A dozen activists drop banner and lead mic-check during hearing, to demand action from City to house homeless New Yorkers
NEW YORK CITY — (RealEstateRama) — As the City of New York negotiates the housing budget amidst an unprecedented homelessness crisis, homeless activists from the House Our Future NY campaign interrupted a budget hearing held by the City Council’s Housing and Buildings Committee. Led by Nathylin Flowers Adesegun–the homeless 73-year old woman who confronted Mayor de Blasio at the Park Slope YMCA in October–activists dropped a banner reading “Build 24K for homeless NYers” and led a mic-check style speak-out before being escorted out by security.
Despite soaring homelessness in New York City, Mayor de Blasio plans to set aside only 5 percent of his 300,000-unit Housing New York 2.0 plan for homeless New Yorkers, with most of those created through preservation of already-occupied units (thus remaining unavailable for currently homeless New Yorkers for years). The Mayor’s current plan would create twice as many units for households that can afford rents above $2,500/month than it does for homeless families and individuals – effectively perpetuating the crisis that continues to devastate the lives of tens of thousands of people in our city.
The House Our Future NY campaign is calling for Mayor de Blasio to increase the number of apartments set aside for homeless New Yorkers in his Housing New York 2.0 affordable housing plan to 30,000 units, with 24,000 units to be created through new construction. While the Mayor has resisted, the majority of City Councilmembers have come out in support of increasing the set-aside for homeless New Yorkers.
Statement read by activists during the interruption:
Mayor de Blasio,
We have 63,000 New Yorkers living in shelters.
Shame on you!
We want 30,000 units of housing for homeless New Yorkers.
Of the 30K, we need 24,000 built from the ground up!
We demand you house the homeless!
House the homeless!
House the homeless!
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