Mounting eviction cases show even NYC's 'affordable' housing is getting too expensive

Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay

Weather: ⛅ Snowy this morning, partly sunny later, highs in the lower 40s, not warm enough to cause major snowmelt.

It's Wednesday in New York City, where even "affordable" housing is getting too expensive for many low-income tenants, leading to a spike in eviction filings.

A new analysis shows that owners of government-subsidized housing filed more than a third of city's roughly 120,000 eviction lawsuits in 2024. 

The vast majority of those eviction filings were for nonpayment of rent, a growing problem spurred by early pandemic job losses, wage decreases and rising costs. The median back rent in those cases was around $4,600.

Here's how advocates want to keep those tenants in their apartments without dragging them through lengthy and expensive court processes. 

And here's what else is happening: 

• Let's hope for better subway service than what we got yesterday.
  • Let's also hope for an easier commute to school — citywide public school attendance was only 63% yesterday, with parents and teachers blaming messy street and sidewalk conditions.
• Watch out for pieces of ice falling from rooftops — a 10-pound chunk can reach 60 mph before it hits the ground.
• NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Monday's social media-hyped snowball fight in Washington Square Park, in which several police officers were hit with snow, was "disgraceful" and "criminal." Mayor Zohran Mamdani said it looked "like a snowball fight." So what really happened?
• Federal prosecutors in New York have charged five Colombian nationals with running a sham immigration court scheme in which they allegedly duped an untold number of "vulnerable" immigrants into handing over more than $100,000 to defendants posing as lawyers, judges and other federal officials.
• A new version of a City Council bill would let the NYPD decide when houses of worship should be protected from protesters by “buffer zones” and how big the zones should be.
• The NYPD said officers have been trained in anti-drone technology to secure high-profile events like the World Cup this summer and the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks this fall.

• The potholes are coming.
• Good shoveling technique is more about timing than form.
• Dozens of homeless New Yorkers have been effectively living in the south lobby of Bellevue Hospital — an official city warming center — for weeks now.
• Befriending a Knicks season ticket holder on Reddit is a good strategy for getting cheap(er) tickets.
• Gov. Kathy Hochul intervened to stop the New York DMV from revoking a Long Island grandpa's pee joke license plate.
• President Trump gave a record 107-minute State of the Union speech last night.
• North Jersey chicken parm showdown.
• Sephora teens' 6-year-old siblings can be sold stuff, too.