The local paper for the Upper East Side CAMP GUIDE 2019
P.11
WEEK OF JANUARY-FEBRUARY
31-6 2019
SAVAGING THE SAFETY NET HOUSING In hundreds of apartments across Manhattan, the elderly, the disabled and the poor have lived in fear and confusion since the federal shutdown on Dec. 22. Their troubles aren’t over yet.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF PAIN A breakdown of 662 housing units at 11 separate Manhattan locations where the poor, disabled and elderly were potentially at risk. Federal contracts that provide supportive housing and rental assistance had expired, and they could not be renewed during the government shutdown. Some critical locations:
BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN
The townhouse, center, with scaffolding, at 48 East 65th St. where a woman was trapped in the elevator for three days. Photo: Brian Demo
WOMAN RESCUED AFTER 3 DAYS IN ELEVATOR EMERGENCY Housekeeping employee at East Side townhouse in stable condition; cause of mishap under investigation BY VERENA DOBNIK
A woman stuck for three days and nights in the private elevator of a Manhattan townhouse owned by a billionaire investment banker was rescued, police said.
The 53-year-old woman, who worked for the family of the banker as a housekeeping employee, was dehydrated but in stable condition at Weill Cornell Medical Center, they said. Authorities responded to a 911 call at about 10 a.m. Monday from the home on East 65th Street, near Central Park. Firefighters freed the woman after forcing entry into the elevator that had stalled between the second and third floors of the five-story property.
From Avenue A to West 145th Street, roughly 2,000 of the city’s most vulnerable residents just got the scare of their lives. For 35 harrowing days, as the government shutdown dragged on, they faced the threat of being forced from their homes. It didn’t happen. But the abrupt cutoff of federal funding for supportive housing programs had placed them at huge risk. And though the government reopened last week, they’ll be endangered anew if there is another shutdown on Feb. 15 when a three-week stopgap spending bill passed on Jan. 25 runs out. At issue are three subsidized programs that came to a screeching halt when the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development suddenly lost its Congressional authorization to bankroll them. The shortfall impacted HUD’s Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance program, which contracts with private property owners who then rent to households with incomes averaging $13,500 a year or less. It also threatened two other HUD lifelines — the Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program and Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities Program.
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EAST 116TH STREET BETWEEN PARK AND MADISON AVENUES Program type: Project Rental Assistance Contracts / Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program Month of expiration: Feb. 2019 100 percent seniors 5 percent disabled persons 98 assisted units
We are in uncharted territory here.” City Council Member Mark Levine
SOUTH SIDE OF EAST 111TH STREET BETWEEN PARK AND LEXINGTON AVENUES Program type: Project Rental Assistance Contracts / Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities Month of expiration: Feb. 2019 11 percent seniors 100 percent disabled persons 20 assisted units
WEST SIDE OF MAIN STREET AT RIVER ROAD ON ROOSEVELT ISLAND Program type: Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance for Housing Month of expiration: Jan. 2019 54 percent seniors 17 percent disabled persons 222 assisted units
SOURCE: National Low-Income Housing Coalition | GRAPHIC: Nick Korn
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