Ayala committee looks at overseeing multi-agency emergency housing assistance
City Council Member Diana Ayala (D-Manhattan, Bronx), chair of the Committee on General Welfare, today will have the committee look at updating the report on utilization of and applications for multi-agency emergency housing assistance.
This includes exits from city-administered facilities and the financings, starts and completions of permanent housing for those exiting city-administered facilities.
The issue is related to Local Law 37 of 2011 requiring a monthly report on emergency housing assistance usage. This bill would require that report to be updated to include information on the total number of all individuals utilizing emergency housing in the City and the total number of families with children, adult families, single men, and single women utilizing temporary emergency housing.
The bill would additionally require the Mayor’s Office of Operations to report on the exits from various City-administered facilities, including Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), Department of Homeless Services (DHS), Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) and Human Resources Administration (HRA) facilities.
The public hearing on the issue is slated for 9:30 a.m., today, July 13 at City Hall in Lower Manhattan. Livestream.
Kaplan, Sillitti fight to “Save Our Express Trains”
Long Island lawmakers State Senator Anna M. Kaplan (D-North Hills) and Assemblywoman Gina L. Sillitti (D-Port Washington) held a press conference yesterday at the Port Washington LIRR station with Town of North Hempstead officials and local commuters to fight a proposal by the Long Island Railroad that would dramatically impact commuters who use the Great Neck, Manhasset, Plandome, and Port Washington LIRR stations.
Under the proposed schedule changes, all current morning and afternoon express trains between Penn Station and Great Neck, Manhasset, Plandome, and Port Washington will be eliminated, and travel times will be increased by as much as 8 minutes each way. Under the current schedule, there are 4 express trains to Penn Station serving the four local stations during the AM rush, and 6 during the PM rush. Under the proposal, there are none.
“At a time when we’re trying to get people safely back to the office and using mass transportation, we should be working to make commutes easier, but this proposal by the Long Island railroad does the opposite, and we’re not going to accept it,” said Kaplan. “I’ve been working with MTA leadership and the Governor’s office to make sure they understand how this proposal will impact our community, because we need to find a solution to this problem that saves our express train service to Penn while opening up the new opportunities created by East Side Access. I urge all impacted residents to join us in the fight, fill out our survey, and show up to the MTA’s virtual public hearing to be heard.”
Sillitti said the Port Washington Train Line is the heart of our community and the proposed schedule changes and elimination of peak services will negatively impact thousands of commuters who rely on the Long Island Rail Road for their daily commute.
“We’ve heard from countless residents who decided to move to North Hempstead because of the fast and easy commute to Manhattan, which is why we’ve seen such an overwhelming response to these proposed changes. In the past three weeks, we’ve had over 2,200 residents fill out our survey in opposition to these proposed changes and we are now asking the MTA to listen to the commuters and try and work out a compromise to save our express trains,” said Sillitti.
Malliotakis, colleagues make bipartisan push to fund 9/11 healthcare deficit
U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island, Brooklyn) yesterday joined a bipartisan push to address a funding shortfall in the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) with H.R.4965, the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act. H.R.4965, which Malliotakis is an original cosponsor of, is bipartisan legislation that would ensure the program has adequate funding now and in the future.
The legislation was referred to the House Energy & Commerce Committee last year and the legislators are making a big push to see it passed following news that the WTCHP faces a $3 billion deficit and will not be able to accept more enrollees as soon as 2024 if it’s not fully funded.
Additionally, Malliotakis joined the entire New York Republican Congressional Delegation and other original cosponsors of the bill in sending a letter to Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Chair of the House Energy & Commerce Committee to which the bill was referred urging him to consider the legislation.
“While Congress extended the program to 2090, the precipitous rise in medical costs and in cancer rates over the last three years has led the program to project a deficit in funding as soon as 2025,” the members wrote. “Furthermore, it is now being reported that, should Congress fail to act, the program will have to ratchet down spending and bar any new sick responders or survivors by October 2024. Let us be clear, if Congress does not quickly address this impending crisis, then the men and women who put their lives on the line and who survived the 9/11 terrorist attacks will lose health coverage to treat the physical and mental illnesses that they sustained from responding to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Thankfully, Congress has a solution to this problem in the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act.”
Today, the WTCHP provides medical treatment and monitoring for over 117,000 first responders and survivors from the World Trade Center and lower Manhattan, the Pentagon, and the Shanksville, PA crash site, spanning every state and all but one congressional district.
BBP Reynoso hosting Older Adults Celebration Fair
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) on Friday will celebrate the borough’s older adult community with a resource fair.
The fair will include performances and demonstrations, vendors, giveaways and much more. Reynoso will give opening remarks and recognize outstanding older New Yorkers.
Older adults can participate in Tai Chi and Latin social dancing; learn how to share their experiences through oral histories and storytelling; and watch the library’s senior debate team in action. And one outstanding older New Yorker will be recognized with a special citation.
The event is slated for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday July 15 at the Central Library, 10 Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn.
