Last year, as the pandemic crushed the economy and public life, annual new housing construction in New York City dropped by 4,600 units to 20,200, the lowest since 2015, according to the city Department of City Planning. While new affordable housing kept pace with previous years and overall housing production picked up in the latter half of 2020, building permits remain relatively low in the first several months of this year, portending an uncertain future for the city s housing stock.
New York has faced a housing emergency for years before the onset of the pandemic, with low vacancy rates and a large portion of residents rent-burdened. The number of units on the rental market more than tripled last summer and remains more than double what it was pre-pandemic. But the ratio of new jobs to housing has remained high since the Great Recession and there is broad agreement among city planners and developers, among others, that more housing is a critical need in the near- and long-term.
Analysts see promise, risk in the big-spending state budget
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John Langdon
Cassandra Agredo has grown the soup kitchen at St. Francis Xavier church into the multi-service agency that is Xavier Mission. As the organization’s executive director, Agredo and her team provide an array of services and opportunities to New Yorkers in need. They prefer to be called a “for-impact” instead of a “nonprofit” organization, focusing on things they can change instead of those they can’t.
Direct service work has always been a part of Agredo’s life. When she was growing up in Rhode Island, her father worked at the Department of Human Services, and once the first soup kitchen opened, her parents would bring Agredo along while they volunteered. She continued on this path and obtained a bachelor’s and master’s degree in social work from Fordham University. Since then, her passion to enact positive change has shone both through her work at Xavier Mission and Hunger Free America, a national organization set to end domestic hunger, where she’s a
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Last year, during a summer of protests against police violence following the killing of George Floyd, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the City Council announced a $1 billion cut to the New York City Police Department’s budget, roughly half of which was achieved through shifting costs to other agencies. Of the actual spending reductions, 75% would come from reduced spending on NYPD overtime. The cap on overtime, which previously stood at about $600 million a year, was slashed to $253 million for fiscal year 2021. Critics who waged a monthslong campaign to defund the police immediately criticized the budget cuts as smoke and mirrors. The budget hawks at the Citizens Budget Commission called the cap on overtime “unrealistic” and pointed out that it was only budgeted for one year.
Published April 12, 2021 •
Updated 1 hour ago
Spotlighting the issues and voices that will shape the upcoming New York City elections for mayor, comptroller and dozens of other offices this fall, NBC 4 New York/WNBC will host the first in a series of community forums starting Wednesday, April 14, at 7 p.m.
The first forum will explore the issues and concerns of New York City’s Asian American community. Viewers can submit questions in advance to debate@nbcnewyork.com, and send more on NBC 4 New York’s social media platforms during the live discussion. Download our mobile app for iOS or Android to get alerts for local breaking news and weather.
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