers run out of their homes or community-based organizations, all the costs are going up. So insurance, con ed, rent, I mean, food, you name it.

Everything is more expensive as all New Yorkers are experiencing. And providers feel like without help from the city, from the state, and from the federal government, we see there are pandemic era funding for daycare providers, for child care providers is expiring. Without help, people are literally saying to us, we don't know what we're going to do. Many parents praise former Mayor Bill de Blasio for starting the free pre-K and 3K program during his administration. It did gain national attention and something that could be put into action in other states and even federally. But Mayor Adams has expressed concern over the quality of care at the 3K level and even cut some funding. How does the mayor justify this move given how much families are already struggling and in need of daycare?

I heard unprompted from many families that they had budgeted for 3K for a free year, essentially, of child care. You know, I spoke to a mom recently who said, I pay $40,000 a year for child care. I was expecting to pay nothing next year and my kid turns three. I can't afford to keep paying that. Mayor Adams' argument is that we have a tight city budget and we need to marshal our resources for child care. care for the lowest income kids, which I think on its face, many people would agree with. I think the problem is this is essentially an entitlement that was promised to working families. And now people feel it's being taken away and there is a sense of confusion and in some cases

betrayal that that program is no longer universally available. So, Eliza, what is the city doing? And for that case, what is the state doing, if anything, to provide some relief to these families? I think the mayor and Governor Kathy Hokel have both said and acknowledged this is a big issue. The mayor's focus has been using this influx. There has been a significant influx of state money in the budget directed by Governor Hockel to provide more child care options. The mayor has used that money to expand subsidized vouchers for low-income families.

But we're seeing that there's about 22,000 families. families who have been able to use those vouchers. In New York City, it's just not really going to make a significant dent. We have half a million kids under the age of five. The governor has added significant funding for various child care options in the most recent budget. The issue here, according to experts and economists, is that neither the mayor nor the governor have taken much action to increase wages for the actual workers, for their providers. And that is the crux of the issue without a lot of relief insight. Eliza Shapiro is a Metroporter for the New York Times. Eliza, thank you so much for this. Thank you. I really appreciate it.

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 podcast. We'll be back this evening.