A place to call home (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

As Governor Kathy Hochul tries to convince the Legislature to support her ambitious housing agenda focused on increasing the supply of homes, legislators seem unwilling to do so without including in a state budget deal major protections for current tenants including a new rental voucher program.

The Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP) would provide state-funded rental subsidy vouchers to those experiencing homelessness or facing evictions and at risk of homelessness, regardless of immigration status. The bill is sponsored by

Seeking health care (photo: Michael Appleton/Mayor's Office)

Over the past three years, New York has been the epicenter of a global pandemic, seen the outbreak of mpox, a reemergence of polio, and recently experienced spikes in flu, COVID, and RSV. Currently, an unprecedented number of asylum-seekers are looking to New York City and its safety-net health-care providers for care.

Come April 1, the state will face another potential crisis, as 7 million New Yorkers will have to undergo a difficult and error-prone process

An empty Belmont

The twice-bankrupt New York Racing Association (NYRA) is back at the State Capitol, cup in hand, asking the state to back $450 million in bonds to rebuild Belmont Park’s perfectly suitable and usually empty racetrack. The bonds would be in addition to the millions of dollars the state already provides to the industry through subsidies and tax exemptions. Considering the ongoing financial problems, coupled with diminishing interest and economic development as a result, it would be fiscally irresponsible for the state to back the

Gov. Cuomo with workers (photo: Kevin P. Coughlin/Governor's Office)

*This story was published in partnership with New York Focus.*

Since 2014, Jin Gou Ke, an immigrant from China's Fujian Province, has worked as a delivery worker for Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Paid a pre-tip salary of just $3 per order, far short of the city’s minimum direct cash wage of

Assembly Member Rosenthal, right, and Council Member Ferreras-Copeland (photo)

A difference of a few words is all that stands in the way of New York State becoming the sixth in the nation to exempt feminine hygiene products from state sales tax, though that could soon change. The Assembly sponsor of the bill, Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, told Gotham Gazette on Thursday that she and state Senator Sue Serino, the Senate

City Council Member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland (photo: William Alatriste) 

Members of the New York City Council are poised to introduce a package of legislation to make tampons and other feminine hygiene products more accessible. The legislation, being spearheaded by Council Member Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, includes a resolution calling on the state to eliminate the tax on feminine hygiene products, and three bills to make such products readily available