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New Yorkers float expanded tax credits or voucher programs to address homelessness

New Yorkers float expanded tax credits or voucher programs to address homelessness

Yahoo19-03-2025

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — At the New York State Capitol on Tuesday, housing took center stage. Advocates and lawmakers focused on ways to tackle homelessness and increase housing supply.
Gov. Kathy Hochul held a press conference about construction projects meant to build out housing stock statewide, announcing her intention to push New York's Congressional delegation to expand Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. She said that over $270 million in state and federal funds created or saved more than 1,800 affordable, supportive, and energy-smart homes in 28 projects statewide.
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The governor said state and federal tax credits and subsidies drove the investments to increase public housing and modernize old buildings. The projects mixed public funds with private investments, driving over $1 billion in total spending.
The announcement represented a push to expand tax credits to pay for more construction. In New York, the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit gives tax breaks for construction or renovation costs to property owners who build or maintain affordable housing for low-income tenants.
To qualify, owners need an eligibility statement from the Commissioner of the New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal confirming that the property meets low-income housing standards. The credit applies for ten years, and if a building is sold, the new owner has to maintain the low-income housing requirements for the rest of the compliance period.
Hochul wants Congress to expand the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to pay for some 2 million new homes, including 100,000 in New York. She also proposed doubling the state's investment in housing tax credits from $15 million to $30 million, hoping to leverage federal support for greater impact.
More: Latest News from Around the Tri-State
U.S. Congressmember Paul Tonko joined Hochul for the press conference. The Upstate Democrat has also advocated for the expanded tax credit.
Meanwhile, housing advocates and elected officials rallied for immediate action on housing protections at the state level. Ralliers pushed for the Housing Access Voucher Program (HAVP), a proposed statewide rental assistance program that would give housing vouchers to low-income tenants facing eviction or homelessness.
S72/A1704 creates a new state-funded rental assistance program for people who are homeless or about to lose their housing and earn no more than 50% of the area's median income. The renter pays 30% of their adjusted income or a welfare-determined amount, whichever is higher.
The program pays rent directly to landlords, covering the difference between what the renter paid and the unit's rent. Under the HAVP, landlords would have to offer leases for at least a year, and could only end a lease for serious, good-cause violations like non-payment of rent. Rental units have to meet state and local housing codes, and HAVP also verifies the tenant's income to prevent fraud.
The law's definition of 'homeless' includes people living in shelters, cars, or other places not meant for housing, and those fleeing domestic violence. And 'imminent loss' includes eviction notices, court orders to leave, or unsafe housing conditions.
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Eligibility would extend to groups excluded from existing rental assistance programs, including undocumented immigrants, individuals with a felony conviction, and those with no income. Further, under the law, New York City housing agencies would have a carve-out to make their own rules for implementing the program.
Senate Housing Chair Brian Kavanagh and Assembly Housing Chair Linda Rosenthal, who sponsored the bills in their respective houses of the legislature, joined New Yorkers who are tenants, immigrants, and homeless to rally for stronger housing protections. The legislation has gotten support from lawmakers in previous years, though Hochul has blocked it from past state budgets.
At her press conference, Hochul fielded a question about HAVC. She said she'll continue to focus on building housing to reduce costs and fend off rising homelessness:
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With homelessness at record levels, especially among children in rural areas where it has risen over 1,000% in the past decade, according to advocates at the rally, they urged lawmakers to prioritize eviction prevention. They convened in the Capitol Building's War Room for a speak-out on youth homelessness, and participants laid out stuffed animals featuring the number of homeless children in each region.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Josh Hawley proposes raising federal minimum wage to $15. What is Florida's minimum wage
Josh Hawley proposes raising federal minimum wage to $15. What is Florida's minimum wage

Yahoo

time3 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Josh Hawley proposes raising federal minimum wage to $15. What is Florida's minimum wage

