Governor Hochul Announces New York State’s Continued Efforts to Prevent the Spread of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Governor Hochul Directs New York State Agencies to Continue Taking Proactive Prevention Measures as Risk to Humans Remains Low

Farmers are Encouraged to Practice Biosecurity Measures to Prevent the Spread of the Virus

Minimize HPAI Risk by Preventing Contact Between Domestic Animals and Wild Birds

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced New York State’s ongoing proactive measures to prevent the spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) and facilitate early detection, particularly on New York farms. Following the detection of HPAI in poultry on a farm in Suffolk County and in several wild and domestic birds at a learning center in Putnam County, the State is encouraging organizations in contact with wild birds to remain vigilant for signs of illness in their domestic animals. Farms are urged to practice biosecurity measures to prevent the spread of the virus. While HPAI can spread quickly among wild birds and poultry, there have been no documented human cases in New York State, and the risk to humans is low.

“At my direction, New York State is continuing to monitor for HPAI and take proactive measures to keep our communities safe,” Governor Hochul said. “While the risk to public health remains low, I encourage all New Yorkers, especially individuals frequently in contact with poultry and wild birds, to remain vigilant and take the necessary steps to protect our state.”

New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Commissioner Richard A. Ball said, “New York State has been monitoring for HPAI and taking a number of proactive measures to prevent the spread of HPAI in the state since the first detection in a backyard poultry operation here in 2022. The protocols we have in place, and continue to update, for early detection in poultry and livestock are working, helping us to identify cases and deploy resources to help. We encourage everyone who keeps poultry and livestock to be vigilant about minimizing their animals’ exposure to the virus and to wild bird populations and practice good biosecurity measures.”

New York State Department of Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, “As Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza continues to be detected in New York State, we are remaining vigilant and are working closely with our state and local partners to minimize the risk to people who have or may come into contact with infected animals. The State Department of Health will continue to support farmers and other industry professionals who have contact with wild birds with resources and guidance. While the risk to humans remains low, we will continue to monitor these detections in animals including livestock and poultry to assess any potential risks to public health and safety.”

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar said, “The DEC continues to work closely with State and federal partners to reduce the spread of HPAI. New Yorkers are encouraged to avoid direct contact with sick or dead wild birds and poultry, especially waterfowl and raptors, and hunters are reminded to not harvest sick or dead animals. People should report unusual wildlife mortalities to their local DEC regional office.”

The New York State Department of Health is also reminding the public that this recent HPAI detection does not present an immediate public health concern. The State Department of Health is providing guidance and resources to the local health departments that responded to these two situations. Individuals who may have had contact with infected birds are being monitored for symptoms and will be evaluated for HPAI if any become sick.

While both recent HPAI cases are under control and surveillance of surrounding farms continues, the State continues to urge those involved in poultry production to take extra steps to prevent their flocks from becoming infected. All poultry producers, from small backyard to large commercial operations, should review their biosecurity plans and take precautions to protect their birds. Poultry biosecurity materials and checklists can be found on the USDA’s “Defend the Flock” website.

In addition to practicing good biosecurity, poultry owners should keep their birds away from wild ducks and geese and their droppings. Outdoor access for poultry should be limited at this time, particularly as the State continues to see HPAI detections in wild bird populations.

To report sick birds, unexplained high number of deaths, or sudden drop in egg production, please contact the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets (AGM) Division of Animal Industry at (518) 457-3502 or the USDA at (866) 536-7593.

HPAI in Dairy Cattle

AGM also recently announced that it is implementing new testing initiatives on dairy farms as part of its aggressive, proactive response to the outbreak of HPAI in livestock in other states. Working in close collaboration with federal partners, including USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, FDA, and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, and state partners, including the New York State Department of Health, this enhanced testing strategy is part of the State’s effort to protect animal and human health and prevent the transmission of HPAI in livestock in New York State. While there have been no detections of HPAI in livestock in New York to date, the State's comprehensive approach is aimed at ensuring the state remains free of HPAI and facilitating early detection.

In addition to the new testing initiative, New York State has implemented multiple preventative measures to protect animal and human health since the first detection of HPAI in dairy cattle in Texas in March 2024. In April, June, and August 2024, the Department issued orders on import requirements for dairy cattle coming into New York as well as testing requirements for lactating dairy cattle entering fairs or exhibitions. These orders continue to remain in place until further notice.

