Categories: Funding, New York City
06.09.2020
Network Executive Director Laura Mascuch joined fellow housing advocates to speak at Council Members Brad Lander, Vanessa Gibson and Robert Cornegy’s press conference opposing affordable housing cuts in the capital budget. The event followed the release of Lander and Gibson’s:
A Capital Mistake for NYC, an analysis on the costs to housing, jobs, and infrastructure of proposed cuts to capital spending.
The analysis shows that the proposed $2.3 billion budget reduction will delay financing for 20,000 affordable housing units, eliminate as many as 15,000 jobs, weaken our long-term infrastructure, slow our city’s recovery, and will not even help us address our operating budget shortfall over the next two years.
Council Members Lander, Gibson and Cornegy spoke followed by: Rachel Fee, NYHC; Barika Williams, ANHD; Jessica Katz, CHPC; Jolie Milstein, NYSAFAH, and Laura Mascuch.
Council Member Lander introduced Laura saying: “Having a city and society that tolerates mass homelessness is not just a crisis for the homeless but a crisis for all of us. Supportive housing is the solution to that crisis and cutting the capital budget for it is not.”
Laura spoke and stressed that the road to New York City’s recovery must prioritize and address homelessness and housing. With unemployment rising, the city is facing an avalanche of evictions and rise of homelessness. Proposed HPD capital budget cuts would translate to the loss of 3,000 supportive housing apartments for vulnerable individuals and families.
She also emphasized homelessness as an indicator of systemic racism with the vast majority of people who experience homelessness and that are eligible for supportive housing being people of color and how supportive housing is part of that solution.
Read our full remarks here.
Watch here (Network remarks starting at 42:28)
Read the full report here.