Ultraconservative Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley joined Democratic Vermont Sen. Peter Welch to introduce a bill on June 10 to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. The bill, dubbed the 'Higher Wages for American Workers Act,' would raise the minimum wage starting in January 2026 and allow it to increase on the basis of inflation in subsequent years. It's unclear if the bill will be taken up for a vote. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 per hour and has not changed since 2009, while the cost of living has risen dramatically. Previous Congressional efforts to raise the minimum wage have failed. President Donald Trump said in December before he took office that he would "consider" raising the federal minimum wage, and rumors flew in April that he had bumped it to $25 an hour. Not only was that not true, he revoked a 2024 executive order that set the minimum wage for federal contractors at $17.75. 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Florida's minimum wage is currently $13 an hour for non-tipped employees and $9.98 for tipped employees. On Sept. 30, 2025, both those rates will go up another dollar. They'll go up another buck again in 2026 until the state minimum wage is $15 an hour, a move mandated by a constitutional amendment Florida voters approved in 2020. The state minimum wage was first established in 2004 by another voter-approved amendment "to provide a decent and healthy life for them and their families, that protects their employers from unfair low-wage competition, and that does not force them to rely on taxpayer-funded public services in order to avoid economic hardship." There have been efforts to work around it. Two bills in the 2025 Florida legislative session would have allowed people working in apprenticeships, internships or work-study programs to choose to work for less. Supporters said young students and teenagers were missing out on training opportunities due to high state-mandated wages. Critics warned that companies could label all entry-level jobs as 'apprenticeships' or 'internships' to force employees to work cheaply. However, both bills, SB 676 and HB 541, died on May 3, along with about 1,300 other bills in this year's session that were "indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration" so Florida lawmakers could focus instead on the battle over the still-unfinished final 2025-26 state budget. One of the bills that did make it through the legislature this year severely limits the chances of Florida voters ever managing to do something raise the minimum wage again. On the same day it passed, Gov. Ron DeSantis quickly signed into law a bill that makes it more difficult for citizens to get constitutional amendments on the ballot, effective immediately. The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since 2009. Most states, including Florida, have established higher minimum wages and 21 states raised theirs at the beginning of the year. Michigan passed a gradual wage hike similar to Florida's. Fourteen states pay the federal minimum rate of $7.25, Georgia, Wyoming and Montana pay less, and Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee have no state minimum wage law. There are also certain occupations and situations where the Department of Labor allows exemptions to the federal minimum wage law and employees may be paid less, including farm workers, executive, administrative and professional employees. commissioned sales employees, seasonal or recreational establishment workers, minors under certain circumstances, employees with disabilities under certain situations, employees of enterprises with an annual gross income of less than $50,000, and more. Where is minimum wage going up? These states and cities are due for hikes in 2025 Even if it passes, gets signed by Trump and gets past any legal challenges, it's unclear if Florida would respond by immediately adopting the new federal minimum wage or simply waiting unto the state reaches that level in the time frame it's already on. When he was still president-elect in December, Trump said he would consider raising the federal minimum wage. But he has made no moves to do so, and his Treasury secretary flatly said no. During Scott Bessent's Senate confirmation hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders asked him point-blank if he would work to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. "I believe that the minimum wage is more of a statewide and regional issue," Bessent replied. When asked again, he said simply, "No, sir." According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the highest minimum wage in the U.S. is $17.50 an hour in Washington, D.C. The highest state minimum wage is Washington state, with $16.66. California and parts of New York pay $16.50. Georgia and Wyoming businesses pay $5.15 an hour, although in Georgia, it only applies to employers of six or more employees. In Montana, businesses with gross annual sales of less than $110,000 pay $4 an hour. Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee have no state minimum wage law. Employers of tipped employees must pay their employees minimum wage, but they can count the tips the employees receive toward it up to the maximum of $3.02, the allowable Fair Labor Standards Act tip credit of 2003. So the direct wage they must pay is the minimum wage minus $3.02. The current minimum wage in Florida is $13 an hour, so the tipped minimum wage is $9.98. Both will go up a dollar each until they reach $15 an hour for non-tipped employees and $11.98 for tipped employees. The minimum wage is different from a living wage, however, which tries to calculate how much a person needs to earn per hour to afford the necessities — housing, childcare, health care, food, etc. — where they live. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) living wage calculator, the living wage in Florida is $23.41 an hour for one adult with no children, $38.72 for an adult with one child, $47.53 for an adult with two children and $59.64 for an adult with three children, as of February 2025. Florida's minimum wage was initially tied to the federal minimum wage created in 1938 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 which set the minimum hourly wage at 25 cents, banned oppressive child labor and capped the maximum workweek at 44 hours. In 2005, Florida voters approved Amendment 5 to establish a state minimum wage over the federal standard. Florida has paid its minimum wage workers more than the federal minimum ever since. Amendment 5 brought the hourly wage for non-tipped employees to $6.15, a dollar more than the federal minimum at the time, and required the Department of Economic Opportunity to calculate an adjusted state minimum wage rate based on the rate of inflation for the 12 months prior to Sept. 1, based on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers. There have been several increases since: 2005: Raised to $6.15 an hour 2006: Raised to $6.40 an hour 2009: Raised to $7.21 an hour 2010: Raised to $7.25 an hour 2016: After 6 years, raised to $8.05 an hour 2017: Raised to $8.10 an hour 2018: Raised to $8.25 an hour 2019: Raised to $8.45 an hour 2021: Raised to $10 an hour to meet requirements from the 2020 amendment 2022: Raised to $11 an hour 2023: Raised to $12 an hour 2024: Raised to $13 an hour This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Hawley introduces $15 minimum wage bill. How would this affect Florida?