USDA offers several producer support programs that are available to all dairy producers as well as certain programs only available to dairy producers with HPAI-positive herds. These programs include tools to support biosecurity planning and implementation as well as financial support programs to offset costs associated with HPAI testing, veterinary expenses, personal protective equipment purchases, milk disposal, and milk losses.

 

MAYOR ADAMS’ STATEMENT ON FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION’S OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET PAUSE TO FEDERAL GRANT FUNDING AND IMPACT TO NEW YORK CITY

 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams today released the following statement following the federal administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announcement that it would pause funding to different federal programs across the nation, including to New York City, which has received an average of $11.8 billion in federal grants over each of the past five fiscal years:

“New Yorkers’ federal income tax dollars are some of the highest in the country. For decades, we have worked with the federal government to bring a huge chunk of those tax dollars back to the five boroughs to pay for critical services New Yorkers rely on and to better the lives of our city’s 8.3 million residents. We are assessing the full reach of the administration’s announcement, as specific programs are not named in the memo. We are in touch with our federal counterparts as we continue to monitor this situation closely, and we will advocate firmly on behalf of New Yorkers whose lives are impacted by affected programs.”

The federal administration’s OMB memo released carves out “assistance provided directly to New Yorkers,” including for Social Security and Medicare, but as additional guidance was just released, the City of New York is still assessing what other, if any, assistance programs would be included in this order. 

New York City Hispanic Chamber of Commerce - Chase Money Skill - Financial Literacy and Community

 

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New York City Hispanic Chamber 

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MAYOR ADAMS, HPD, AND NYPL CELEBRATE MILESTONE IN GRAND CONCOURSE LIBRARY PROJECT TO BUILD 100 PERCENT AFFORDABLE HOUSING, CREATE NEW, STATE-OF-THE-ART FACILITY

 

After Working with Local, Community Stakeholders, HPD and NYPL Release Request for Proposals to Advance Bold, Forward-Looking Vision to Build More Critically-Needed Affordable Housing 

  

First Announced in Mayor Adams’ Fourth State of the City Address, Today’s Milestone Builds on Adams Administration’s ‘City of Yes for Families’ Proposal to Make New York City Best, Most Affordable Place to Raise a Family +

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) Commissioner Adolfo Carrion Jr., and New York Public Library (NYPL) President and CEO Anthony W. Marx today announced their search for a development partner to create a brand-new state-of-the-art library with 100 percent affordable housing at the Grand Concourse Library in the Bronx. HPD and NYPL’s competitive Request for Proposals (RFP) marks a significant milestone in the project, as the Adams administration continues to work to explore any and all space to build critically needed affordable housing across the five boroughs. First announced in Mayor Adams’ fourth State of the City address earlier this month, today’s news builds on the Adams administration’s “City of Yes for Families” proposal to make New York City the best, most affordable place to raise a family.  

  

“To make New York City the best place to raise a family, we have to build affordable housing that surrounds families with everything they need to thrive in our city — and the Grand Concourse Library is that exact kind of project,” said Mayor Adams. “The Grand Concourse Library will provide 100-percent affordable housing and a newly-renovated, state-of-the-art facility that’s just blocks away from a public park and health care facility — a model for the kind of thoughtful, holistic housing project our city is capable of building. We aren’t stopping there. Our administration will continue to build even more affordable housing and ensure that we are a ‘City of Yes for Families.’” 

  

“NYPL and HPD’s call for a Grand Concourse ‘living library’ illustrates just what it means to bring a community-centered approach for planning for the future,” said New York City Executive Director for Housing Leila Bozorg. “I thank everyone who came out to lend their ideas during the extensive community visioning process for this competition, and I’m excited to see how respondents propose to turn those visions into a new beacon of education, safety, and community in the Bronx.” 

  

“We can solve the housing crisis and we can enrich neighborhoods — it just takes creativity, unwavering dedication to our communities, and more efforts like the Grand Concourse Library project," said HPD Commissioner Carrion Jr. "Together, with the New York Public Library and the Bronx community, we’re transforming a 65-year-old library branch into a modern, vibrant library alongside new affordable apartments. We’re not just here to stem a crisis, we’re here to create homes and make life better for all New Yorkers.” 

  

“The new Grand Concourse branch will provide patrons with a state-of-the-art library and the Bronx with more housing options amid a city-wide housing shortage,” said NYPL President and CEO Marx. “This corner of the Bronx is full of dedicated library patrons and the new branch will offer greater access to books, technology, and programs that help this neighborhood thrive. We are happy to continue our productive partnership with the city to improve branches and add to the city’s housing supply.” 

