Croton Filter Project - June 24, 2014 CFMC Meeting

  The Croton Facility Monitoring Committee will meet on Tuesday, June 24 at 7:00pm at the DEP office, 3660 Jerome Avenue, Bronx 10467.

   An agenda will be listed here as soon as one is released.

Council Members and advocates urge administration to increase number of NYCHA apartments allocated to homeless families

  Today, members of the New York City Council sent a letter to the de Blasio administration to increase the number of public housing apartments allocated to homeless families to at least 2,500 units each year.

The letter comes after NYCHA proposed an allocation of only 750 public housing apartments each year to homeless families.  This is far less than the City allocated under previous mayors, and despite the fact that the number of homeless families and children is far higher now than under previous administrations. Close to 53,000 New Yorkers are in the shelter system, including 23,000 children, numbers that are up for previous years.

Council Member Stephen Levin, Chair of the General Welfare Committee, said, “The seriousness of the homelessness crisis needs to be matched with a serious commitment to providing housing for vulnerable families. Homelessness is at an all-time high in New York City, yet NYCHA has proposed allocating far fewer units for homeless families than were set aside in previous administrations.  It is crucial that the number of NYCHA apartments allocated to homeless families is increased this year and in the coming years.”

“The City can and should do more to leverage its expansive stock of public housing as a long-term solution to homelessness,” said Council Member Ritchie Torres, Chair of the Committee on Public Housing. “Expanding the homeless priority for vacant NYCHA apartments will better ensure that our most vulnerable families have access to the safety and stability of a decent home. “

“Mayor de Blasio’s administration inherited a City which is facing an affordable housing crisis that has pushed a record number of families into a homeless shelter system that is increasingly bursting at the seams,” Council Member Vanessa L. Gibson said. “New York’s burgeoning number of homeless families need, want and deserve access to affordable housing and it’s critical for NYCHA to commit more of its existing housing resources to this critical need.”   

“Housing in New York City is a challenge for several populations, more specifically families, young adults aging out of foster care and veterans,” said Council Member Laurie A. Cumbo. “We must allocate more resources to aid these individuals in their transition from temporary to permanent housing.”

“We cannot allow the amount of NYCHA apartments allocated to homeless families to decrease while homelessness continues to increase,” said Council Member Daniel Dromm. “We call on the de Blasio administration to dedicate 2,500 NYCHA units each year for homeless families. Families need a stable home outside of the sometimes volatile shelter system where they can build their lives.”

“Finding permanent housing for homeless New Yorkers is already a scarcity, and if NYCHA only allocates 750 public housing apartments per year to homeless families, then the number of families sleeping each our city’s shelters will significantly rise. I am proud to stand with my colleagues, Council Member Stephen Levin and Ritchie Torres, to urge the administration to increase the number of public housing apartments allocated to homeless families. With a collaborative effort between the Mayor, City Council Members, and NYCHA, we will soon be able to ensure that the neediest families in New York have a permanent roof over their head,” said Council Member Jumaane D. Williams.

Dear Mayor de Blasio,

While we are encouraged by your administration’s significant and early efforts to address New York’s historic homelessness crisis, we write to express our concerns that the City’s plan does not allocate nearly the sufficient number of public housing apartments to help homeless families and children obtain permanent housing.

As you know, previous New York City mayors successfully used federal housing programs to address the problem of family homelessness. Mayors Koch, Dinkins, Giuliani – and even Bloomberg in his first term – made priority referrals of tens of thousands of homeless families to New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) public housing apartments, along with federal Section 8 housing vouchers.

This successful approach was the cornerstone of New York City’s efforts to ensure needy homeless children and families could secure stable, permanent housing and saved taxpayers millions of dollars each year that would otherwise have been spent on the costly shelter system.

Unfortunately, nearly a decade ago Mayor Bloomberg eliminated priority referrals of homeless families to NYCHA public housing and housing vouchers – effectively denying the neediest NYC access to federal housing aid – and your administration inherited the resulting unprecedented crisis.

This much is clear: A problem this big requires big solutions.  Reducing the record number of homeless families with children in New York City will require a significant commitment of permanent housing resources, and in particular public housing apartments.

For that reason we are extremely disappointed by NYCHA’s current proposal to allocate only 750 public housing apartments each year to homeless families.  This is far less than the City allocated under previous mayors, despite the fact that the number of homeless families and children is far higher now than under previous administrations. The current proposal represents less than 15% of NYCHA vacancies.  And it comes at a time when the housing authority, continuing a Giuliani-era policy, actually prioritizes thousands of public housing apartments for households with no demonstrated housing needs – including hundreds of families whose annual incomes exceed $40,000.

