This afternoon, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams met with representatives from the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness to discuss federal actions which can address the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis in New York City, particularly in light of the challenges to housing asylum seekers. Among the topics were requests to develop new Neighborhood Area Median Income metrics, fully fund public housing, improve federal procurement and appraisal policies, and implement All In, a federal plan to end homelessness in New York City.
Following the meeting, the Public Advocate released the following statement:
“Before the first bus arrived at Port Authority, there were already 50,000 New Yorkers living in shelters – the housing and homelessness crisis is as entrenched as the systems that drive it. I want to thank the Council for meeting with us to discuss federal solutions to a crisis replicated across the country and create deeply affordable, accessible, income-targeted housing. NYCHA needs more money, our systems need more equity, and we need housing policies grounded in the realities of unaffordability, rather than outdated and inaccurate AMI measures. There is a great deal we can and must do on the city and state level to help people get off the streets, out of shelters, and into permanent homes, but some efforts require federal commitment of resources and federal changes to policy. I look forward to continuing the conversation and the work with our federal partners.”
Read more about the office’s federal housing requests here. The Public Advocate also met earlier Wednesday with the White House Domestic Policy Council to discuss supporting asylum seekers in New York City- read more about that here.