  

Within the City of Yes for Families proposal is the “Living Libraries” initiative. Living Libraries focuses on jointly developing new libraries and housing, such as the Grand Concourse Library project, to support families in New York City. The library is across the street from the Claremont BronxCare campus and near Claremont Park, a perfect location and set of amenities for New Yorkers trying to raise a family. The brand-new library will be located on the first and second floors of the new building with affordable housing built above. The RFP instructs development teams to assume a rezoning of the library site to maximize the number of affordable homes that can be built above the new library. 

  

The community engagement phase of the RFP was announced in 2024 as part of Mayor Adams’ 2024 State of the City “24 in 24” plan to advance 24 development projects on public sites to create or preserve over 12,000 units of housing, which the city ultimately ended up surpassing.   

  

When preparing their submissions, development teams are strongly encouraged to consult the Grand Concourse Community Visioning Report, which summarizes the engagement takeaways for both the library and affordable housing components of the project. Since the project was announced in April 2024, HPD’s Office of Neighborhood Strategies and NYPL have engaged the community to identify top priorities for the library and affordable housing portions of the new development, culminating in a report-back presentation delivered to Bronx Community Board 4. Engagement efforts included: 

  

• A project website and questionnaire which received 270 responses. 

• Bilingual promotional materials. 

• Several tabling events at the library and throughout the neighborhood in partnership with local schools and community-based organizations. 

• A community visioning workshop held at the Grand Concourse Library in June 2024. 

• Multiple meetings with Community Board 4 and local elected officials. 

• Email blasts to the HPD project email list of over 200 subscribers and the NYPL Grand Concourse Library patron list of over 5,900 subscribers. 

  

This RFP is open to all interested developers, from January 29th until May 2nd  For specific details on requirements, evaluation criteria, and how to participate, candidates should refer to the Grand Concourse Library and Affordable Housing RFP. RFP submissions will be evaluated based on the quality and feasibility of the proposals in addition to how well they respond to the community’s vision. The existing branch will remain open to serve the public until construction begins. 

  

The Grand Concourse Library project is the latest in a series of state-of-the-art library redevelopments with affordable housing in collaboration with the city’s library system. This follows the recently opened Inwood Library, which is part of a development with 174 affordable homes, and the new Sunset Park Library in a development with 49 affordable homes. Co-located libraries are an essential initiative within the Adams administration’s “Women Forward NYC: An Action Plan for Gender Equity” — a more than $43 million investment aimed at making New York City a national leader on gender equity — to support the needs of families. For more information on the Grand Concourse Library project, visit the project website. 

  

Mayor Adams had made historic investments toward creating affordable housing and ensuring more New Yorkers have a place to call home over the last three years. In June 2024, City Hall and the City Council agreed on an on-time, balanced, and fiscally-responsible $112.4 billion Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Adopted Budget that invests $2 billion in capital funds across FY25 and FY26 to HPD and the New York City Housing Authority’s capital budgets. In total, the Adams administration has committed a record $26 billion in housing capital in the current 10-year plan as the city faces a generational housing crisis. In July 2024, Mayor Adams announced back-to-back record breaking years in both creating and connecting New Yorkers to affordable housing. This past spring, the city celebrated the largest 100 percent affordable housing project in 40 years with the Willets Point transformation.  

  

Further, the Adams administration is using every tool available to address the city’s housing crisis. Mayor Adams announced multiple new tools, including a $4 million state grant, to help New York City homeowners create accessory dwelling units that will not only help them to afford to remain in the communities they call home, but also to build generational wealth for their families. In August 2023, Mayor Adams announced the issuance of Executive Order 43, requiring city agencies to review their city owned and controlled land for potential housing development sites.  

  

Mayor Adams and members of his administration also successfully advocated for new tools in the 2024 New York state budget that will spur the creation of urgently-needed housing. These tools include a new tax incentive for multifamily rental construction, a tax incentive program to encourage office conversions to create more affordable units, lifting the arbitrary “floor-to-area ratio” cap that held back affordable housing production in certain high-demand areas of the city, and the ability to create a pilot program to legalize and make safe basement apartments.    