We believe the City of New York can and must do more to help the neediest families and children with our federal housing resources.  We urge you and your administration to increase the number of public housing apartments allocated to homeless families to at least 2,500 units each year.  In addition, in light of the fact that approximately 30% of homeless families are working, we urge you to prioritize this population in NYCHA’s working family priority list. Only with such a commitment can we begin to stem the rise of family homelessness, and finally begin to reduce the number of families sleeping each night in our shelter system.

In addition, we understand the financial constraints faced by NYCHA.  We are committed to working with NYCHA and the City to ensure the cost of needed support services for families leaving the shelter system and entering NYCHA are not borne by NYCHA alone.

We look forward to working with you and your administration towards our shared goal of ending homelessness in New York City.

Sincerely,

Stephen Levin, Ritchie Torres, Corey Johnson, Helen Rosenthal, Mark Levine, Ydanis Rodriguez, Vanessa Gibson, Annabel Palma, Costa Constantinides, Daniel Dromm, Donovan Richards, Antonio Reynoso, Laurie Cumbo, Carlos Menchaca, Brad Lander, Inez Barron, and Jumaane D. Williams

Two Bills Sponsored by Senator Ruben Diaz Pass in the Senate

  Two significant pieces of legislation, Senate Bill 383 and Senate Bill 20, sponsored by New York State Senator Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) have passed today in the Senate.

S383 prohibits the use of lottery funds for any purpose other than education and prohibits co-mingling with funds for other purposes.  This bill passed 56 Ayes, 0 Nays.

S20 establishes the crime of patronizing a prostitute in a school zone and including daycare facilities within the definition of a school zone.  This bill passed 54 Ayes, 2 Nays.

Senator Diaz stated: "I am grateful to the Senate leadership for bringing these bills to the Senate Floor for a vote during this Session.  I am also proud of my colleagues in the Assembly, Luis Sepulveda and Marcos Crespo, for co-sponsoring these pieces of legislation. We look forward to these bills passing in the Assembly and being signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo.  It is essential for us to do whatever we can to protect our children's public education funds - and more importantly, to protect their safety in school zones."

Editors Note -  The two nays on Senator Diaz's second bill S20 came from Senator Montgomery 25th district Brooklyn, and Senator Perkins 30th district Manhattan. 

Learn More About Vision Zero on Thursday June 19th at the Parkchester Library

Over the last few months, Mayor de Blasio has begun to roll out a number of new traffic features to improve road safety entitled "Vision Zero."  To help introduce these new features I will be holding a town hall meeting this Thursday June 19th, at the Parkchester Library at 7:00pm.  I invite you to come and learn about the exciting new ideas being presented to keep us all safer on the road.  Representatives from city wide agencies like the Department of Transportation will be in attendance to answer any questions you may have.

I hope to see many of you there!
Your Assemblyman,
Luis R. Sepulveda

June 24th Ribbon-cutting Ceremony to Celebrate Grand Opening of R.A.I.N. Gun Hill Neighborhood Senior Center

  On Tuesday, June 24, 2014 at 11 AM, Regional Aid for Interim Needs, Inc. (R.A.I.N.) is pleased to announce that it will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Grand Opening of the R.A.I.N. Gun Hill Neighborhood Senior Center.  The ceremony will take place at the brand new  facility located at 3377 White Plains Road, The Bronx, New York 10467.

 

“We are happy to introduce our accomplishment to the seniors, community and those who helped bring this program to fruition,” said Anderson Torres, CEO of R.A.I.N. Inc.  The ribbon-cutting ceremony for R.A.I.N. marks the launch of another quality driven program for a community in need of these services. 

Senator Ruth Hassell-Thompson, Assemblyman Carl Heastie, Council Member Andy King and Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. are scheduled to be on hand to offer a few remarks regarding R.A.I.N. Gun Hill Neighborhood Senior Center and to assist in the ribbon-cutting.

R.A.I.N. was founded in 1964 by Beatrice Castiglia-Catullo as a voluntary effort to provide in-home care for older persons leaving the hospital with no one at home to care for them.  Having herself experienced the hardship of caring for an elderly homebound relative with no outside assistance, Mrs. Catullo sought to address this need and fulfill the desires of seniors to continue to be productive and independent citizens of the community. 

Currently, R.A.I.N. is the largest provider of social services for seniors in The Bronx with 17 service sites throughout the Bronx and one in upper Manhattan offering a comprehensive continuum of services to help seniors live safely and independently in their homes.

For more information regarding the event or R.A.I.N.’s programs, please call R.A.I.N.’s Administration Office at (718) 892-5520.

