New York’s housing Crisis

New York has always been known as a fast paced industrialized city full of opportunities for work and a better life. But today New York citizens are facing a huge housing crisis. Aid groups would characterize it as a “complex emergency” which are man-made and shaped by a combination of forces that have led to a large-scale of “displacement of populations” from their homes. Affordable apartments are disappearing and residents are being pushed out ! Landlords throughout the city have been manipulating their power to raise tenants rents and driving out the last few who live in affordable homes. Rents have increased by 3.9% since 2010. Wages have only rose 1.8% meaning many are less likely to even afford housing in New York. There are at least 61,000 people who New York’s department of homeless services provide for and all 661 buildings in the municipal shelter system are filled to capacity every night (Greenberg2). Although Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced plans to open 90 new sites, more and more citizens suffer from eviction and homelessness everyday. New York is the only city in the US that is legally obligated to provide a bed for anybody who asks for one and has nowhere else to sleep. Yet there are about 3,000 to 4,400 people who sleep in subways, the streets, and parks etc in the winter and 5,000 to 7,000 during the summer (Greenberg5). Many would find it interesting to know that 75% of New York’s homeless are families with children, and at least a third of the adults in these families have jobs. Your co-worker, the deli man, your friends nanny, and your local postal worker etc. All of these average people who cross each other’s paths everyday can and might be suffering from this crisis.

WORK CITED

Del Valle Gaby ‘New York City’s housing shortage is a crisis in the making’ TheOutline.com 08/03/2017, 10/29/2017

Greenberg Michael, ‘ Tenants under siege’, Nybooks.com, 08/17/2017, 10/30/2017.web