  

Additionally, under Mayor Adams’ leadership, the city is fulfilling its 2024 State of the City commitment to build more affordable housing, including by creating the Tenant Protection Cabinet to coordinate across agencies to better serve tenants. The city has also taken several steps to cut red tape and speed up the delivery of much-needed housing, including through the “Green Fast Track for Housing,” a streamlined environmental review process for qualifying small- and medium-sized housing projects; the “Office Conversion Accelerator,” an interagency effort to guide buildings that wish to convert through city bureaucracy; and other initiatives of the Building and Land Use Approval Streamlining Taskforce.   

 

State Labor Department Releases Preliminary December 2024 Area Unemployment Rates

 

The New York State Department of Labor today released preliminary local area unemployment rates for December 2024. Rates are calculated using methods prescribed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The State’s area unemployment rates rely in part on the results of the Current Population Survey, which contacts approximately 3,100 households in New York State each month. To recap last week’s statewide press release, New York State’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held constant at 4.4% in December 2024.

Local Area Unemployment Rates* (%)

December 2023 and December 2024

(Not seasonally adjusted)

The data in the preceding table are not seasonally adjusted, which means they reflect seasonal influences (e.g., holiday and summer hires). Therefore, the most valid comparisons with this type of data are year-to-year comparisons of the same month, for example, December 2023 versus December 2024. Labor force data for the current month are preliminary and subject to revision as more information becomes available the following month. Revised estimates for prior months are available at: https://dol.ny.gov/local-area-unemployment-statistics Labor force statistics, including the unemployment rate, for New York and every other state are based on statistical regression models specified by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. These are the most up-to-date estimates of persons employed and unemployed by place of residence. Estimates are available for New York State, labor market regions, metropolitan areas, counties and municipalities with population of at least 25,000.

Unemployment Rates By County,

New York State,

December 2024

Jobs and Unemployment Fact Sheet This fact sheet conveys important technical information that will contribute to a better understanding of labor force data (“household survey”), including resident employment/unemployment rates, and jobs by industry data (“business survey”), which are presented in the New York State Department of Labor’s monthly press release. State Unemployment Rates Based on Regression Model Beginning with data for January 1996, unemployment rates for New York State and all other states (as well as New York City and the City of Los Angeles) have been estimated using time-series regression statistical models developed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Advantage of Regression Model Use of a time-series regression model reduces the month-to-month variation in unemployment rates and resident employment by reducing variation caused by sampling errors and other components of statistical noise (irregularities). Benchmarking of Estimates Once each year, labor force estimates, such as civilian labor force and the unemployment rate, are revised to reflect updated input data including new Census Bureau populations controls, newly revised establishment jobs data and new state-level annual average data from the Current Population Survey (CPS). As part of this procedure, all state figures are reviewed, revised as necessary and then re-estimated. This process is commonly referred to as “benchmarking.” Changes in Methodology Labor force estimates are now produced with an improved time-series regression model, which utilizes “real-time” benchmarking. “Real-time” benchmarking reduces end-of-year revisions, which also means that major economic events will be reflected in a more timely manner in state labor force estimates. In addition, the new methodology includes an updated way of estimating for sub-state areas (e.g. counties, metro areas) the number of unemployed who are new entrants or re-entrants into the labor force. This change in methodology will result in lower unemployment rates in some areas and increased rates in others. Unemployed and UI Beneficiaries The estimate of the number of unemployed includes all persons who had no employment during the reference week (the week including the 12th of the month), were available for work, except for temporary illness, and had made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week. Unemployment insurance (UI) beneficiaries include those who apply for and qualify for UI benefits. Consequently, the estimate of the number of unemployed and the number of UI beneficiaries do not necessarily move in tandem. Jobs Data Jobs data are obtained from a separate joint federal-state survey of business establishments. The survey, called the Current Employment Statistics of Establishments, samples establishments in New York State. It excludes self-employed workers, agricultural workers, unpaid family workers and domestic workers employed by private households. This data represents a count of jobs by place of work. Data for each month is revised the following month as more complete information becomes available. The New York State Department of Labor is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Program.

Assemblymember John Zaccaro - FREE Food Giveaway Friday, February 7th

 

Friends, 

Join me Friday, February 7th, for a FREE food giveaway at Brady Court Community Center. See our flyer below for details. 

 

When: Friday, February 7, 2025

Time: 1:00PM

Where: Corner of Holland Ave and Antin Pl.  

 

Please remember supplies are limited and this is a first come, first serve basis. Looking forward to seeing everyone on Friday afternoon. 

 

Sincerely, 

 

John Zaccaro Jr. 

New York State Assembly 

80th Assembly District