by Sarah Jawaid, National Housing Conference
Today, New York City’s flagship public radio station, WNYC, showcased a story on families struggling with finding affordable housing in an environment with decreasing housing subsidies due to fiscal constraints. In the state, funding for the housing voucher program was drastically cut which ultimately led Bloomberg’s administration to end the subsidy in NYC completely. The negative effects of losing this subsidy are apparent as families struggle to find work, especially women coming from abusive pasts. The women interviewed in the article are between shelters or returning to abusive partners out of desperation for housing. “Between April and July, New Destiny Housing Corporation, a domestic violence provider, noticed a 9 percent rise in women returning to unknown locations and a 14 percent increase in those going back to their former apartments — reportedly without the batterer present.” Read the article and listen to the audio here.