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More than 20,000 hotel workers appear to be reaping the benefits of a thriving hospitality industry. A recent labor contract agreed to on Tuesday has workers earning a 29 percent raise over 7 years.

The Department of Homeless Services announced on its web site Friday that it will not pay February rents for at least 9,000 formerly homeless families and individuals currently receiving rental assistance through the Advantage housing program.

See what urban policy reporter Cindy Rodriguez is reading on her beat this morning.

A court has ruled that New York City is no longer required to pay rent for 11,000 formerly homeless individuals and families that are receiving a housing subsidy funded by the city and the state.  

See what urban policy reporter Cindy Rodriguez is reading on her beat this morning:

On Wednesday, Mitt Romney made headlines for saying in an interview that he is “not concerned about the very poor.” Hours later, though, he reiterated his support for tying the federal minimum wage to inflation. But New York State is looking to go one step further and is considering hiking the state’s minimum wage to $8.50

See what urban policy reporter Cindy Rodriguez is reading on her beat this morning:

The mother  who allegedly abandoned her two toddlers on a Brooklyn street was arraigned Tuesday on child endangerment charges. Dalisha Adams, 26, turned herself in Sunday, and the children, along with a sibling, have now been placed in foster care.

See what urban policy reporter Cindy Rodriguez is reading on her beat this morning:

Over 4,200 homes in New York City were foreclosed on in 2011, but over 20 times that number of homes were at risk of foreclosure last year, according to a newly released report.

If New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has his way, New York City will no longer fingerprint food stamp recipients. He says fingerprinting stigmatizes needy people and stops them from applying for assistance. But Mayor Michael Bloomberg disagrees, arguing that without fingerprinting, fraud would escalate.

In Manhattan Supreme Court Friday, attorneys for Legal Aid and the City Council argued against a policy that would allow city shelters to impose stricter eligibility rules.

Federal Stimulus funds have run out for the more than 100 non-profits providing counseling and legal representation to homeowners facing foreclosure across the state, and the governor's recently released budget does not replace the lost federal monies.

Caterers, photographers, jewelers, professional bakers and many others showed up in Brooklyn Sunday to market to gay couples at what was billed as the borough's first gay wedding expo.

A debate has broken out at New York's highest levels of government over whether to continue fingerprinting food stamp recipients — and as the governor and mayor differ on the issue, so do food stamp recipients themselves.

The New York City Housing Authority may sell air rights to help offset its crippling deficit, according to its five-year plan released Monday.

Opening a restaurant in New York City can be a tedious process that involves inspections by city agencies that include the Health, Buildings and Fire Departments. But the city says a pilot program started last March has shaved more than two months off the time it takes for restaurants to open in New York City. 

Advocates for the poor say welfare offices across the city have become seriously overcrowded, causing struggling New Yorkers to wait hours for assistance.

Dozens of tenants in the Mount Hope section of the Bronx will go through another holiday without gas.

The NYPD is investigating a possible hate crime at the Bronx headquarters of the city's Parks Department.