Public Advocate Bill de Blasio has encouraged the New York City Housing Authority to discontinue Section 8 rent subsidies termination notices until problems with the agency’s new computer system are fixed. De Blasio will release a report today showing the agency’s failings during the last year, he told the Post.

“Tenants are getting eviction notices slipped under their doors because NYCHA has withheld months’ worth of rent that it should have paid,” the public advocate told the Post. “Months of unpaid rent is not a simple glitch — it’s a full-blown crisis. NYCHA needs to ensure that actual human beings are checking these cases to ensure the agency isn’t wrongfully throwing landlords into default, and tenants out on the street.” [more]

From left: public advocate candidates Mark Green, Bill de Blasio, Eric Gioia and Norman Siegel

The four Democratic candidates for public advocate, Mark Green, Bill de
Blasio, Eric Gioia and Norman Siegel, touched on development issues in
a debate on NY1 last night. Siegel spoke out against the Atlantic Yards
project, and all of the candidates debated eminent domain. “You can’t
ignore the constitutional violation of the government taking private
property and giving it to a private developer,” Siegel said. Comments

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Brooklyn City Council member and public advocate candidate Bill de Blasio believes the current city government has been too quick to greenlight plans by private developers, he said on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer Show. De Blasio said there also has not been enough of an effort to create affordable housing at Atlantic Yards and other projects. He said he would use the public advocate’s seat on the City Planning Commission to change the city’s development policies.