In the News
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The Appeal: New York City Considers a Bold Idea to Keep People From Being Pushed Out of Their Homes
The Appeal — Across New York State, millions of tenants are at risk of eviction and property values are falling. A recent analysis found that New York City renters in neighborhoods hit hardest by COVID-19—largely Black and Latinx communities—face nearly four times the number of eviction cases as less hard-hit areas. Local housing justice advocates fear a repeat of the…
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The City: Council Considers Killing the Tax-Collection Machine Rudy Giuliani Built
The City — New York’s pandemic pause on a program that sells unpaid city property debts to investors has community advocates calling to scrap the Giuliani-era approach altogether.
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ProPublica: Debt Collectors Have Made a Fortune This Year. Now They’re Coming for More.
ProPublica — Earlier this year, the pandemic swept across the country, killing 100,000 Americans by the spring, shuttering businesses and schools, and forcing people into their homes. It was a great time to be a debt collector.
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Fortune: What the Unbanked Need From the 2020 Election
Fortune — Over 6% of Americans—20.5 million people—are unbanked, according to the FDIC’s latest data, meaning they have no checking or savings account. Nearly 50 million more are underbanked: They have at least one bank account but still use alternative financial services like payday loans and check cashers outside the banking system.
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City Limits: Council Bills Could Pave the Way for a Public Bank in NYC
City Limits — The City Council is considering measures that would scrutinize the city’s relationship with corporate banks and other financial entities—disclosures that could pave the pathway to creating a municipal public bank in the future.
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Shelterforce: Giving Tenants the First Opportunity to Purchase Their Homes
Shelterforce — As state and local economies attempt to reopen, and eviction moratoriums expire, millions of Americans once again face losing their homes. While these moratoriums have temporarily protected renters who may be unemployed and unable to pay rent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, elected officials are waking up to the reality that additional, far-reaching…
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City Limits: Advocates: NYC Needs More Money, New Model to Meet Housing Crisis
City Limits — Housing advocates and elected officials released a new plan Thursday which calls on the de Blasio administration and City Council to support more development of community land trusts, maintain tenant protections, restore the city’s affordable housing budget and create new a path to homeownership.
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Gotham Gazette, Op-Ed: With Mass Evictions and Real Estate Speculation Looming, City and State Leaders Must Give Communities Opportunity to Own Their Own Land
Gotham Gazette — In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, New York faces two new fronts in its housing crisis — a wave of heightened speculation likely to destabilize communities and an onslaught of expected evictions as housing courts reopen.
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City Limits: Will New York Launch a Public Bank?
City Limits — Now is the time to create a public banking system as the city prepares for deep budget cuts amid an inequitable economic crisis stemming from the Coronavirus pandemic, advocates testified Wednesday.
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ProPublica: Capital One and Other Debt Collectors Are Still Coming for Millions of Americans
ProPublica — Since 2018, Capital One has been a looming presence in Julio Lugo’s life, ever since the company sued him, as it did 29,000 other New Yorkers that year, over an unpaid credit card. But when the coronavirus hit the city this March, it wasn’t on his mind.