Cindy Rodriguez

Instead of importing mobile homes, the government is putting up people in hotels and short-term apartment rentals. The Bloomberg administration and the Federal Emergency Management Ag...

Beginning Wednesday, New Yorkers living in 12 designated zip codes hit by Sandy may be eligible for  food stamps even if their incomes exceed the regular set limits.

The city is keeping many more juvenile offenders out of the court system and sending them to community based programs instead.

Federal disaster relief officials have ruled out deploying mobile homes to shelter city residents whose own homes have been damaged or destroyed by Sandy. Instead, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will rely on a combination of hotels, rental assistance and a new home repair program run by the city.

Thousands of storm victims are currently staying in New York City hotels. The accommodations range from high end midtown Manhattan hotels to the West Side YMCA. And while many are gra...

It's the day before Thanksgiving but here in New York City and just miles away in New Jersey, there is a looming feeling that thousands of people may not have a home, a dining table, ...

The Food Bank for New York City distributes emergency food to pantries and soup kitchens across the city and says since Sandy hit its delivered half a million meals to affected areas. But it's questioning how long it can keep up the pace.

Hospitals, private residential buildings and businesses were all caught off guard by the extent of flooding caused by Sandy. Storing electrical and heating systems underground turned out to be dangerous and devastating. But perhaps nowhere were the effects of the damage more on display than in New York City public housing. In 402 buildings across the city, residents carried water from broken fire hydrants up several flights of stairs, lit their hallways with candles and took other drastic measures to get by.

The New York City Housing Authority sent hundreds of its employees to the sprawling Red Hook Houses Tuesday, where two weeks after Sandy some residents continue to lack power, heat and hot water. The workers—many of whom usually staff office jobs at the authority but volunteered to be in the field—went door to door looking for tenants in need.

The city says 82 percent of public housing developments now have power and 70 percent have heat and hot water. But that still means thousands of residents are living in substandard conditions. 

Red Hook Houses in Brooklyn, where more than 6,000 people live, is one of the worst-off developments. About half the residents are still dealing with power outages, no heat and in some cases no water at all.

Eric Lipton, Washington correspondent for The New York Times, discusses the government effort to provide housing assistance for those displaced by Sandy. Then, WNYC reporter Cindy Rodriguez talks about local aid for the displaced. 

 

With tens of thousands of people potentially facing homelessness and in need of long term shelter, Mayor Michael Bloomberg Monday appointed a former federal disaster coordinator to oversee the city's efforts to provide them with replacement housing. The new director, Brad Gair, is also a former deputy commissioner for the city's Office of Emergency Management. 

Large parts of the East Village appear to be back to normal with cafes open and young people back on the streets.  But at a public housing development on Avenue C, the desperation was palpable.

The New York City Housing Authority estimates that 56,000 households are living in apartments that have too many rooms for the size of their families – but longtime residents bristle at the thought of downsizing.

City council members and housing officials joined tenants and their advocates Monday outside an apartment building on 190th Street to protest the asking price for the foreclosed property. They claim the sale price is too high and will only result in another round of defaults.

There are approximately 350,000 young people in the New York metro area not in school or working, according to a report by Measure of America, a project by the Brooklyn-based Social Science Research Council.

The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing arguments Wednesday on whether the University of Texas at Austin wrongly discriminated against a white woman who sought admission in 2008. The deci...

The city and state have released up to $3 million to non-profits so they can hire new staff to deal with the high demand for a rental subsidy program.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday that the city's efforts to move juvenile delinquents from upstate facilities to placements in New York City where they will be closer to home is underway.

A new report finds without housing assistance more domestic violence victims are leaving city shelters without having a safe place to go.