New York City hosts housing summit to address housing and homelessness crisis

NEW YORK (PIX11)—City Hall hosted a housing summit attended by city housing officials and advocates. 

This quarterly meeting is usually closed to the press, but PIX11’s Monica Morales was the first and only reporter invited.

PIX11 News got an exclusive look at a round table, a community conference held inside City Hall. Mayor Eric Adams calls it the Impacted Advocates Meeting. He says it’s about an hour of real talk and solutions to New York City housing problems. 

More than a dozen housing advocates met with city officials and let it rip. 

This time, it was face-to-face with Mayor Adams. Mayor Adams's administration started this regular meeting of the minds earlier this year. Deputy mayors sit next to the heads of non-profits and everyday people to discuss solutions to the New York City housing and homelessness crisis.

Deputy Mayor Anne Williams-Isom and Deputy Mayor Maria Torres Springer led the meeting.

 It was like a brainstorming session, where the mayor admitted he got some of his best ideas. 

Also at the table was Kadisha Davis, the founder of her non-profit organization, fighting for housing because of her own story. This was her back in 2018: homeless on a train with her young daughter. Now, she lives at Nycha’s Ingersoll houses in Fort Greene and is on a mission to help, a proud member of this unofficial housing task force.

Two ideas from this meeting: more young people need to be at the decision-making table, and families need more protections from housing voucher discrimination. 

At the top of the mayor's agenda is the City of Yes housing plan. 

Mayor Adams says it’s the chance of a lifetime to undo decades of racist and discriminatory zoning laws and create as many as 109,000 new homes within the next 15 years.

This housing working group meets again at the end of the year. 

If you want more information about the city, yes. Go here.