The mayor highlighted a $171 million initiative that he announced over the weekend to create 1,400 new shelter beds in so-called Safe Havens, low-barrier homeless shelters that focus on helping those who live on the streets.
He also introduced a childcare plan to aid low-income families. Beginning in June, families of four earning less than $55,000 a year will pay only $10 weekly for full-time subsidized childcare. They are currently paying $55 weekly, the mayor said.
And in a reversal, the mayor restored $18 million in funding to the city’s nascent curbside organics recycling program. The initial decision to cut the initiative’s planned expansion drew howls from environmentalists who pointed out that Adams had campaigned on a pledge to create universal composting.
The mayor, who said he would announce his housing plan in the coming weeks, said he would spend $5 billion over 10 years on housing, including money directed to the city’s public housing projects. But he immediately faced criticism from affordable housing advocates, who have noted that he originally pledged to spend $4 billion a year on housing.
““With tens of thousands experiencing homelessness, hundreds of thousands living in substandard NYCHA conditions, and millions facing rising rents, it is no surprise that the issue New Yorkers are most concerned with is the lack of affordable, safe housing,”
Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference, said in a statement. ”Unfortunately, the Adams administration’s modest capital increase for housing merely treads water and will not make a meaningful dent in this emergency.”
Some city officials offered some tempered praise for the mayor’s latest spending plan.
“The Executive Budget took real steps to incorporate funding for many critical priorities from @NYCCouncil’s response that will make a difference, yet we know work remains ahead for us to ensure the right budget for NYC,” tweeted Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who hugged the mayor shortly after the speech.
Source : https://gothamist.com/news/adams-proposes-100b-budget-with-added-funding-to-social-service-programs-education-and-policing
