![]() The Council later fought to have the cuts restored. The Council continues with its budget negotiations through June, wrapping up hearings this week with public testimony. Last year, members wound up apologizing for passing a budget without seeming to realize there were extensive cuts to the education’s budget. ![]() We will continue to communicate with local elected officials as we open more sites, as we have since day one.” Finding Her Voice “We welcome suggestions from our partners who want to aid those in need, but we need solutions, not just complaints about where shelters should be placed. “This crisis requires an all-hands on deck approach and the mayor has been clear we need everyone to roll up their sleeves and help respond to this crisis,” Levy said. The mayor, meanwhile, has chastised the Council’s critiques, even reportedly accusing some members of having a “disrespectful” tone during a private call. ![]() “They should have seen this coming for a very, very long time.” to more easily deny entry to people crossing into the country. Why are we now sitting back in total crisis mode 100 times over?” she said, referring to the recently expired pandemic era federal doctrine that allowed the U.S. “Everybody knew that Title 42 was going to expire. They have also been critical of what they say has been bad communication from the mayor’s side of City Hall about what’s happening - which Speaker Adams said has restricted her members from offering much help. The Council has been at odds with the mayor throughout the migrant crisis, criticizing the facilities for migrants and the mayor’s argument that the cost of the crisis requires budget cuts and staff reductions across city agencies. We’ve got to be the ones that are now proactive.” Communication Issues “We had some things in mind to move residents out into permanent housing, let’s get rid of the bureaucracy,” Speaker Adams told THE CITY. Speaker Adams says the answer to the shelter crisis is an easier pipeline to independent living. Meanwhile, the mayor’s chief housing officer, Jessica Katz, announced on Wednesday she would leave the administration in July, reportedly over its opposition to the housing bills. “We’re committed to continuing to make it easier for New Yorkers to move into permanent housing, however, these bills will not only cost New York City an estimated $17 billion over the next five years - adding billions onto the backs of New York taxpayers - but will force the creation of a waiting list for vouchers, eliminating the prioritization of New Yorkers experiencing homelessness for housing subsidies,” Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the mayor, said in a statement. The Council is also set to vote Thursday on a package of bills that aim to make it easier for people to find housing and leave the city’s homeless shelter system by, for example, changing income other qualifications to receive vouchers - including one that requires applicants to have lived in a city shelter for at least 90 days.īut Mayor Adams opposes the bills, saying the changes would be too costly because they would get more people onto tax-payer funded housing vouchers more quickly. “While the administration continues to justify agency budget cuts as a result of the costs to assist asylum seekers, the reality is that many investments missing from the budget would be solutions to the current challenges facing our city,” she said. Members and sponsors make THE CITY possible. The Council has focused on longer-term housing solutions, she told THE CITY, also touching on it during her testimony Tuesday on the executive budget. The planning - as far as we can see in the Council, there is no real planning,” Speaker Adams said of the mayor’s handling of the more than 60,000 migrants who’ve come to New York City in the last year. “The reaction to the panic is what’s taken over right now. Speaker Adams told THE CITY that the Council has largely been cut out of any planning or conversations as the city works to house tens of thousands of people who’ve recently arrived by bus and by plane, seeking asylum in the United States and a place to sleep in New York. The Council doesn’t necessarily have the power to take immediate action like the mayor’s office and its agencies do, but the 51-member body does have oversight and legislative authority, including allocating money from its budget to address the crisis. “So if we have to do that as the grownups in the room, then we’ve got to do that.” “We’re going to have to be very proactive against what’s been a very reactive administration,” Speaker Adams said in a wide-ranging interview with THE CITY. As Mayor Eric Adams and his team scramble to respond to a surge of migrants from Central and South America, the City Council has been shut out of most of the planning, says Speaker Adrienne Adams, who added the executive branch is in “panic mode” that has stymied any collaboration between the two sides of government. ![]()
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