Bronxtalk 13th Congressional Debate

 

   In case you may be wondering why there is an empty chair next to State Senator Adriano Espaillat, the empty seat represents Congressman Rangel who at the last minute ducked this debate. Bronxtalk host Gary Axelbank (left) is explaining to State Senator Adriano Espaillat and Michael Walrond candidates for the 13th Congressional district that after having all parties involved to a mutual date and time for a taping of the debate that Congressman Rangel's camp had sent him an e-mail that Congressman Rangel would not be able to make the taping due to a scheduling conflict. Axelbank let the viewers know that this was not fair to them, and that two years ago Congressman Rangel pulled the same stunt by cancelling at the last minute. The debate however went on as scheduled with as you see in the photo above an empty chair representing Congressman Rangel. 

  Host Gary Axelbank had excellent questions for the two candidates mostly pertaining to the Bronx, which apparently Congressman Rangel knows little of. When asked both said that they would have a Bronx district office, and both wondered why Congressman Rangel did not. During the show State Senator Espaillat seemed to be getting the best of his challenger Michael Walrond who was agreeing most of the time with what the senator was saying. You have to watch the show which will air on Monday night June 16th on channel 67 on Cablevision or channel 33 on Verizon Fios starting at 9 PM. and repeated throughout the week at various times. you can also go to Bronxtalk on the Bronxnet website .

 

Left and Right - After the debate both candidate who appeared on the show answer questions from the group of reporters that were in the audience.

Stop Gun Violence Councilman Andy King

  NYC Council Member Andy King held a “Stop The Gun Violence” press conference on Thursday, June 12^th, at 11:30 a.m., at Baychester Avenue and Boston Rd., Bronx, 10466. Dedicating themselves to reducing the deadly crisis of gun violence, more than 100 public students dressed in orange  -- the official color of Gun Violence Awareness Month (GVAM) -- who took part in the press conference as well as participating in the City Council 12^th District clean-up.  In addition to Council Member King and the students, also speaking at the press conference will be Tamika D. Mallory, GVAM Co-Chair; 47^th Precinct Deputy Inspector Ruel Stephenson. 

  The children present attend MS 181, JHS 142, and the Bronx Charter School for Better Learning. There has been a spike in crime in the 12th Council District of Councilman Andy King with 4 shooting resulting in 8 deaths. Cries of 'Save our community', and 'Stop the gun violence' were heard throughout the speeches. 

  When I asked recently promoted Deputy Inspector Stevenson of the 47th precinct about the most recent police policies that Mayor deBlasio said are coming, DI Stevenson could only say that those new strategies  have not been released to the precincts yet. DI Stevenson said that by building bridges with the community, and regaining the community trust would be one of his first priorities right now in the short term. Long term - better relationships with the community that trusts the officers of the 47th precinct. 

 

Left - Councilman Andy King stands before 100 children who came out to help Councilman King Stop Gun Violence.

Right - Tamika Mallory of GVAM addresses the crowd about some of the costs of gun violence.

Left - Students tell of their personal experiences of friends who have been shot during gun violence.

Right - 47th Precinct commanding officer Deputy Inspector Stevenson reads off some statistics about gun violence. 

Bronx Chamber of Commerce Business Exposition

  The Bronx Chamber of Commerce held its largest Business Exposition at The Villa Barone Manor on Wednesday, June 11, 2014. NYS Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was the keynote speaker.   This exposition showcased a great diversity of products and services by and for New York businesses. Over one hundred businesses hosted booths and many New York City agencies were present as well. Workshops were offered throughout the day with topics ranging from technology to healthcare to M/WBE certification to social media. Chamber members and guests discovered new resources and revenue opportunities while making great contacts. Exhibitors raised awareness of their businesses among the boroughs top business leaders in a dynamic environment. This year’s theme showcased businesses to help stimulate the economy, which is crucial during this time. 

Left - BCC President Lenny Caro welcomes everyone to the Business Expo.

Right - N.Y. Attorney General Eric Schniderman speaks of some of the successes of his office.

 

Left - BCC Chairman Joseph Kelleher, A.G. Eric Schniderman, and BCC President Lenny Caro stand in front of a green screen.

Right - The three are in a photo at another place thanks to Bronx based TapSnap photo systems.

 

Left - Empire City Casino was on had giving out prizes.

Right - The Wildlife Conservation Society was also at the expo with stuffed animals only.

 

Left - A.G. Schniderman, BCC Chairman Kellher, and BCC President Caro are joined by BCC Vice-Chair and former City Councilwoman June Eisland as they stop by the Simone Developers of the Bronx booth.

Right - The ribbon to the event is cut.