Colin Lenton
Above, a check-cashing outlet in Red Hook.
The Senate and Assembly banking committees have both approved a bill to permit check-cashing outlets to provide short-term loans. Backers say it offers financing to those whom regular banks don’t serve. Critics say it would permit exploitative “payday” lending.
First-generation New Yorkers are more likely to reside in rent-regulated housing than the rest of us. So as Albany weighs weakening or strengthening rent rules, some immigrants are raising their voices.
Advocates for the homeless have long criticized the Bloomberg administration’s approach to getting people out of shelters. But with the state threatening to end funding for the program, most advocates have joined the city to oppose the cuts.
Advocates, hoping Gov. Cuomo will back a cap on rent for people in AIDS housing, say research shows that shelter saves lives and reduces government expenditures.
Since 1968, public housing authorities nationwide have largely been ignoring a law requiring that they employ residents. Evidence suggests that at NYCHA, at least, that’s changing.
Boom-time overbuilding left thousands of units vacant. But a city program to convert them to affordable housing has found the market uncooperative.
A pilot policy to allow transgender people to choose between men’s and women’s shelters has reduced violence. But women’s shelters are safer for either identity.
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