Why these college students are wary of the GOP megabill
Why these college students are wary of the GOP megabill

USA Today

time4 hours ago

  • USA Today

Why these college students are wary of the GOP megabill

Why these college students are wary of the GOP megabill Congressional Republicans are proposing big changes to college financial aid programs. One vocal group of students is pushing back. Show Caption Hide Caption Senators grill Education Secretary Linda McMahon over proposed cuts Education Secretary Linda McMahon testified to Congress over proposed budget cuts. WASHINGTON – Emi Glass had one thing on her mind when she was applying to college: cost. Footing the bill for a degree was never a foregone conclusion for her, growing up in a single-parent household in Kettering, Ohio. In between shifts at the local Dairy Queen, she poured hundreds of hours into applications for a wide range of schools and scholarships. She worried about where she would go, and more importantly, if she'd be able to pay for it. Those worries vanished when she was accepted to Yale University. 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As part of the GOP's efforts to get Trump's major domestic policy bill across the finish line this summer, lawmakers are considering a slew of reforms to funding for higher education. One aggressive legislative package, which already passed the U.S. House of Representatives, would significantly curb eligibility for Pell Grants (federal subsidies that help low-income people pay for college) and fine schools for leaving students with debt. Read more about the House bill: Republicans propose massive overhaul of student loans, Pell Grants The other package, which was published by a U.S. Senate committee on June 10, takes a more measured approach. Still, it would make big changes, including cutting the number of student debt repayment plans to just two (which the House bill also suggests) and imposing new caps on borrowing. Read more about the Senate bill: Major student loan changes just came one step closer to becoming law Sen. 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Some Democrats also agree with a provision that would expand Pell Grants to weekslong training programs in fields like welding and cosmetology, even though consumer protection advocates warn that doing so without the right guardrails could lead to fraud. Endowment taxlooms Among the chief concerns for the students rallying outside the Capitol on June 12 were new taxes on university endowments. Those penalties, which would primarily hurt some of the richest schools in the country, could force institutions like Yale to pay upwards of $700 million a year to the government. Read more: With a war on Harvard raging, religious colleges get big tax break in Trump spending bill Republicans such as Missouri Rep. Jason Smith, who chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, say the provision would hold 'woke, elite universities that operate more like major corporations and other tax-exempt entities accountable, ensuring they can no longer abuse generous benefits provided through the tax code.' Cayla Waddington, 18, a rising sophomore at Yale, worries the tax could force schools like hers to pull back on their financial aid commitments, which can be supported in part by endowment funds. 'I pay next to nothing for my Yale education, thanks to their endowment,' she said. 'There are thousands of us across the country who share the same story.' Zachary Schermele is an education reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@ Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @

Andrew Cuomo admits he saw COVID nursing home report — and may have amended it after DOJ probe into testimony
Andrew Cuomo admits he saw COVID nursing home report — and may have amended it after DOJ probe into testimony

Yahoo

time6 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Andrew Cuomo admits he saw COVID nursing home report — and may have amended it after DOJ probe into testimony

Mayoral hopeful Andrew Cuomo admitted Thursday that he not only saw a controversial report on nursing home COVID deaths while he was governor, but may have doctored the document – a bombshell confession that contradicts his sworn Congressional testimony. 'I did not recall seeing the report at the time. I did see the report, it turns out,' Cuomo told PIX11 News. 'I'm sure if I read the report I made language changes.' The mea culpa comes after the Department of Justice earlier this year reportedly opened a criminal investigation into whether Cuomo lied on Capitol Hill when he adamantly denied that he drafted, reviewed, discussed or consulted on a nursing home report on Empire State nursing home deaths. The controversial report downplayed the consequences of Cuomo's now-infamous March 25, 2020 directive that forced recovering COVID patients into senior care facilities without mandated testing to see if they could still infect others. When he revoked the order, thousands of sick New Yorkers had been either admitted or readmitted into nursing homes. Yet, the state underreported the deaths by nearly 50%. Emails obtained by a congressional subcommittee show that Cuomo aides discussed his role in drafting the report, and include the former governor's own handwritten edits. But during his grilling by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic in June 2024, he denied accusations of mishandling the COVID response and pointed to federal guidance as having hampered his administration's response. During private questioning by House members, Cuomo claimed he didn't review a draft of the nursing home before it was released, and didn't remember editing or speaking about it before it was released on July 7, 2020, according to a transcript. 'I do not recall reviewing,' Cuomo said. When he was asked if he had edited the report, he said 'I don't recall seeing it.' Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, took issue with the ex-governor's new stance on Thursday. 'It's remarkable that former Governor Cuomo now admits he read and edited the COVID nursing home report, only after facing a federal investigation for lying to Congress about it,' Comer (R-KY) said in a statement. 'Cuomo's deadly order forcing COVID-positive patients into nursing homes led to the deaths of thousands of seniors,' he added. 'He must be held accountable for the order, the cover-up and the lies.' Relatives of nursing home patients who died as a result of the botched call also slammed Cuomo's new 'weasel answer' Thursday. 'I hope it's a smoking gun,' said Vivian Zayas, who lost her mom to COVID inside a Long Island nursing home in 2021. 'I hope it's the tip of the iceberg of the accountability that will come,' Zayas said. 'Cuomo wants to be mayor, but he has selective memory.' Peter Arbeeny, whose father died in another home during the pandemic, said Cuomo has 'selective memory.' 'Cuomo said he wrote a 320-page book from memory, but can't remember reading and writing a health department report,' Arbeeny told The Post,, calling the wannabe mayor 'slick.' 'They were suppressing a narrative about nursing home deaths because they were writing a book,' he said. Despite his new admission, a spokesman for Cuomo claimed the ex-governor has always been up front about the 'politicized' controversy. Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi defended his boss and claimed in a statement that he has been consistent when addressing the controversy in the past. 'Despite attempts to paint this otherwise, Governor Cuomo's comments are consistent with what he has said all along,' Azzopardi told The Post Thursday. 'He testified truly and to the best of his recollection. 'He also offered, in good faith, to review any additional documents the [congressional] committee may have had in its possession to refresh his recollection, which they declined to present,' he said. 'That's because this was never about fact-finding. It was all politics from day one.' Cuomo's tenure in Albany was marred by allegations of sexual harassment and charges that his administration undercounted nursing home deaths during the pandemic — claims he has denied. A former HUD secretary and New York State attorney general — and son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo — Andrew Cuomo was elected governor in 2011 and served until the mounting sex harassment claims forced him to resign in 2021. He is considered the front-runner to replace Eric Adams as mayor of the Big Apple.

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