Newark and New York City made collaborative progress in addressing the issues between the two municipalities created by New York’s Special One-Time Assistance program, which moved about 1,200 New York homeless families and individuals to Newark apartments, regardless of their habitability, paying their rents for a year.
Newark previously filed a lawsuit to halt New York’s program that relocated the homeless to other states including New Jersey. Newark reportedly took 1,000 homeless people from New York City.
Formerly homeless New York residents started complaining to Newark officials about housing violations where they were staying. Pictures surfacing on social media showed unsafe floors being covered by vinyl flooring.
“My objection to what Newark has done is they are demonizing the poor,” de Blasio said during a recent interview. “If there literally are not enough apartments to turn to—no matter how many we keep building, there’s just not enough—and it’s a right now program…we look to the region.”
Under the collaborative agreement between the two cities’ attorneys, New York agreed to a temporary pause in sending new families and residents to Newark pending the court’s ruling on the injunction requests on this issue.
New York also agreed to provide Newark with a confidential list of people who were moved there and their addresses. Newark and New York will work together to inspect those apartments and homes for housing code violations. Any such violations will be enforced by the City of Newark and landlords will be charged for them in Newark Municipal or Essex County Superior Court, as appropriate.
“So far, we’ve gotten much of what we asked for and we look forward to continue to work collaboratively with New York City to improve the quality of life for their S.O.T.A. recipients,” said Mayor Ras Baraka. “For us, this was always about making sure these people were in safe and sanitary housing, and they were handled in a dignified manner, not just jettisoned here with no safety nets.”
Baraka added that Newark is a sovereign city and that he plans to work with New York to make sure housing is up to the city’s codes.
