FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
STATEMENT: With the FY2024 Budget, the Mayor Leaves 71,000+ of the City’s Own Tenants at Risk of Eviction
JUNE 30, 2023 (NEW YORK, NY) – Today, the Mayor chose to leave 71,341 of the City’s own public housing tenants without any rent relief.
New York was the only state to ignore public housing tenants in its Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). As a result, there are over 71,000 New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) households with rental arrears who are at risk of eviction. The City had an opportunity to allocate $338 million – less than 1% of the City's total budget – to protect these families, and they didn't.
“I have been a NYCHA resident since 1964, and I’m devastated that the Mayor left us out of the City budget,” said Community Voices Heard Member Maria Pacheco. “As the Tenant Association president of my senior housing building in Harlem, I saw firsthand how families suffered during the pandemic, and weren’t given the same relief as private tenants. I know the City has the money to help us, but they keep leaving us behind.”
This will only further exacerbate the housing crisis. NYCHA tenants – like all New Yorkers – deserve to live in safe, stable, and dignified housing. NYCHA residents lost jobs and family members during the pandemic, but they weren’t given a clear pathway for assistance that everyone else received. This budget is a moral failure.
In one small bright spot, the City restored funding to the Vacant Unit Readiness program that ensures swift emergency transfers for NYCHA residents. But this won't do anything for tenants who are struggling to pay back rent that accrued during the pandemic. The City could have prevented thousands of evictions, but they turned a blind eye once again.
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Community Voices Heard (CVH) is a member-led, multi-racial organization principally comprised of women of color and low-income families in New York State. CVH tackles tough issues and builds power to secure racial, social, and economic justice for all New Yorkers. Through grassroots organizing, leadership development, policy changes, and creating new models of direct democracy CVH is creating a truly equitable New York State.
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